[masshunter]

I bought a box of .40 rounds for my smith and wesson today (model 4043) and when i got them home i realized thet were reloads and were not jacketed. Is this safe to shoot from the gun? I'm not concerned that they are reloads, but will the lack of a copper jacket have any ill effects on the gun?

 

[TheRedScare]

Load them slow/weak and you will be fine.

 

[ssnell]

They may be safe, depending on who and how they were reloaded, if they are "hot loads" they will lead up your bore, which will require a lot of scrubbing to remove, but I shoot a lot of unjacketed stuff, and it doesn't hurt anything.
There are several commercial reloaders out there that make good quality stuff.
Scott

 

[masshunter]

Well, I shot all 225 of those rounds this weekend. On a positive note I got some practice clearing misfeeds. My S&W 4043 jammed on me three times, but it was filthy so I shouldn't be too surprised. I've had 600rd days with that gun and the three jams I had this weekend were the first three jams that gun has ever had. It was so dirty that I almost had to wait for the nasty smoke to clear between shots.Anybody else had similar experiences?

 

[ssnell]

I've run into some dirty stuff(reloads), and also a much higher # of failure to feed, and failure to fires then comparable factory loads, but the price differance usally makes it worth while, if I can buy 1000 rounds for about the price of 800, and 8-10 are bad, i'm still 190 rounds ahead.
I use some stuff from http://www.ammodirect.com/ , the l... than I can stand for from a new ammo. Scott

 

[masshunter]

This is my carrygun that was originally purchased when I still had plans to go into law enforcement. Dependabity is a must for me and I don't want to ruin it with lead fouling so I won't be shooting these again. All of my other guns will be shooting reloads, can't beat the price. Your right about cci blazer, its got a few of my guns jamming like Bob Marley!! Works fine in the .40 but maybe i've been lucky.

 

[musicmanbass]

Do you reload your .40 ammo yourself? I really like the Nosler Sporting handgun bullets I've been using lately. (150 gr jhp) I use 155gr loading data and have that extra little margin of safety because of it. These rounds expand really well into everything I've shot them at. Even in bowling pins they expand well but don't fragment. I weighed some of the rounds I found and they were all still above 140gr and with great exapnsion. You can get these bullets in boxes of 250 for about $20 at midwayusa.com (they come out to be about $.08 each that way) Also, if you want to save another penny or so a round for plinking, Rainier makes some very good completely copper coated jacketed and flatpoint bullets for between 7-9 cents a piece in qtys of 100, higher qtys being cheaper. (Though the nice reusable blue box they come in almost makes it worth it to buy 10 boxes of 100, instead of 1,000!)

I hope that helps some!

Oh, one more thing, Zero also makes some really nice .40 cal 165 gr jhp bullets. I just shot up some of them today, and they were pretty good.
http://www.zerobullets.com/cgi-bin/miva ... de=JB-40SW

 

[jack62]

About 20 or so years ago, it was common to buy reloads at the indoor ranges. They sold in boxes og 50, like ones you buy across the counter now. I remember the ones at the ranges in my neck of the woods came in orange boxes. R&B was the brand name if my memory recalls right. If factory ammo cost $9.00 a box, these were $6.00 a box. If you brought the emptys back in the boxes. you would get a $1.00 back. The boxes they came in had white styrafoam trays in them. You would get the occasional Flyer and stove pipe once in a while. But this was to be expected. You were saving money afterall. the range use to sweep up the brass and these companys will pick them up. I guess the range would get a kick back for this service. This was also the time when, there was always a pot of coffee on for the customers free of charge. And everyone smoked in the range. You werent allowed to smoke in the points where you were shooting though. In case of a fire maybe, i still cant figure that one out. I remember hearing people complaining about the smoke, and they werent talking about the guns. People would come in to drink the free coffee, and smoke thier cigs and cigars. It was quite funny actually. The owner would often ask them if they were thier to shoot or not. Anyway to get back to the subject as far as shooting reloads? These i use to shoot a lot of. And i load a lot of lead myself to shoot to save a few bucks. Not in my Glock though. But i did notice Wolf makes drop in steel barrels for these guns . After x-mas i think i am going to grab one. As far as other peoples reloads i do not. I was told that the reloads at the range was done away with on account of law suits. these companys had to fold. A lot of us were bummed out over this. I think that was the time reloading equipment sales started to boom. Me and alot of people i knew started buying presses. I still use my 3 lees from that time. Long before Dillon was around. My eqipment has defenitly paid for itself. At this time my loadmaster was considerd state of the art. Jack