I am looking at a new to me load in 40 cal that is sort of hot but not over max or even close. I have 165g v-crown pull downs that I will use for this with Power Pistol powder. I am thinking about starting at 7.0g as 7.8 is max I believe but will check. And I am right 7.8 is max on Alliants site. I am shooting a S&W M&P40 so it is a good gun I have shot before with all kinds of loads. My friend was shooting competition and he wanted light rounds , then decided he didn't want to shot the competition after I had bought the gun for testing. I wanted one anyway so now I want to work something up with it.  Any input would be nice.  Craig

7.8 grains of PP under a 165 grain bullet is book-max per Alliant, Speer, and Sierra.

If you're chasing velocity then Longshot produces the most velocity of any printed recipe I can find. With a Sierra 165gr HP 7.3 of LongShot yields 1139, and 7.8 yields 1185 fps.

Interestingly, the book-max for a 180 grain bullet (xtp) is only 25fps slower than the 165 grain bullet.

Hmm this is interesting. I have a box of gold dots 165g loaded for the 40 cal that I loaded at 7.5 PP and shot them at one point. I don't remember shooting them but they are under max so I will rethink my 7.0 rounds. I would like a more stout round just for something to do.  Craig

Ya...7.0 grains of PP under a 165 grain bullet will get you right around 970 fps...not very stout. 7.8 grains of PP under a 165 Gold Dot reaches 1081, per Speer.

I think that 180 grain bullets dominated the .40S&W market because they provide the best ballistics...165 grain bullets don't go much faster, while 200 grain bullets go significantly slower. No idea why, but that's what the load data shows.

One thing I forgot to mention. I still have no small pistol primers so I have to use small rifle primers, Thus I watered down the load to compensate. May be to much!!  Anyway there is another problem that has surfaced. The 40 cal I have loaded is not easily feeding in general and I am not sure of the problem. I think the bullet may be seated to deep and I will measure as soon as I can. I also tried to taper crimp again but with only some success. Will report back as I find out more.   Craig[/i]

Never thought about using rifle primers instead of pistol primers...is there any published reference for how to proceed there? It seems like it could expand the versatility of many different handgun loads, but I'd rather that someone with a test barrel and strain gages do the heavy lifting before I get too involved.

The old rule of thumb is to lower the charge by 1 or 2 tenths of a grain to equal your regular load. It's really not enough to worry about but if your pushing max is when switching primers can be a problem. I am almost always well below max so it doesn't matter to me but I like the loads I have worked on and want it the same if possible.  Craig

OK back from the range and tested the 40 quite a bit. I did re taper crimp all the rounds but I feel now that it's not the rounds but a problem in either one of the mags or something else. On the first feeding the bullet seem to get stuck at the feed ramp. I would pull out the mag and the bullet was part way out like 1/2"or less. BTW I was shooting FMJ flat nose and JHP all about the 165g size. If I fed the rounds by hand, like the first round like normal, everything fed and shot properly and all other rounds in the mag fed and shot. I did have like two that jammed on feed but like 2 out of 40 I shot. BTW this was a very mixed lot of rounds. I will just oil the gun up and load more at the 7.5g PP size and go from there. Also the slam loading did work to some extent.  Craig

One quick question. I measured all the rounds I re taper crimped and they were all close to 1.23ish, The COL should be 1.2 even. So should I try shorter? It might help the feed.  Craig

Went to 1.14 COL on 10 test rounds and they all fed great. Tested with different number of rounds in the mag no failures!! We are ready to test fire but I can't today, will tomorrow. I am sure these will work as they fed with easy pulls and regular pulls with the slide, no failures!!.  It's nice to fix something on Labor Day course I am retired!!  Craig  BTW I did oil the gun thoroughly and it was dry maybe that helped!!

This is getting weird!! Shot the gun today and it was better. Had some jams but found out I had some bad reloads that had a buldge in it. Anyway fed better but still not 100 percent. I think the cartage gets hung up almost before the feed ramp and still in the magazine.I am at a loss but will work on this some more.   Craig

Out of desperation for something to try I went out and bought some factory rounds for the 40 cal. They are Nosler 180g JHP and went into the gun with NO problem. I measured to compair to my rounds and they are the same I do feel the reloads might be hanging up on the lip maybe on the feed ramp. I will try re crimping my reloads with the crimp that is in the setting die as it is sharper than a regular taper  crimper I think.  BTW I did call Smith & Wesson about the problem and they had no answer but would take the gun in for repair if I wanted.  Craig

The re crimp with the setting die didn't work. An x leo friend of mine said the M&P's are problematic with the 40 cal. I may just keep the Nosler with it and never shoot it unless needed, or ship back to Smith to see if they can do anything with it except they don't know about the reloads being maybe the problem so I don't think that's a good idea.  Craig

sorry to hear that, my S&W M&P .40 police trade in eats all my reloads with no problems. even cast bullets. I use a max charge of Long Shot and 180 gr. bullets.

Well it's official the 40 is working as I cleaned and brushed the feed ramp now all rounds feed!!! A friend wanted to polish the feed ramp and I may still do that.  Craig