Reloading round nose bullets in .40

[JStang314]

Wondering if anyone has reloaded bullets in .40s&w. Because I am was so heavily invested in .40 I built an Glock mag fed AR pistol in .40. Every once in a while, I get FTFs and it seems like the copper (Berrys) catches. It slightly deforms the bullet. I have about 2000 Xtreme RNFP I’m going to run and see if they do better. But I’m really tempted to try a regular round nose and see if it completely eliminates my problem. Looking at the Speer plated as they are cheaper than berrys or xtreme.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

Do you use a taper crimp?

 

[JStang314]

Yes I do. I keep it fairly light since they’re plated bullets.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

Yes I do. I keep it fairly light since they’re plated bullets.

Good for you, most reloaders poo poo the thought of using one.
Run it down tighter. Measure a new 40 round and I bet you will be surprised at how much smaller it is than what you are loading.
We load semi-wad and wad-cutters for 45 and 38 special to be shot in autoloaders, I use taper crimps on all autoloading calibers we shoot.

We also have started powder coating with 9MM, we cast, clean,tumble coat with powder. bake and load without sizing. The taper crimp does it for me.
I have been playing with our cast 38 wad-cutters by powder coating and not sizing the same as 9MM, I have had to back off a few tenth's of a grain of bulleye to keep the FPS down where it was. I'll do more testing over the net 6 months and make a decision if we stick with powder coating or not.

 

[JStang314]

Thanks for the info. I’ll look into that and see if it helps. My last batch was crimped a little more than usual so we’ll start there

 

[Clay Pigeon]

Thanks for the info. I’ll look into that and see if it helps. My last batch was crimped a little more than usual so we’ll start there

Let us know how the changes work out.

 

[Leadeye]

I should check out powder coating bullets, something I haven't tried yet. When you heat them, do you heat to just melt or melt and convert? Heat and convert would be holding 350-400 for something like 10 minutes.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

I should check out powder coating bullets, something I haven't tried yet. When you heat them, do you heat to just melt or melt and convert? Heat and convert would be holding 350-400 for something like 10 minutes.

I do 350 for about 10 min when I see melt its good. I clean the bullets before I coat while piled on a few clean shop rags with brake clean. I found with doing that the paint ends up with a nicer finish and it sticks better.
I fought doing it for years now, but I hate lube/sizing. so far its been a positive.
I use a 15 dollar Goodwill toaster oven and red Harbor Freight paint. I coat in a plastic tub along with lining the tray with cooking parchment paper.
I have under 25 bucks total investment. I've just kept it simple... Did I mention I hate lube sizing?