40 cal.bullet choises

[jack44]

I'm going to be reloading the 40 soon and what grain of bullet for plinking and target also for protection when in the woods from animals. The bullets will be lead that's all I can get now also I have enough unique don't think I can use power pistol with lead.

 

[sevt_chevelle]

I like 180 for the 40 for both.

 

[jim8115]

I use power pistol in 357 and .40 all the time

 

[jack44]

I was thinking 180 185gr. for what I wanted it for thanks

 

[Lennyjoe]

Lead kind of changes things just a bit. What grain is available there and go from there. I like 180's in plated and JHP but haven't shot lead in the .40 can.

What gun are you shooting it out of? If it's a Glock, some frown kn using lead out of the factory barrel.

 

[SDGlock23]

My pick for an all around 180gr bullet is the RNFP (38-40 style) hardcast. You can get them from just about anybody that makes lead bullets and they're fine for plinking but at the same time are profiled to have a somewhat blunt nose (meplat) that's fairly good size (wide). Hardcast and a good wide meplat is what you want on animals.

As for the two powders you mentioned, both will work fine. Unique when loaded near max is no joke and Power Pistol is probably one of my all time favorites. Both with near max (or max) charges have no problem doing 1100 fps with a 180gr bullet from a 4" bbl. Couple that with a good 180gr hardcast RNFP and you've got something that will shoot clean through most anything.

 

[jack44]

Thanks SDGOLCK23 thats sounds like what I what

 

[gunlaw]

power pistol works great with lead in the 40. I like to use it with 180g. 6 -6.5g should do the trick.

 

[greenlion]

.......... ....... .........
.......... ........ ......... ........

Here are some extra periods for your next post. Use them wisely

If I were limited to lead, I would go with 180gr bullets. Unique will work fine, but with lead bullets you are going to get a lot of smoke.

 

[caster]

If one of the animals you are likely to encounter is a bear, I would not go with a 180 grain bullet in 40SW

 

[mxjunky78]

Another vote for the 180gr in .40. I've tried 155gr and 170gr SWC and also 165gr and I always seem to go back to the 180gr.

 

[gahunter12]

Another 180gr vote for me. I load 180gr Precision Delta FMJ, Zero FMJ, Berry's RSFP, or XTreme RSFP.

 

[gamestalker]

I like to run 155 or 165 gr. JHP's, with a nicely worked up charge of Longshot.

GS

 

[YunGun]

power pistol works great with lead in the 40. I like to use it with 180g. 6 -6.5g should do the trick.

+1 - I've had great results with ~6-7gr Power Pistol under a Lee TL401-175

 

[herrwalther]

I prefer 165 gr in my .40s. 180 gr is good for me if that is all I can find but 165 feel much better to me.