Some 180gr coated FP .40 Long Major data

[Suburban Commando]

.40 Long data is not widely available, so I'll share some of my data. Your results, I'm sure, will vary some.

Glock 20, Lone Wolf 20T slide, 5.15" Lone Wolf .40S&W conversion barrel. Chamber throat was pretty long the way they sent it to me. Didn't ream it. These rounds plunk into the chamber, and drop out.

The Following applies to all data to follow:

180gr BBI (Black Bullets International) round nose flat point bullet

OAL 1.195" max

WPA small pistol primer (getting same data as with Winchester WSP)

Mixed brass

These are test batches, and variance of powder charges is pretty low, maybe +/- 0.03 grain, unless noted otherwise.

I'm using Lee Factory Crimp die.

Chronograph - Magnetospeed V3. Results with factory ammo seem to match up with real-world data that people get with traditional sky screen chronographs.

Loads fired outdoors. Temperatures not exceeding 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Have not formally tested for group size. I was really only out to find loads that make major.

I think that should cover the background info. Lets get to it.

None of these loads showed signs of pressures higher than factory defense loads.

180gr plated FP Freedom Munitions reman (control group)

Minimum velocity 922

Maximum velocity 970

Average velocity 938

Standard Deviation 17.1

Extreme Spread 48

Power Factor 168.84

Speed

949 ft/s

970 ft/s

922 ft/s

930 ft/s

929 ft/s

922 ft/s

922 ft/s

950 ft/s

959 ft/s

936 ft/s

I'll start with TiteGroup, since it's pretty widely available, and seems to be a favorite of many.

The first day I tried testing loads kept warm vs. cold ammo, to try to get a feeling for temperature sensitivity. There didn't seem to be too much difference, and it's kind of a pain in the butt, so I gave that up.

180 BBI FP over 4.5gr TiteGroup (ammo kept warm)

Min 901

Max 910

Avg 905

S-D 4.5

ES 9

PF 162.9

Speed

901 ft/s

910 ft/s

904 ft/s

I overcompensated for not having a copper jacket, and set the sensitivity too high to start, and the first two rounds registered ridiculous velocities of over 2000fps. Oops! Only 3 rounds recorded with reasonable velocity.

180 BBI over 4.5gr TiteGroup (kept in cooler with ice packs)

Min 868

Max 903

Avg 890

S-D 14.1

ES 35

PF 160.2

Speed

896 ft/s

868 ft/s

887 ft/s

903 ft/s

900 ft/s

180gr BBI PCRN over 4.6gr TiteGroup

Min 886

Max 934

Avg 917

S-D 14.8

ES 48

PF 165.06

Speed

920 ft/s

933 ft/s

906 ft/s

906 ft/s

928 ft/s

886 ft/s

915 ft/s

916 ft/s

928 ft/s

934 ft/s

180gr BBI PCRN over 4.7gr TiteGroup

Min 916

Max 951

Avg 929

S-D 11

ES 35

PF 167.22

Speed

930 ft/s

920 ft/s

945 ft/s

925 ft/s

916 ft/s

933 ft/s

951 ft/s

929 ft/s

920 ft/s

929 ft/s

180gr BBI PCFP, 4.8gr TiteGroup

Min 935

Max 972

Avg 957

S-D 12.2

ES 37

PF 172.26

Speed

935 ft/s

964 ft/s

966 ft/s

952 ft/s

960 ft/s

938 ft/s

968 ft/s

958 ft/s

972 ft/s

957 ft/s

Pressure seems to be mild. There was one primer of 10 of the 4.8gr load that was a little flat, but the other 9 were still pretty round.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Suburban Commando

[Suburban Commando]

Okay, now Hodgdon Clays. Just regular Clays.

180 BBI over 4.4gr Clays (ammo kept warm)

Min 945

Max 969

Avg 958

S-D 9.6

ES 24

PF 172.44

Speed

963 ft/s

969 ft/s

964 ft/s

953 ft/s

945 ft/s

180 BBI over 4.4gr Clays (ammo kept in cooler with ice packs)

Shots: 5

Min 947

Max 963

Avg 954

S-D 6

ES 16

PF 171.72

Speed

956 ft/s

947 ft/s

963 ft/s

954 ft/s

950 ft/s

180gr BBI over 4.5gr Clays

Shots: 10

Min 968

Max 984

Avg 977

S-D 4.7

ES 16

PF 175.86

Speed

982 ft/s

978 ft/s

977 ft/s

977 ft/s

984 ft/s

968 ft/s

973 ft/s

975 ft/s

982 ft/s

974 ft/s

180gr BBI PCRN over 4.6gr Clays

Shots: 10

Min 988

Max 1001

Avg 992

S-D 3.8

ES 13

PF 178.56

Speed

994 ft/s

996 ft/s

991 ft/s

992 ft/s

1001 ft/s

990 ft/s

993 ft/s

989 ft/s

994 ft/s

988 ft/s

This last one seems to be the highest pressure of the whole bunch.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Suburban Commando

[Suburban Commando]

I guess maybe some of you won't care, but I have some Power Pistol data, so I'll post that too. Making major with Power Pistol is easy. You have a much larger margin for error. It's not real soft shooting ammo.

180 BBI over 6.2 to 6.4gr Power Pistol (ammo kept warm)

Shots: 5

Min 970

Max 1006

Avg 982

S-D 13.8

ES 36

PF 176.76

Speed

982 ft/s

970 ft/s

1006 ft/s

977 ft/s

977 ft/s

180 BBI over 6.2 to 6.4gr Power Pistol (ammo kept in cooler with ice packs)

Shots: 5

Min 974

Max 1000

Avg 985

S-D 11.5

ES 26

PF 177.3

Speed

978 ft/s

996 ft/s

974 ft/s

1000 ft/s

981 ft/s

And. . . just because I had it handy. . .

1.2" OAL - Same seating die setting as with the BBI bullet.

180gr Roger's Cast Lead RNFP over 6.6 to 6.8gr Power Pistol

Shots: 5

Min 1036

Max 1083

Avg 1060

S-D 19.8

ES 47

PF 190.8

Speed

1044 ft/s

1071 ft/s

1070 ft/s

1083 ft/s

1036 ft/s

180gr Roger's Cast Lead RNFP over 6.6 to 6.8gr Power Pistol

Shots: 5

Min 1023

Max 1079

Avg 1064

S-D 23.9

ES 56

PF 191.52

Speed

1079 ft/s

1065 ft/s

1077 ft/s

1023 ft/s

1079 ft/s

This load produces some sharp recoil and is rather uncomfortable to shoot.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Suburban Commando

[Suburban Commando]

Loaded up boxes of ammo with both Clays and TiteGroup, and tried them back-to-back, and alternating the ammo in magazines. Clays is maybe a little less loud, but it's otherwise it's hard to tell one from the other. The Power Pistol load is a thumper, but the difference between the other two seems pretty marginal.

[Sandbagger123]

thnaks for the info. i always wanted to try clays. Does it leave the front of the gun dirty like TG does?

[Erttactics]

Very interesting,I use titegroup now but wanted to try clays because of its reported softness. Looks like I might not want to bother.

[Chutist]

I've shot TG and Clays back to back... Clays was felt softer. And at the end of the session I think the gun was cleaner than it would have been with TG. TG works fine and if that's all I could get, I'd run it! But Clays is "better" to me. I've got VVN320 on the way and I'm going to test with that too!

[jtrump]

I'm going to piggy Back of chutist with my findings.

Temp 72'

Overcast

Gun- 2011 STI DVC Limited

Dillion-550 press

All loads are 180g Bayou bullets, 1.180 OAL, fully resized brass "mixed", .421 crimp, federal primers, 12lb variable spring

Silhouette: To continue my search for the load from my first post in this topic I loaded 10 rounds of silhouette to 5.6g- 10 shot average 881FPS::: 159PF and not recoil friendly.

WST: 4.8g Average 1007fps:::: 181.2PF single digit SD- Little rowdy but almost 100fps over making major.

WST: 5.0g Average 1016fps:::: 182.88PF Also single digit SD- expected it to be a little rowdy, however these loads feel similar to my hp38/231 loads.

Titegroup: 4.2g Average: 944fps::::: 169.92PF, SD 8- I liked this... The recoil impulse is over so fast that you're body can't even realize it happened, very cool and good feel.

Titegroup: 4.4g Average: 960fps::::: 172.1 PF, SD 9- This load also felt fine with slightly louder report.

Titegroup: 4.6g Average: 994fps::::: 179.0 PF- SD 7- Little bit rowdy at that velocity still the same quick impulse.

Re-Chrono'd my load I've used in the past two matches

W231 4.6g Average: 921fps:::: 165.7PF- "edit SD 14" Just as rowdy as ever, felt like the wst at over 1000fps.

62 Degrees

STI DVC Limited 5"

12lb variable spring

180g Bayou 1.180 OAL

4.4g WST

Avg fps: 947 SD: 6 170.4PF

200G J&B FMJ 1.180 OAL

4.0G titegroup

Avg fps:839 SD: 8 167.8PF

180G Bayou

4.1G titegroupe

Avg Fps: 928 SD: 6 166PF Not much wiggle room there.

The WST felt a little stout in comparison to the titegroup loads, May try to get it around a 168pf, not that its going to make much of a difference in overall feel, probably 4.2 would just make major and I can't see it being super noticeable.

[Suburban Commando]

I loaded and shot a test batch of 4.9gr TiteGroup, but didn't run it over the cronograph. At this point the velocity data doesn't really matter. The primers still look pretty good. Nice and round at the edges.

Why?

I go further than I need to, because I like to know where the limits are. I don't want to load 250 rounds, only to find that slightly heavy charge results in unsafe ammo, and then have to scrap or take apart almost the whole batch. I don't want to always be at the edge of disaster.