Justsomeguy

I broke down and ordered a chronograph from Midway the other day. I am sure my wife will be surprised when the thing comes, but she, like me, likes my fingers and hands just the way they are, thank you! Regretably, the winter weather is comming upon us, so some rain is expected as well as colder temperatures. This will, of course, affect not only my willingness to go to the range, but the data as well. It will at least give me some starting point for my experiments. Thanks again for the advice so far... keep it comming.

Ok... that is very helpful. I would not have thought it would take 7.1grns of Unique to get there. My Witness Match has a polygonal barrel and if your Glock is still stock, it has too so this would be close to what I could expect. I am really surprised that the velocities are that low in 80 degree weather. How does this load shoot? Is it accurate and does it seem tolerable for competition? Thank you for your response.

Hi ryucasta... That was helpful. I have 4 or 5 reloading manuals and the variation is somewhat vast between them. This will at least help me with some starting loads, though I suppose I will need to talk the wife into a chrono to be sure about things since the chart is for a Speer TMJ rather than a plated bullet. Still, the data and other reading I have done seem to suggest a starting load of about 6.3 grains @ 1123fps for my use which should give me a good cushion in power factor to play with. The chart you pointed me to sees 7.0grns of Unique as a "Nominal" load with a much higher than needed velocity for my purposes. On another forum, someone suggested a load of 7.5grns, but I shudder to begin with anything even close to that. That would seem like a 10mm load to me. Another member asked why I would be using 155grn bullets for IPSC. Really, I wanted to put together one load that was suitable for practice for ALL the disciplines if possible including IDPA and IPSC that would be major in both, and allow me to use the same bullets and powder if I wanted a minor load as well. I wanted to use a powder which is close to filling the case, not too sensitive to being compressed if setback should occur, and would give good accuracy and velocity without danger of being overpressure should ambient temperatures rise. Unique seems to fill the bill for this. I will have to see if I find recoil difference between 155grn and 180grn bullets to be much of a factor. Since loads of similar power factors would produce similar actual recoil effects physically it seems moot, though I certainly defer to those with more experience than myself in these things. I would think that familiarity with a constant load would be favorable, but of course, I have been wrong before. I suppose I could experiment with a slightly heavier "mainspring" to slow the recoil effect over time to see if that might be an option if the recoil is too "snappy" with this combination. Though my main gun here is a Witness Match 40, I have found in the 1911 platform that heavier mainsprings or hammer springs and even changing the firing pin stops to EGW types with a different contour will improve felt recoil and recovery in fast strings as they delay the slide movement slightly and spread out the recoil over time. Also, I have about 3000 155grn bullets on hand so I would like to experiment with these first.

I'm new here and recently got interested in getting into actually competing in IPSC matches. I haven't ever reloaded for 40cal, but have for 9mm and 45 auto a couple of years ago and a lot of 38spcl and 357 magnum before that. I have a couple of 40 S&W pistols, got a bunch of brass from my range, have over 4lbs of Unique and several thousand Berry's 155grn RSFP bullets. Now I need a load. I don't have a chrono yet so please don't blow me up! What is a good load combination that will get me about 1080-1100 fps with those components? I will probably use them in my Witness Match 40, but might also use in my XD40 as well. Let's assume it's not going to be less than 50 degrees or over 90 degrees on any day I shoot them. I use CCI small pistol primers if that helps.