I bought a Glock 22 today and was wondering if any one reloades for it and what works best for them
Thanks, Bret

http://www.glocktalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26

A few 40 loaders over there.

Oh yeah,don't let people discourage you from reloading for a Glock.I've reloaded 9mm,40,10mm,357Sig,and 45ACP in Glocks with no problems.All the 10mm's and some of the 40's was max loads.

I have great results with VN340 and 180 JHP's. IIRC 5.6 grains and about 950-975 fps. It's a great plinking/practuce load, easy on the hand and pistol, and the same point of aim as my carry loads (Federal 180 JHP) to 25 yards. Due to the expense (and sometimes difficulty in finding) Vihtavouri powders, I'm trying Hodgdon's Universal now with decent results too. Several other powders were less than satisfactory IMO, so I'll recommend these two.

I did an experiment using once fired factory brass. Even after 5 loadings as spec'ed above the infamous Glock case bulge was not visible and barely measureable with a mic.

Keep your loads sane and avoid lead. Some people have good luck, but in my experience it did foul barrels and life is too short to be scrubbing lead! That goes for my revolvers too...jacketed/plated bullets are cheap enough.

Have fun!

I don't even load for any handguns anymore and prolly won't,unless I get a big bore revolver or something like that.I have loaded 40's in G22's.G27's and a G35 using mixed cases,WSP primers,6.5gr Power Pistol and 180gr projectiles from www.berrysmfg.com .I also used 135gr Berrys with 9.3gr Power Pistol,but that's a max load.Like CDH said,stay away from the lead.It's not worth it.Berrys are pretty cheap and you can use jacketed data with them.

Watch out for "free shipping" deals at Midway on Ranier plated. Good bullets at less than $0.05 each! Hard to beat!!

I currently load for the Glock23 and have used lead bullets and they shoot well but do lead the bore badly. I'm going to Berry's bullets now to avoid the problem.

I just bought a 1000 .40 Berry's 155 gr FP today and they charged me a "lead fee" of about $5 per K. I asked what it was and the very polite young lady said it a was a surchagre that applied to copper and lead purchases. Bottom line....They were about $71/K...we'll see how they shoot.

READ your owner's manual. You note that Glock VOIDS its warranty if you shoot reloads in the gun. NOT "when" you shoot reloads, but IF you EVER shoot reloads. Kiss the warranty goodbye.

Glock has a wide throated breech and a deeply cut feed ramp. As such the chamber is "unsupported." That means the brass expands into the chamber when fired.

Expand and resize the brass and it' "work hardens." Shoot the brass enough, and it gets brittle and fails in the chamber. kaBOOM!

You can search "Glock kaBOOM" online. You'll get about 15,000 references.

The 40 S & W round is particularly fussy about loading, bullet seating. It's a high pressure round. It head spaces on the mouth of the case.

When the brass gets worked, the ability of the case to hold the bullet in place is compromised. Load that ammo into a double stack mag and recoil will drive bullets at the bottom of the mag into their cases -- significantly increasing an already high pressure round.

High pressure in reloaded brass that's getting brittle.

Lot's of talk about not using lead bullets in a Glock. Lots of mythology.

One myth is that the polygonal rifling "jams" lead bullets. Polygonal rifling has been used with lead bullets since about the 18th Century.

It's not about the "rifling." It's about how you can't buy new ammo in 40 S & W, (or any other semi-auto caliber) with a lead bullet.

So if you're shooting lead, you're shooting reloads.

Lead is softer and moves in the mouth of the case easier than copper jacketed bullets. That and recoil on a case that head spaces on the mouth can create bullet seating depth issues. On a high pressure round like 40 Smith, that spells trouble.

A semi auto slams the nose of the bullet into the feed ramp and into the chamber. Potentially creating deeply seated bullets in a high pressure load.

40 Smith and 9mm are both high pressure rounds. Both are tricky to reload, require precision, right choice of propellants, understanding of specs, brass that is properly dimensioned and not "bulged" in the web.


READ your Glock manual. If you don't have a manual, Glock will send you one FREE. Glock manual is online.

Google "Glock Manual" and you get 281,000 references.

Warranty is VOID if you shoot reloads -- if they don't blow up in your face.

Thanks to 45/70 for dredging up just about every myth about Glocks and reloading.

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Warranty is VOID if you shoot reloads -- if they don't blow up in your face.

Show me a manual that doesn't say this or something to that effect...thanks for the drama at the end though. I got a chuckle out of it.

Pistols of all makes blow up...even from factory ammo errors. My reloads have better QC than any automated system, and are lower pressure than all factory ammo. That makes them SAFER and MORE RELIABLE! I've pulled the trigger on 4 ammo failures thus far in my life, all were factory failures to fire, none were my reloads and I shoot about 10 reloads to 1 factory round.

Counting the number of hits only tells how widespread the internet legend has become. When the competition Glock shooters quit using reloads, I will. My primary advisor/mentor brought home a 1st place trophy from the IPSC nationals a year or two back. SHE used to shoot for the Glock team. I'll take her advice over ANY internet legends...

Besides, I've already saved much more than the cost of the gun by reloading...at half price the ammo savings adds up fast. Serious injuries from Glock catastrophic failures are even rarer than the failures themselves.

I like my odds. In my PERSONAL experience with 5+ reloads the brass is tight and does not shift under recoil. It does not blow out. It does not magically become unsafe because a few others have tried to hot rod an already hotrodded to the safe max caliber.

Use safe reloading practices and you will NEVER have trouble with blowing up a Glock or any other pistol. Period, the end, nothing more to say.

Take a round of your reload. Remove the bbl. out of your Gock and drop the round into the chamber.

Then shake the bbl. and listen to the round rattle in the chamber. Wiggle the round in the chamber with your finger.

Then hold the round steady in the chamber and score or mark the brass at the web under the feed ramp cut out.

Check where the cut out ends in relation to the web in the case.

The reason reloaded brass eventually splits at the neck/mouth is because the brass gets brittle from being fired/heated/stretched/resized.

40 Smith in a Glock heats and stretches more than most chambers. Glock has a large throated breech -- which is why they're so damned reliable, even dirty.

You can disregard these sorts of concerns, but you really should search online and have a look at the Glocks that have had "catastrophic failures" with reloads -- look at the reloads.

Then again, I'm pretty much in there with Darwin when it comes to gene pools --

Been there, done that. See the comment about taking 5 reloadings on a set of brass to see what happens. Zero failures. The cases still grip the bullet tightly. No splits. No blowouts. I still have the brass somewhere in case I decide to push it further. To date I've never split a case in my Glock 22, and I'm well into 5 figures worth of shooting it.

While we're looking to the case as you suggest, section the base of a 40S&W round and then drop it into the barrel. You'll find the brass quite thick at the unsupported section of the case.

Yes the Glock is harder on brass than others. It's not limited to 40S&W either, all Glock chambers are oversize for reliability, so the same caveats apply to all straight wall calibers. The bottlenecked rounds have less unsupported case at the feed ramp, but still have the loose chambers. Yes a prudent reloader will take that into consideration when deciding how many times to reload. My favorite load is a half grain below max, FWIW.

I have researched this issue quite a bit. NONE of the catastrophic failures are conclusively deemed to happen from an unsupported case ALONE. Many 6 o'clock blowouts have been recorded, especially with the early Federal brass. None of them I've seen resulted in more than a damaged magazine and tingling fingers (maybe a scratch or 2 to the trigger finger) as the blowout was directed down through the mag well. All of the SEVERE disassemblies look much like a gross overload in any other pistol from a Sig to a 1911. They will ALL blow from a double charge in high pressure calibers.

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You can disregard these sorts of concerns, but you really should search online and have a look at the Glocks that have had "catastrophic failures" with reloads -- look at the reloads.

Couldn't say it better myself, in conclusion, but with one addition. Look at the reloads, not the pistol.

There are a lot of doom & gloomers when it comes to loading for the ,40s&w especially the Glock. Stay w/ plated or jacleted bullets, med. burning powders & off the max. pressures in your Glock & you will be fine. Many of the problems come from handloaders using fast powders & running them at max. pressures. There is ) room for error at this point. Variation in your pwoder charges, small bullet setback, worn out brass, bad things can happen.