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I got a wild urge today and went to the shop and measured some .40 S&W fired cartridges. I measured the solid part of the case head just north of the extractor groove. They were from .425" to .427" on the ones I measured. PERFECT!

So I took a sized, primed, neck-expanded .44 Special, dumped in 5.0 gr. weight of Bullseye, seated the 40 S&W case base-first into the .44 Special and crimped it good.

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Then I took some heavy white bath towels (these were in the rental house but were no longer serviceable for that purpose and were given to me as shop rags) folded them neatly and stood them in line with a heavy board backing them just in case, and fired into the towels.

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I recovered the projectile and repeated the experiment ... this time with 6.0 gr. of Bullseye. The .40 S&W case was hard against the powder charge. I fired that and recovered the projectile. It came within an inch or so of penetrating all the towels I had lined up ... about 12" or a bit more.

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Now I am gonna have to load some and take them to the range and test them for accuracy!

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

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That's without any additional weight/lead... hmmmmm... it would be interesting to make jacketed wadcutters... I can't wait to read more. I need to check my "stock" of .40 S&W.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

748 views

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--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

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I cleaned up after several shooters at the range, folks shot up a lot of ammo and left the brass. A LOT of 9mm and 223, they seem to be today's equivalent of the 22 lr as far as amount of brass left behind. Anyway, in the several pounds of miscellaneous brass I only came across two 40 S&W's. But now I'm intrigued, and look forward to your further experimentation. There WAS a considerable number of 10mm brass left behind, enough to make me contemplate the ethical implications of accumulating such a stash of brass. At what point of accumulations is one ethically required to obtain components and a launching platform for a new caliber? :-D

Getting back to the original topic, I DID notice that the 10mm fitted nicely into 45 ACP brass, but would (obviously) be too loose for this kind of application in that caliber. Didn't come across any in the 44 spl or magnum brass so the idea of such a load as yours didn't even remotely occur to me.

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--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

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There are still a lot of them out there (guns, that is) and ammo has been available for the most part. BUT, at least in SW MO, I'm not seeing any pistols on the shelves (not even trade ins) which makes me wonder how long the ammo supply will last. I was surprised at the lack of the 40 in the wide variety of cartridge cases retrieved as I'd guess it's one of the least reloaded cartridges for a number of reasons.

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ing the purchase of said firearm. 3. I'll swap you 2 for one 40 for 10mms. I like the idea of 40 04r 50 grains of lead in a 40 case .

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

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In the store where I work we just don't sell anywhere near as much .40 S&W ammo as we did 15 years ago. 9mm is the thing by far. There is some that shows up on our range but, again, not anywhere near as much as 15 years ago. The .40 seems to be dying off in both ammo and gun sales. Interestingly, there is a cultural component to sales, the .40 is relatively popular among young, black, males and they are almost always looking for a Glock when looking for a gun chambered in that cartridge.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

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I didn't see ANY 40 S&W pistols in the few gun stores I visited this year. What do things look like over on your side of the country?

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We carry zero Forty caliber pistols, and get a request for one maybe every three months or so.

It is going, going,……..almost gone

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a SW MO store had a BUNCH of 40 S&W pistols in stock, mostly police trade ins. They had a "fire sale" going on to clear them out. I was mildly tempted but an empty wallet kept me from participating. I noted back in 2021 that there was 40 S&W on the shelves in the same geographical area while other calibers were lacking. This year, however, it was scarce indeed - and I didn't see a single 40 for sale anywhere. I DID see a 10mm High Point, though. Never thought I'd run across THAT particular item, didn't even know they made one!

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There are lots of police trade in 40s at various online distributors who specialize in them.

https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsuperstore.com/category.cfm/sportsman/used-firearms/of3/40-SW

The 40 is an excellent cartridge. I like it a lot and burn 600-1000 per year.

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Interesting. Thanks for that link. Wasn't familiar with them. Searching for other calibers brings up all kinds of "police trade ins" in a wide variety of presentations.

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I knew of several people making jacketed 44 bullets using .40 cases, someone was making staging dies for it and I want to say case full of lead swaged down to resemble a conventional bullet was around 250 gr. They used 10mm brass for 280gr or so bullets.

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May have already posted this. I use small primer 45acp cases, pour 300 gr lead in and load in 480 Ruger cases. Round holes at 50 yards with two inch groups. [image]

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