Best dies for reloading 40 S&W
- Thread starter perazzisc3
- Start date
I just use the lee carbide dies with factory crimp die. Also use the lee bulge buster on all of the cases bc I don't know if they have been shot out of a glock or not and its just easier to run them all through it. My ammo shoots great out of handguns and my kel tec sub2000. 6.8g power pistol really pushes the 180g HP out of my sub2k and 6.4g is a very nice load for handguns.
Ba ha ha ha! IMO there is no "best." I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find a set that DOES NOT work well.
I've used 40S&W Lee carbide dies for > 10K rounds. They're ~ 11 years old now.
I don't use a bulge buster. Inspect all your cases. The ones that have been obviously shot out of a Glock I throw away.
Use only the bare assed minimum flare on your case, one that allows you to just set your bullet in the case. Otherwise it can badly affect your crimp.
I seat in one step, then crimp. The advantage is you can see if your bullet is not properly aligned. The pistol bullet seater dies do not align the bullet as well as rifle dies.
I've used 40S&W Lee carbide dies for > 10K rounds. They're ~ 11 years old now.
I don't use a bulge buster. Inspect all your cases. The ones that have been obviously shot out of a Glock I throw away.
Use only the bare assed minimum flare on your case, one that allows you to just set your bullet in the case. Otherwise it can badly affect your crimp.
I seat in one step, then crimp. The advantage is you can see if your bullet is not properly aligned. The pistol bullet seater dies do not align the bullet as well as rifle dies.
Dies aren't very complicated devices, there are no secrets to making them and they sure aren't hard to make on the automated machinery that churns them out. The very slight differences beteen die features only matters to individual users who prefer this or that; personal tastes don't equal functional quality. Fact is, there's no real difference in the quality of ammo that can be made with any of them, perhaps especially so for handgun ammo. Pick a box color and price you like and go for it.
My recommendation is to get a Lee Bulge Buster, and not use the Factory Crimp Die for crimping, reason why is as the bullet passes thru the carbide sizing ring the bullet is resized, that is bad for accuracy, the FCD will make pistol ammo feed 100% reliable but at the expense of accuracy, that not a trade off I'm willing to except. I run all my 40 thru the Lee BB, then FL size, Bell, and seat bullets with Hornady dies, I crimp with a Redding taper crimp die to .421, my current load is 3.0 grains of Clays, and 180 grainers, my Glock 35 needed a 15lb recoil spring to function 100%, this load is accurate and soft, with a Power Factor of 130k.
I've a lee 3-die set, plus separate hornady taper crimp and a redding g-rx I use on once fired brass. No complaints. S&W M&P 40, 5.0gr unique under cast lee 401/175tcs, water-dropped wheel weight alloy..
Lee 3 die set here.
I reload (and fire) cases shot with my Glock all the time, have never had a problem with this bulge I keep hearing about.
Joe
I reload (and fire) cases shot with my Glock all the time, have never had a problem with this bulge I keep hearing about.
Joe
I've got over 5k reloads, Glock bulge and all, on my RCBS 3 die carbide set. I'm a fan of RCBS dies for both pistol and rifle calibers.
Glock is not the only gun that will swell cases because of the chamber shape. HK does it as well. I'm certainly not a Lee fan but I use the Lee Undersize Die, which they only make in 40. It sizes the case 1 thou smaller, removing the bulge and there is no extra step needed. I finish off with a FCD. I've loaded 10s of thousands of rounds of 40 this way. And I think the notion that a FCD hurts accuracy is bull. Prove it!
I use RCBS and Hornady dies, NOT a fan of lee at all, and I pick up brass from a range and glocks are shot there all the time and I never had any problem with glock bugle cases, I just run them through like normal and they are fine.
