Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 40 S&W loads with Longshot and N105

In my search for a defensive load for camp yogis for my G23 Gen 4 I came up with N105 and Doubletap 200 grain hardcast bullets.

Finally had the chance to shoot some today. Shooting a recommended load of 7.7 grains I matched the factory DT load at 990 fps mv.

http://www.doubletapammo.com/php/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_26&products_id=607

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

I also shot some longshot with Speer 155 GDs.
Working up to 9.5 grains (max listed is 9.3). My speed
averaged an astonishing 1,360 mv.
No signs of pressure, loads fed great. Was somewhat amazed at how flat they shot out to 60 yds. It thumped targets with some authority. Recoil was sharper than the 200s which actually had a mild "felt" recoil.
This also answers my question at to "do I need a 357 Sig?" NO.

Looking forward to trying out some Nosler 135s next week.

Shot both loads into wet media from 10' Both penetrated about the same (7") except for the GD bullet widely expanding and losing most of its weight.

For those interested.

I followed the load recommendation from Hodgdon for the 135 Noslers.

11.5 grains shot at 1,500 mv.

That's not to bad and puts it in the 357 Sig league if not 10mm factory.

Following Hodgdon, I'm loading 155 Gold Dots at 1,300 fps mv.

That will be my carry load.

Could you please post your cronograph data showing ES and SD for these loads?

Win Brass
Fed Match Primer
155 Speer Gold Dot
Longshot powder 9.5 grains
ES
1,335
1,362
1,364

135 Nosler HP
Longshot 11.5 grains
ES
1,500
1,492
1,501

Note about Longshot powder. It's nickname is LOUDshot for good reason.
But in both SG's and handguns it produces top speeds.

I like Longshot for both the .357 SIG and .40 S&W. One of the reasons I like it is because I can get better velocity than other powders without firewalling it.

Tom,

What bullet weights and speeds are you getting?

I am using 124 gr. Hornady XTP in the .357 SIG and 180 gr. stuff in the .40. I also have several 10mm autos for which I have a bunch of 175 TC lead bullets that I have loaded with Bullseye. I don�t yet have a chrono, so my velocities are just estimates based on Hogdgon�s test numbers, not my own. That is why I won�t quote numbers. I load things pretty mild anyway. The .357 SIG is super accurate and seems to have significantly more zip than my 9mms. The .40 is definitely milder than the loads I was using in the 10mm.

SU35, I really appreciate your posting that load data. I will be testing the 155g Gold dot and the 150g Nosler HP in water jugs this weekend...stay tuned!

Would love to hear your results Keith.

I talked with Double Tap about their cast bullets as I had one that did not penetrate well and lost 94 grains of bullet weight.
They were very alarmed at that! They had me send them back and they sent me some factory 200 grain loads. They will also be sending out at new batch to me.
Gent there said he had killed bear with it out of his 40 S&W. That his bullets should not lose any weight and they penetrate deeply.

So, I'll test them again here shortly.

In regards to the GD 155's they will surprise you how flat they shoot out to 60 yards.
I would really love to find a bumper crop of jacks to try them out on.

I have a ton of experience with Longshot in the 40S&W and 10mm. Our 40 carry load is 155 XTP 8.5 grains Longshot with CCI-550 primers yeilds 1266 fps. In 10mm I get 1350 with 180 XTP's.

I got the same velocity you did from 9.3 grains using 155 XTP's but ran into feeding issues from too high of slide velocity. It caused nose dive FTF. Had to back off to 8.5 to get absolute reliability but is still over 500 FPE. Very respectable. He actually used it yesterday to dispatch a black bear.

Very cool!

What pistol are you shooting?

So far my G Gen4 has performed flawless with the 9.3 grain and 9.5 grain load.

Thanks for the feedback.