Ok, I like the .40 S&W. I'm even on my second pistol in .40 now. What I would like to do is get a nice light load. Much lighter than the so-called ".40 Lite"

I'm shooting a Para Ordnance 16-40 with a 20lb recoil spring. I ordered up 3000 155 grain bullets, but they are few weeks out, so I picked up some Nosler 150s to test with. The reason I'm doing this is because I shoot action pistol and I'm shooting in the Production class, which has no Major caliber, so I can shoot a very light load to get down into the minor category. Some of my fellow competitors are shooting 4.3 grains of Bullseye with a 165 grain slug. I imagine this is around 800 FPS. I want to get in that range with the 155. I was going to use Titegroup, but I know its dirty if you run it low in pressure (this seems the case with many Hodgdon powders). I have a bit of Bullseye and Green Dot to work with for now, but I can get anything locally.

I've already got a 12.5 lb spring to put in my gun. The really nice thing is that I can go to the heavier spring in a few minutes with only one tool for the barrel bushing.

I shoot 180 gr Berry's copper plated bullets in front of 5.8 grs of Accurate #5 in my Glock 22 and 27. That is my normal practice load and what I used in a couple IDPA matches I went to. I have never had a problem with function and I find the recoil less than the Blaser ammo I qualify with.

I found a little bit of Clays, so I loaded up some cases with 3.6 grains (published in Sierra manual) the bottle says it is extra clean burning. The sierra manual puts this load right at 900 FPS for the 150/155 grain bullet. I didn't get a chance to test it before I had to leave town for work, but I'll test it this weekend.

Let us know how well it works. The Accurate #5 isn't too dirty, but it would be nice to find something even cleaner.

My "plinker" loads are a 170grn swc in front of 6.0grns of Accurate no.5, they are good shooters.

I have just a few hundred grains left of Clays and Bullseye, I'm gonna burn those up testing this load. If the clays is really clean, then I will probably use that, but if its dirty, I'll try AA #5. Bullseye was pretty clean in my upper pressure 165 grain loads.

The clays isn't really clean. Its okay, but not as clean as the factory load that is in CCI Blazer Brass, the cases don't even have any residue from whatever they are using.

All loads were pretty accurate at 10 yards offhand. I was mainly testing for function.

With the 20lb factory spring, the 3.6 grain load would not cycle. I stepped up to 4.0 grains, and about half ejected, at 4.5 grains they all ejected, but would not lock the slide open on the last shot. Even at 4.5 grains, its more than I want for recoil. I'm pretty much trying to duplicate the 147 grain 9mm energy.

With the ISMI 12.5lb spring, the 3.6 grain ejected all cases, but would not lock the slide open on the last shot. I'm going to load up some more at 4.0 grains of Clays and see if that will lock the slide open.

This pistol is heavy enough that 180 grain factory loads were entirely controllable, and with these loads, it almost feels like my .22 LR pistol.

Okay, the 4.2 grain load cycled the action and locked the slide back with the 12.5 lb spring.

Since I have 4lbs of Titegroup on hand, I decided to give that a try. My uniflow powder measure will not go lower than 5.4 grains, which is the starting load listed in the Sierra manual. I want to go a little lower, but this shoots pretty well so I will shoot my next match with this load and possibly get another measure or the little dandy system if I find what I need.

The 5.4 grain load cycled well and locked the slide open on the last shot. The recoil is okay, I'd like less recoil. I might have to get an 8lb spring.

I am shooting the Montana Gold Bullets that I mentioned in the first post. They came in much sooner than expected.

It sounds good, I'm going to be using my Berry's bullets in an IDPA match here in a few hours. So far they haven't let me down. So far I haven't tried anything other than the Accurate #5 as it has worked just fine for me.

I used some Berry's in .40 before. They were just a little too soft. I really like these Montana Gold bullets. They are a bit more expensive, but they are a full jacketed bullet too.

Good luck with your match. Are you going to the Northern Rockies Sectional in Bozeman this year?

The match went well, I will have to wait a few days to find out the final scores. Unfortunately this year I will only be able to attend a couple of the local matches becuase of my work schedule. Hopefully in the next year or two I will be able to work the other side of the week and get to more matches.

I have had great luck with 180s and Clays....disappointing problems with 155s. Mostly feeding problems and lots of variation in point of impact..I am shooting up the 155 plinking and staying with 180s in the future.

I'm shooting the 155s because I can get 3000 in a case instead of 2500 of the 180s for the same money. With IDPA/USPSA you don't need to be super accurate.

I have so much of the Titegroup that I'm just gonna stick with it. Its pretty cheap, $14 a pound. Clays is more economical, but I don't want to go buy more stuff now.

With a 1911 type pistol and the 40 S&W, you might try long loading the oal by .050-.100". If they chamber and feed, this will reduce pressure and velocity and probably improve accuracy.

I have had excellent results with a 180 gr. class bullet loaded out. Low recoil and still the slide impulse is great enough to extract and lock the slide.

Well, I don't know what happened today... I shot much better with the factory velocity stuff. Its not that it wasn't accurate. 1 stage I did really well, but I blew the other 4.

I am seating these at 1.15" rather than the 1.12" SAAMI length. I've even been advised that I can seat them all the way out to 1.2"

I'm going to go back to the 20 lb spring and load these so they will function and see where I'm at in two weeks.

I just don't know. I want to say that donating blood yesterday wasn't a good idea, it takes about 3 days to recover from that.

Well, I am shooting these lighter loads again. I've had a little more practice and I'm getting a lot better with the lower velocity loads. I've got a couple hundred of these to burn up. If I do poorly again, I'm gonna step the velocity up. My groups are bigger with the lower velocity. That kind of surprises me, I had previously thought that lower velocity would give better accuracy. My .357 Mag Ruger prints excellent 6 shot one hole groups with high velocity 158s, and still punches 1" groups with everything else from 110s to 180s as long as I don't shoot lead, that really opens things up.

When I real this thread's title, I thought you were describing my brother!