How finicky is your M&P40?

[Alfie]

I reload my own ammo and I'm pretty particular about what I make, so much so that I only use Federal Brass and Federal primers. Two nights ago I grabbed a box of mixed brass by accident and loaded up 100+ rounds before I relized it. So last night I took that 100+ rounds to the range and case guaged them into two piles, GO and NO GO. When I ran out of GO's I fed the NO GO's into the mags and it was an immediate melt down. Typically I can run NO GO's but typically they are all Federal Brass. The gun would chamber the rounds but not extract them, causing a bit of trouble in the stages. Another shooter pulled out his .40 Glock barrel and it took every one of the NO GO's in a drop test.

So what I've found is that my gun will eat anything that passes the GO test but it seems as though it will only eat Federal brand NO GO brass. Does anyone else have the same problem with thier M&P's. I have four and they all seem to have the same issue. I'm not too concerned about it, I actually like knowing that the chamber tolerences are so tight, but I'm just curious what the concensus it.

BTW, I use Redding competition dies in my press. Before I had them I used Dillon dies and found that 60% of my reloads wouldn't pass the case guage. One I switched I found about 95% of my reloads passed the guage. I'm too cheap to buy a roll sizer and I haven't felt the urge to pick of a Lee undersize die.

[lugnut]

Well you could measure the Glock chamber and compare it to yours but I'm pretty sure Glock chamber are typically a little loser than others. I've had cases that were way out of spec that the Glock feeds just fine. I still toss them.

As far as your Federal No Go loads working... maybe they fail the gauge checks in different areas of the case compared to other brass. I've also found that sometimes it's not the actual case that causes the no go, but a burr on the rim.

Federal is one of my favorite pistol brass for sure too.

I always use the undersize die for my .40 brass.... you probably couldn't find one of those dies now even if you wanted.

[raz-0]

With the factory barrel (MPB serial, purchased about may 2005), I've experienced no extraction issues using an EGW U-die for depriming and resizing. Even brass that was definitely glocked would rattle around in the chamber a bit.

Put in a storm lake barrel, and had no end of problems. Had to have the chamber recut to even deal with ammo that passed 3 different case gauges.

[al503]

Never had any issues using WWB, Gold Dots or my reloads in my .40.

[Txkid]

I am cheep too and use anything I pick off the ground, so mix brass is what I use.

I use Dillon die set and had ran my M&P 40 with no malfunctions 3500 rounds.

The only time I had trouble was when I forgot to set back the crimp die to the correct setting after I had to use the tool head for a different caliber. Since then I got an extra tool head so that is not the problem.

For some reason I notice every time I try to reload a Starline Brass it crimples down and visibly you know it is going to jam. I just think this is an incident that the original user just loaded the round very hot?

Anyway, will your M&P 40 jam with Factory ammo or how does your reloads measure up to the spec, you might need to adjust your dies?

Good luck

Thomas

[Sarge]

This will end up another thread of mine works good ,mine does not, etc... My 9PRO will fire and eject everything so far. I don't use them in matches but the very few rounds my dillon dies produce that won't fit the case guage drop in my barrel and work just fine. I think the bottom line is all guns are different even within the same make and model.

[High Lord Gomer]

The only problem I've ever had with any of the 3 M&P40s I've had was feeding some Semi-Wadcutter-Truncated-Cone lead reloads. I've never had an extraction problem in any of the 7 M&Ps I've had.

I also don't case gauge or even chamber check. I load and shoot.

[Txkid]

If you continue to have problems you might want to send back the gun to S&W they do a great job.

Also they will up date some of the old parts like the slide stop.

Edited April 1, 2009 by Txkid

[98sr20ve]

BTW, I use Redding competition dies in my press. Before I had them I used Dillon dies and found that 60% of my reloads wouldn't pass the case guage. One I switched I found about 95% of my reloads passed the guage. I'm too cheap to buy a roll sizer and I haven't felt the urge to pick of a Lee undersize die.

The only brass that does not pass my gauge has a burr on the rim (not the dies fault) or a cracked case. Neither can be blamed on the die. Besides that they all pass my Dillon Case Gauge which is supposed to be the tight case gauge. This is with a standard Lee die (not the U). Of course everything fires in my Glock with the Glock barrel. When I had a LW barrel it also all fired just fine. Sold the barrel to another Dillon reloader and he had to have it reemed to get it to run. Is your sizing die as low as you can get it and actually putting some tension on the shellplate?

[Cy Soto]

I have recently begun reloading for my M&P40 and I too am having chambering issues. Some of the rounds that will pass the case gauge check through several other .40 caliber pistols, will not chamber in the M&P. I bought a Lee Factory Crimp Die hoping that this would eliminate this problem but this didn't entirely take care of the issue. I still have a few cases that will refuse to seat properly in the S&W chamber. My next step is to purchase an EGW-U die (which are currently backordered).

[smokshwn]

Have you considered that the gun may not be the problem.

You mentioned that only 60% of your reloads with the Dillon Dies would pass a case gauge.... this seems to me to be an indication that there may be a problem in your process or your press setup.

I realize your results with the Redding dies improved however they may be simply covering up the original problem.

I run completely mixed brass in two custom guns (one scheumann and one Kart barrel) and I don't have anywhere near the numbers of nogo's you are getting.

Just something to consider and run down.

good luck, Craig

[Joe4d]

Are you right on the limit of OAL ?

[Alfie]

Are you right on the limit of OAL ?

Not even close. I'm running a truncated bullet from an unnamed (but reliable) mfg. Length isn't the issue it's brass bulge.

[Alfie]

Cy,

Same here! I have bullets that won't pass the case guage, won't pass the barrel test yet will drop into a Glock .40 barrel. The Glock barrel must have quite a bit more play in the chamber.

Did you try out those springs yet?

Alfie

I have recently begun reloading for my M&P40 and I too am having chambering issues. Some of the rounds that will pass the case gauge check through several other .40 caliber pistols, will not chamber in the M&P. I bought a Lee Factory Crimp Die hoping that this would eliminate this problem but this didn't entirely take care of the issue. I still have a few cases that will refuse to seat properly in the S&W chamber. My next step is to purchase an EGW-U die (which are currently backordered).

[Alfie]

This will give you an idea of how critical I am with my loading:

I'm an engineer to everything is over done to an extreme. It's almost a sickness. I use only Federal brand brass b/c I noticed that the bell left in the brass varied from brass mfg. to mfg. So for instance a piece of Winchester brass might not allow the bullet to sit on top of it in the seating die b/c it hadn't been belled. Why not? Well b/c the brass was just a touch shorter then the Federal brass is. Then I found some other brass was a bit longer then Federal and it would bell real wide and split the top of the brass. Basically I found the Federal brass to be the most consistent so that's what I use.

So I'm pretty precise with my loads and process and I what I think is that the M&P chambers are machined to be a bit larger then the .40S&W spec. yet a bit smaller then other barrels. I don't recall the numbers off the top of my head but I know the brass I found to be problematic varied by a few thousanths (sp?) would not drop into the chamber b/c the bulge at the base was too big.

Anyway, moving on with my reloading issue I just ordered a Redding G-Rx die and I'm hoping that will be an inexpesive way to re-size range brass and get better results on the number of bullets that pass the case guage. We'll see......

Have you considered that the gun may not be the problem.

You mentioned that only 60% of your reloads with the Dillon Dies would pass a case gauge.... this seems to me to be an indication that there may be a problem in your process or your press setup.

I realize your results with the Redding dies improved however they may be simply covering up the original problem.

I run completely mixed brass in two custom guns (one scheumann and one Kart barrel) and I don't have anywhere near the numbers of nogo's you are getting.

Just something to consider and run down.

good luck, Craig

[Cy Soto]

Did you try out those springs yet?

I did, Thanks a Bunch!!