I've been reloading the 10mm Auto for my 14" Contender barrel. My preferred bullet is the 180 gr. XTP and I'm currently loading it with Blue Dot (BD).

I've been reading some of the posts on the forum and following links to a certain excellent site and see that I'm not getting the results that I ought to expect.

First, I've tried various bullets. Those I had the best accuracy results with (other than the preferred 180 gr. XTP) were the 155 gr. Hornady XTP and the 180 gr. BullX (sadly departed) TC cast. I also tried various powders including BD, Unique, and 2400. In other words a wide range of powders (although the AA powders are very hard to come by around here). BD seems to be the best powder for accuracy and velocity.

Combining BD and the 180 XTP I worked up to the Hogdon's Annual Manual max of 10.4 gr. of BD. Velocity from my 14" barrel was only 1270 some fps. Factory loads from Remington, PMC, Federal (Hydro Shock), and Hornady did no better. Of course the Hornady factory 155 gr. XTP loading was an exception and produced about 1450 fps. One notably surprising thing is that the BullX 180 gr. cast went 1458 fps (or so, I don't have my records here at work) over 10 gr. of BD. Now, I expect jacketed bullets to be a bit slower, but 200 fps?

Reading posts here and there and some associated files, I see that this performance is generally what can be expected from 5" barrels. That's kinda disappointing but not really.

My goal was to load the XTP to .38-40 rifle velocities, or about 1350 fps and I'm only about 80-100 fps too slow.

Does anyone have any suggestions?