Need a soft shooting .40 load.

[cypher]

I want to try to come up with a soft (very soft) load for my Baby Eagle in .40 S&W.  It's for my son.  He's 11 and and weighs maybe 70 lbs. soaking wet.  He loves to shoot the big guns though.

I would like to come up with as soft a load as possible that will still be able to cycle the gun.  I have an abundance (over 4 lbs. ea.) of WW-231 and AA #5.  I also have about a 1000 180gr. L-TC.  

Can someone suggest a load to try.  Also I am not married to any of the components above.  If you have any suggestions with other components I would try those as well.

Homero

[shred]

Sounds like what you're looking for is either a Production-class IPSC load or a GSSF load-- both are way down there in the PF category.   Here are a few loads that barely cycle the slide in my .40 glocks:

180 FMJ, 3.3gr Titegroup

180 FMJ, 3.8gr WST

170 LSWC, 3.8gr 231

[Bigbadaboom]

 Cypher,

 Find out how long a round your gun will feed reliably and reload as long as possible out to 1.2in. I've worked up a minor load with 3.9grns of win. 231 ( the only powder I have ever used ) and 180grn. JHP Zero loaded to 1.2in. It makes around 131pf through a schumann ultimatch. I have very little recoil out of a 3lb. 8oz. gun.

  I've found that overall length has a lot to do with softness of recoil.

[Al Capizzo]

When my son started shooting he was using a TZ-75 in .40, which I think is identical to your Baby Eagle.  This particular gun had the "old style" beavertail, and this kid's hand got chewed up until we went to 155 gr. bullets. That solved the problem, and he was shooting at the old 175 power factor.  We were using N-340, but there is probably something better for powder.  At any rate, try some 155's.

[cypher]

Thanks guys... I think I will start out with with the light WW 231 loads (since I have all the components for that on hand).  We'll see how that goes... If he has any discomfort I'll try going to the 155's.  I'll probably end up trying those soon anyway.  (He shoots a lot)  

Homero