Best .40 S&W Hand Load?

RayGT3

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Just bought a Kimber .40 3" and am going to load up some hand loads for it. Wondering if there is a prefered configuration. Also reliable cast bullet shape, don't want any feeding problems. As always, your comments would be appreciated.

Tnx.
Ray
 
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Just bought a Kimber .40 3" and am going to load up some hand loads for it. Wondering if there is a prefered configuration. Also reliable cast bullet shape, don't want any feeding problems. As always, your comments would be appreciated.

Tnx.
Ray
 
I had real good luck with a 155 grain lead RN using HP-38 or Unique. Both mid-range loads according to data. Good function and fairly accurate. I had no chrony then so I can't tell you what they were traveling at.

Don't have the caliber anymore but still have around 600 rounds of ammo for it.
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I also had good results with Hornady XTP 180's and HP-38. Very accurate.

Edited: It just occurred to me that I am not in the reloading section anymore.
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As far as factory goes, I only bought a bit of that. Gold Dots functioned well and showed good accuracy from my Sigma. Blazer Brass is what I bought for cheap rounds. Functioned fine for shoot em up type ammo and the brass was reloaded for the above rounds.
 
If you are using the gun with factory loads for defense, I would suggest a lighter end of midweight bullet and then find loading data that mimics that load with whatever bullet of similar weight. Sorry I can't offer more, I don't handload for that caliber.
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Is your gun picky at all when it comes to bullets? I have loaded just about every bullet you can think of in my Glock 27 and 22 over the last 15 years and have settled on a load of 6.8gr of AA #5 behind a lead 180gr Bear Creek TC lead bullet. Neat thing is that I shoot the same powder and weight with the 125gr 357 Sig load and it shoots great too.

This is a hotter load, but due to my background, I tend to shoot loads that copy velocity and recoil of duty or self defense loads.

The lead is a hard cast bullet and is cast with moly. They are extremely slippery and do not lead even above the 1000 fps range. I have also used a lot of berry's plated bullets...
 
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