I used to use berrys bullets plated but have gone all in on Blue Bullets when I got heavy into it (10krds/yr +).
I dont see myself going to anything else at this point.
Ive only used unique for 40 and 9 at this point but its done great. Iirc it was around 5gr unique for 180gr .40.
Ive gone all in on 9 and may sell you my 550 .40 conversion kit if you want. I think its dillon dies, i can check if youre interested.
I don’t use CFE, but as stated above, I’m usually just aiming for enough oomph to cycle the action 100%… That’s about 760fps.
My Glocks are all Gen 2 and 3, and I’ve never seen a Glock bulge.
My 40s wind up kind of “wasp waisted,” but Glock chambers are big and sloppy, and they chamber fine… When in doubt, keep a barrel next to your reloading bench and use it as a chamber gauge.
NB: My buddy’s S&W semi-auto in .40 wouldn’t chamber my reloads: Tighter chamber.
And jacketed bullets for pistol rounds are a waste of money, unless you’re loading your own self-defense rounds.
For training/matches/targets, use coated or just bare lead.
Buddy loaned me his dies. Caliber conversion arrived today. I actually had a few dozen pull down bullets from live range pick up rounds.
Sorted off the 165s and loaded 10 test rounds.
Dillon has the SNS Coated instock and Brunos has more CFE. I’m driving up to both places to get both. Even if the 40 project tanks, the CFE is good for 9 and 45.
The test rounds went together great. I’ll be punching chrono data this weekend.
First post from 2012, no wonder the link won’t open. 
Saw the title of it and fairly sure that was from a lot of input by .40 shooters on a Glock email list I was on that petered out when forums became widespread.
If my guess is correct, the caveat in the dead link about 180gr .40 S&W was from their experience based primarily on Gen 2 Glock 22/23 and maybe some of the 2.5(finger groove/no rail) and very early Gen3 Glocks which had extremely loose and unsupported chambers.
Best I can recall, the majority of them avoided 180gr factory ammo and only a tiny minority would reload with 180.
Fairly sure the avoiding 180 extended to other brands of .40 pistols as well as the members who had stuck .40 S&W Sigma barrels in their G22’s for the tighter supported chamber.
I was really worried about the bulged brass being difficult to whip back into shape, but after sizing them, they drop right into my G22 chamber.
Picked up the coated bullets and loaded 15 for baseline testing.
See, we told ya!
Just realized, I didn’t shoot a single round of .40 for all of 2024…
I’ve gone that long too. Not because I put on a dress and shot 9mm, but just because I thought I was too cool to actually have to practice with my carry gun.
For me it IS the dress. Every day. Full switch to 9mm across the board.
My only .40 is my first Glock, G23. Converted it to .40 (9mm Ejector in frame, all internals minus Extractor going into the Brownells G19 slide, w/ OEM G19 barrel).
I can convert it back, just haven’t bothered. Plan would be to convert back to .40 if hiking remote, but everywhere we’ve gone hiking remote lately I’ve carried a rifle, so no need.
I have had in the back of my mind to shoot some steel with it though, just for fun. Migjt do that soon.
I don’t get it… I shoot 180-185 cast lead bullets (from a local source) over 3.0 grains of Clays. It’s soft-shooting, perfectly reliable, and dirt cheap.
(My per-round cost is 5-8¢. Really. I can’t even shoot .22 this cheaply.)
NB: My SHTF rounds are 155gr Gold Dots: More speed more energy more expansion.
Especially for a Glock, it doesn’t take much sizing at all.
If you’re not making very high pressure reloads, then subsequent sizings are easy…
Shots fired!
That load is probably at or below 25k psi which is @ 2k higher than .45 acp +p and 4k higher than .45 acp max, but way below the 35k max of .40S&W.
The old Glock email list guys were of the opinion(based on observing fired empties and details related to some kabooms…as far as i know, none of them had lab access) was that most 180gr factory loads were typically loaded very close to that max pressure or slightly above and kabooms they knew about had involved 180gr full power loads.
I guess that that makes sense.
FWIW, I’m guessing that a lot of the guys who went for .40 early were USPSA or other high-volume shooters, and I think shooting thousands and thousands of ANY full-house loads would bust a gun at some point.
And I think somebody else mentioned 200gr bullets in .40, and I have some of those to play with, too…
Shot the SNS 165 gr Coated today against factory 165 gr Win white box. 6.4 gr of CFE Pistol shot about 40 fps faster than the Win.
I’m dropping down to 6.1 and cranking out a few hundred rounds. I’m cautiously optimistic about these coated bullets.
165 gr Win Range ammo chrono’d at 1045 fps.
165 gr SNS Coated with 6.4 gr CFE Pistol ran 1087 fps.
There was no real data on coated bullets, so I took a stab in the middle of Jacketed bullet data because it was lower than the plated data.
I’ve sinced backed of 5 percent on the output charge. I’d like to stay 1030 fps at least for power factor.
Any thoughts?
(my other observation is that 40 is so much easier to load than 9mm because it’s all WW and PMC brass. Cases are very nice and the primers seat wonderfully. Pistol ammo loading for this caliber is actually a pleasure, and not a fist fight)
That seems really hot to me, but I’m not trying to make power factor (my local USPSA chapter doesn’t chrono).
NB: Normally lead bullets are loaded lighter/slower than same-weight jacketed.
Also, Glock barrels may be (or may not be) prone to leading. Even using coated bullets, I’d take a look down the bore after a couple hundred rounds.
Finally, yeah, .40 is really easy to load. The cases and bullets aren’t so damned tiny. My comparison is .380ACP, which makes even my medium-sized hands feel like baseball gloves.
Thanks! I think my load reduction should be good then, but I’ll chrono this weekend to check. I started to think I over-reacted, but I may be fine.
The load data showed getting some max velocities over 1100 from a shorter barrel, but I think I’m going to be pretty close with my reduced load.
I actually brought 3 rounds loaded hotter by 3/10ths because I was sure I’d be too soft. I’m going to pull those down.
Yeah, the only caveat to loading .40 is traccking the number of times cases are loaded, like .223.
Something I never do with any other pistol caliber.
.40, I load 'em 10 times then scrap. Have loaded a batch to 13 once, was fine, but playin it safe.
Did you get loose primer pockets? That’s usually my cue to dump rifle brass.
Keeping my brass organized enough to track firings would be a challenge.
Naw, it was from reading Charlie Petty & others, the brass can get weak and have case head separations before the primer pockets get loose.
Like it, as a cartridge, operates at the edge of the envelope.
I just shoot them in batches, box is marked how many times fired.
Gotcha. I’ll have to try to keep some sort of organization.