Hello everybody. New to the forum, so I will give a little background first. I have been reloading for about 3 years now. I use a single stage Lee reloader which works for the amount I reload. I reload a variety of ammo from 9mm to .338lm. In pistol rounds I reload 9mm, .40s&w, and .45acp. My question is about the .40. I normally reload my .40 with 180gr HDY XTP with 6.5gr of accurate #5. Last night I found 200gr HDY XTP and thought I would try them. When I checked my reload data I found that #7 is recomended. I have a large amount of #5 and use it in all my handgun loads. Does anyone use #5 with a 200gr. XTP and if so what is a good starting weight? Any help?

Well you know what they say, when all else fails read the instructions.

Unfortunately the instructions say that 190 grains is the max recommended bullet weight in 40 with #5 and you are wondering about going over that by 5%. I'd suggest that if you are buying different bullets than usual you might as well purchase the recommended/suggested powder as well.

Oh, welcome to the forums by the way! Sorry to sound like a grump on your first post but all of those guidelines are there for good reasons. Many of them may not necessarily be for safety (I am sure you can shoot larger bullets with an amount #5 and not shoot your eye out kid), but they are saying you will not be happy with the results you get.

and sometimes case capacity and burn rate are not really compatable.
#5 and 200's might just work [at 650 fps]

Hi, Welcome. I load and shoot a lot of 40SW.
AA#5 works good for me. 200gr XTP
Min load @ 5 grains and Max @5.5 grains.
Velocity At 5.2grs is 720f/s.
I shoot this powder in a 10mm and it works just as well with 200gr xtp
Dave