Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 40 S&W.....WOW!

Had a crazy traveling end of the week and part of the weekend, anyway, as we were all saying our goodbyes an old Bud gave me a heavy bag of 1000 double crimp grooved 180gr HST bullets for my 40, I later assumed the double rolled on crimp is to help keep the jacket and core together as my col of 1.135" puts both well down into the case.

This morning at daybreak, i started at Hodgdons minimum of 6.5 grains of Lonshot for the 180gr XTP, and worked to a max of 8 grains, the max load out of my P226 ran 1212 fps, puzzled, I went and loaded another max charge of 8 grains, it went 1214 fps, that's some crazy chit, and what I believe to be too fast for the design velocity of that bullet, I'm going to back all remaining loads down to around 1000 fps and call it good, no signs of over pressure, and all velocities had a good climb up with no spike differences.

Question is, has anyone else ran 180's out of their 40's at that speed? and, is the HST a good meat defense bullet?

I remember reading here about some poster that built some crazy fast loads with his 40's, but cant remember who it was, these loads were in new WW brass cases with CCI SPM primers.

Thanks in advance.

The 2 crimp grooves could be there so they can be used in 40s or 10mm.
I have a 357 SWC with 2 crimp grooves, one for 38, the other for 357.
Got them from LAH here, I can't recall the mold number.

Savuti, if either crimp groove on these bullets were used, col's would be much to long for either cartridge, the lower groove is about an eight of an inch up from the bottom of the bullet.

Ya can't use crimp groove for an auto, the cartridge headspaces off the case mouth.

Two grooves in an auto bullet, puzzling. WAG, considering the high velocities with no apparent problems, the grooves are for reducing friction in the barrel & allowing higher velocities at acceptable pressures???

Of course, I've only taper crimped some semi auto rounds, that was due to bullets that didn't fit tight enough to suite me, I have to think they're there for help locking the core and jacket together, no other reason I can come up with, it is a nasty looking bullet, with a monstrous flat bottomed hp hole.

I think it was the member Clarkm who was running the 40 pretty hot.

10-4, Thanks MM, I tried to google the thread but couldn't find it, regardless, thinking 1200 fps is too fast for that bullet, 1K would be perfect for the pistol, bullet design and the shooter.

Gunner,
I was kinda aiming my reply to Saviti. Somehow your post after his didn't show up on my screen.

Core retention is a legit assumption, but 1200 fps with a 180 & no bad things happening is reason to wonder about other uses of two grooves. That's some serious velocity don't you think?

Yeah 180's at 1200 seems like 10mm country.

Some of the warmer 40SW stuff like Underwood has the 180s up to 1100.

Gunzo, okay, I understand now, and damn right, serious speed, and from a book load, albeit for the 180gr XTP, what blew me away was the two fps extreme spread, only a sample of two shots but damn, that's consistent, too bad they're too warm for my purposes.

MM, that's exactly what I did, went to Underwood, BuffaloBore and Double Tap websites and had a look around, none of them push any 180's to 1200 fps in a 40, another red flag to me, that speed is exceedingly unimportant if the bullet penetrates less, only batters the pistol and shooter more.

And iirc all the Glock kabooms I've heard/read about were with 40 S&W's.

I wonder if those bullets weren't meant for the .38/40? Just a thought.............

Old damned old are you?

So you're only about 60fps over the max Hodgdon published, which is 3.5Kpsi under max psi.
Variations do happen. My usual experience is slower than Hodgdon's.

Ka boom in a 40 is a serious issue, use new brass with heavy loads....I have seen two ka booms at idpa matches

Or shoot a properly built .40, like an H&K USP.

3rd gen smiths come to mind too. You couldn't give me a Glock..

9mm HST bullets also have a cannellure . Has nothing to do with seating depth. I'm thinking it's there to help hold the jacket to the core.

LOL, I originally thought 41 Mag, so I weighed and miked em, yup, .400" and 179.9 grains.

Agreed, I saw that, but, still believe 1200 fps will make that bullet penetrate less, lose/lose, have them at 1020 fps with 6.5 grains now, will load some new cases with that charge and see how they run in the pistol.

My tacops P226 will run with any H&K or Glock as far as strength is concerned, it's a tank.