Preferred grain for .40 S&W?

[Cyc Wid It]

Any suggestions accompanied by brief explanations? Any particularly good brand/grain combination?

Thanks in advance.

[tomd1584]

180 gr. Speer Gold dot is whats in my magazines.

for training/plinking, i'll use WWB , Independence 165 gr., and speer lawman 165 & 180 gr.

[Fjold]

What's your imtended use, Home defense, plinking, target/competition?

What type of gun, 5" Comp/target model, 4" service model, 3.5" compact, 3" subcompact?

[Cyc Wid It]

P226R

It's my newest gun so I'll need some range time to get comfortable with it. I'll probably keep a little defensive ammo around too, although my "nightstand" type gun is my 1911.

[tomd1584]

P226R

It's my newest gun so I'll need some range time to get comfortable with it. I'll probably keep a little defensive ammo around too, although my "nightstand" type gun is my 1911.

edited original post, sorry.

[Cyc Wid It]

All good thanks for the response. I like the Speer stuff in .45 so that's good to know.

[XYZ]

I'll use Speer Gold Dot 165 for HD. 180 is heavier and you can shoot through a car door. The 165 gives you a little more speed. I use WWB 165 for target practice as well.

[BigDogatPlay]

SiG P226, I stoke it with 165 grain Ranger SXT. This started out being issued ammo, but it has been unfailingly reliable in my gun, and shoots to good tight groups. I usually shoot Federal Hydra Shoks in all my guns but this Ranger round has been excellent in the SiG. I want to try some of the new bonded PDX stuff to compare.

In terms of "power measurements" the 165s in .40 caliber seem to be the best balance.

[bruss01]

180 is what the round was designed around. Lighter weights can feel "snappy" rather than a good solid "push" recoil-wise. I'm apparently so convinced that it's a superior load that I had a dream recently and every shot fired resulted in one hostile out of the fight. I'd like to see you argue with results like that. ;P

[Nynvolt]

I try to stick with 180gr. I am not too picky as far as plinking ammo goes since I feel lucky if I can find any under $20/50 but for HD I use PDX1 180gr. When testing it's reliability I was surprised at my grouping, maybe just dumb luck but it was the best group of my session that day.

I'm in the heavier is better camp for defense rounds. It will penetrate deeper and hopefully be more effective. Not really worried about over penetration, if I hit it will lose most, if not all of it's momentum, if I miss there will be little difference between a 180gr and 165gr flying through drywall.

[nick]

I prefer 180gr. 165gr feels much snappier and can be unpleasant to shoot. That being said, 165gr and 155gr Winchester Ranger feel pretty good and are very accurate. Winchester also makes 180gr subsonic JHPs in the Ranger line though. Those are very very nice to shoot.

My experience isn't with SIGs though, but with Glock 35, Glock 27, S&W M&P 40, and Witness Elite Match.

[PutTogether]

I like .40 caliber bullets to be as light as possible. I can't quite explain this, since as a rule I am a "slow and heavy bullets are better" type guy, but the lighter and faster you make a .40/10mm bullet, the closer it gets to acting like a hot 125 grain .357 magnum.

In my mind, if you aren't going to be a .45 caliber, 230 grain at 850ish fps, then you should be a 125 grain bullet at as close to 1500 fps as possible.

I'm sure it is just a trick of the mind, but the closer in my head I can make a .40 or 10mm feel like I have the ballistics of the classic .357 in an auto loader, the happier I am.

[Cyc Wid It]

Thanks for the helps folks. I've shot some of the 180gr, but I might buy a box or 2 of lighter stuff to try out.