Hello

Continuing to play around with 155gr JHP in the .40 S&W I got a hold of some more powder samples, thanks to some guys at work, so I can finish this up.

Last Fall, after shooting some factory loads I had accumulated, I got curious about what it would take to duplicate the Federal 155gr factory velocity.(target #3) Before the ‘dark times’ I got a large quantity of Remington 155gr JHPs to shoot.



The powders that I was able to work with are;

Longshot
Power pistol
AA #5
Herco
800-X
3N37
SR 4756
Blue Dot
Silhouette
Unique
Titegroup

All these were shot and checked against published maximums to make sure maximum charges were ok in my gun. They all were, but I would be careful with Herco, Unique and SR 4756. The loads with these powders shot here were a little warm. If I were to load more, I would drop down a half a grain.

Here are some pics of some of the previous workups and tests.





Here is what I shot today;




All the work done here was done with a SW40F Sigma

Five rounds each load.
Chronograph data was taken with an Oehler model 33 chronograph
Skyscreens centered 8 feet from muzzle.
Data on the targets, from top down, average velocity, spread, standard deviation and ambient temperature.
Targets are 5½”

Well, we can see that Longshot is the undisputed winner in sheer velocity. IMR lists 9.3grs as max and Hornady lists 9.6grs. Even at 8.7grs, velocity is into 1300fps. This is getting into 10mm territory.

At the other extreme I was surprised at how slow loads with AA #5 were.

This gun didn’t like the warmer charges of Blue Dot at all.

I was quite impressed with how Titegroup performed. 6.1grs at 1188fps.

800-X is my favorite powder for 10mm and it did well here as well. The only problem with 800-X is you cannot use a powder measure to drop charges. It meters like corn flakes. One at a time only for consistent powder charges.

But, for an all-around fast and accurate load, the honor goes to 8.5grs of Power Pistol at 1257fps in this case.

Well, my curiosity is satisfied. Hope this helps to see how all these powders compare with each other. Of course different guns might produce competely different results.

Thanks for the report! Did you work through each powder to find the accuracy spot or did you just load them at one charge and test?

Hi
I wasn’t looking for sweet spots so much as looking to see how much performance each powder could provide, and comparing against factory load velocity and accuracy. Also verifying where the maximum for each powder actually was in my gun with this bullet. Some of these powders I’ve worked with for some time so I was well aware, but the rest I fired some incrementally before shooting the last target.

Turns out the current loading data for the .40 is pretty much on the money, with the three exceptions I mentioned in the post. Then again, another make and model gun might not have an issue..

Just thought it would be interesting to see all these loads on display at one time.

I've burned a lot of AA#5 in other applications and I like it because of low flash and it fills the case. But I've no experience with it in 40S&W. 8.0gr of it behind a 155gr pill seems like a really mild load. Is that the max listed in your data sources?

Hi
Yes.. Accurate, as well as Lyman lists 8.0grs as max. Hornady lists 8.4grs and Speer lists 8.7grs. Ken Waters thought 7.0grs was about it in his testing. So seeing what 8.0grs did, I left it at that.
It could be I have a slow lot of #5..? Anyway thats what I got.

Maybe someone can do some testing and take this further..

Ok, I took AA #5 up to 8.7grs and 3N37 up to 8.1grs. Plus lowered the charge for SR4756 and Unique just to see if that shot any better.

I made a graph to help see all this at at glance.
Some factory load velocities are recorded at the bottom.
Again, Rem brass and Rem 1½ primers. 1.130"



One day when the dark times are over..maybe.. this will be of use.

After reading Brian Pearce's article in my latest Handloader magazine
about working up a hunting load in the .45 Colt revolver for his son I
went out yesterday and bought a can of Longshot at a LGS. He had
only good things to say about Longshot and I am going to see how it
does in midrange loads in the .357 mag and .44 mag revolvers with
cast bullets. His loads in the .45 Colt were held to about 23,000 psi
so Longshot should work well in many handgun rounds.