Last month I picked up reloading dies for my 40 S&W. Later on today I hope to place an order of reloading supplies for it. I can't decide whether to go with Berry's 165 grain bullets or the 180 grain bullets. These are just for plinking and practice, nothing special. If anyone has experience with the two weights I'd appreciate some feedback as to which weight bullet they prefer and why. Thanks.
Which Weight Bullet?
- Thread starter onelastshot
- Start date
I have loaded thousands and thousands of Berry bullets.... You will want to use loads for lead bullets...
Definitely start low and work up... A crono is your friend with them.... I would go with the lighter bullets , why have the recoil if it's not needed? The paper doesn't know the difference.... Data is hard to find for them and I have heard for years that Berry's is one day going to release a manual for their bullets.. They say you can use low to mid range FMJ data for them but they will be HOT, using lead data normally around the middle as a starting point is good and working up to what you want.... I load the 9mm about 100 fps slower with win231 and like the load... I have loaded a few at the top of lead data and they were real fast I can't imagine using mid range FMJ data , they would be screaming....
Edit.... If your useing the Lee factory crimp die , I find the best way is to load 4 dummy rounds , no powder or primers , you only want to remove the belling, so I did one at a quarter turn one at a half turn etc all the way to a full turn and pull them so you can see exactly how much crimp your getting.. over the years I have settled on almost a quarter turn... It seems to be the best for me... Believe it or not a guy at Berry's told me to use a light crimp and it has been fine....
Definitely start low and work up... A crono is your friend with them.... I would go with the lighter bullets , why have the recoil if it's not needed? The paper doesn't know the difference.... Data is hard to find for them and I have heard for years that Berry's is one day going to release a manual for their bullets.. They say you can use low to mid range FMJ data for them but they will be HOT, using lead data normally around the middle as a starting point is good and working up to what you want.... I load the 9mm about 100 fps slower with win231 and like the load... I have loaded a few at the top of lead data and they were real fast I can't imagine using mid range FMJ data , they would be screaming....
Edit.... If your useing the Lee factory crimp die , I find the best way is to load 4 dummy rounds , no powder or primers , you only want to remove the belling, so I did one at a quarter turn one at a half turn etc all the way to a full turn and pull them so you can see exactly how much crimp your getting.. over the years I have settled on almost a quarter turn... It seems to be the best for me... Believe it or not a guy at Berry's told me to use a light crimp and it has been fine....
Last edited:
Thank you, I'll load conservatively and use a light crimp. I'll go with either the 155 or 165; as you said the extra weight isn't needed and the paper doesn't know the difference and I don't need the recoil.
Yes sir , I shoot a friends Glock 42 I think it is.. it's the tiny subcompact .40 and you can definitely tell the difference between the 165 and 180gr bullets in that gun... Hodgens webpage list Winchester powder I believe , plus many others and they have some data for Berry's bullets available or the Lyman manual has lead pistol data listed... For the 9mm it's 3.9 to 4.4gr of win231 and a 124gr Berry's bullets if I remember correctly , I settled on 4.2 because it gives a little leeway and just stuck with it.... By mistake I loaded a few at 4.4 one time and they were around 1199 fps across my crono which is faster than I want.... They shot fine but I load my target rounds down some why punish myself and the gun...
One time I decided to weight sort some and found a few in a thousand pack that were over or under more than I wanted... I called Berry's and sent them back because they didn't believe me and they sent back a new thousand pack plus an extra 250 pack and said they would use that pack for training purposes... Other than that I just keep loading them and never had a problem with them... For the price they are hard to beat and you will find the coating is thicker than you would expect it to be...
Upgrades & Donations
This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.
Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.
You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.
To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.
Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.
You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.
To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.