This year Indiana opened up calibers for deer hunting and one of the additions was 40 S&W. I'm looking at using a glock 24 just wondering if anyone has hunted with the 40 and what loads they recommend. I plan on keep shots under 40 yards just in case.

This past year I used my G22/LWD barrel/custom comp. on a doe.
Load was from Hodgdon manual from a few years ago, they have since reduced this load and SHOULD BE WORKED UP TO IN EACH GUN!

155 gr XTP using Longshot powder, load is listed for 1329 fps from 4" barrel, from my guns 5.03" comped barrel I was getting 1445fps/718 lb. 10 ft from muzzle

The 22 I used is a Gen 2 , this load would not be safe in factory barrel as the older Glock 40's didn't have very good case support! They changed this on newer models.
My Gen 4 does fine with this load , I use stronger recoil springs
to help protect frame.

The shot was 34 yds quartering towards me, she was flipped over backwards on impact, regained her feet and flipped n flopped maybe 20 yards and was done.
Bullet penetrated 16-18 inches breaking 3 ribs with massive internal damage and exited.
I have shot deer with 44 Mag. that went further on comparable shots.

With proper loads/bullets it will work great as long as bullet is put in the right place!

If you don't reload Underwood or Buffalo Bore was loading the XTP's in 40.

I am currently working on a 22 turning it into a 24. The 6" barrel is allowing it to get right at 10mm power. Early on it didn't look like 189grs were expanding reliably. What I have discovered is the 6" barrel is allowing it to get enough velocity to expand them. I am using a fully supported storm lake barrel so handloads aren't an issue. The 155 xtp will break 1300fps from the 6" tube so I am leaning that way.

I am going to try and take a deer or pig this fall with a 9" LWD barreled .40 S&W and 155 or 180gr HST.

When the .40 came out I did extensive testing of bullets.
The bullets that took 2-4 hits to bring one down were: 155 XTP, 180 XTP, 180 Gold Dot, 170 lead.
The only bullet that was 80% one shooters was the Sierra 165 gr. JHC. 20 % took 2 shots. Shots were out to 60 yards.

My test size was about 20 deer. I get a lot of deer permit/kills- about 100/year.

Has anyone tried a 357 sig? Will it do the job on deer and wild pigs?

Do you know what velocities were on those loads?

No. I used 0.2 gr. Unique below max with each bullet weight. No primer problems, no excessive ejection velocity.
Have used the 165 JHC 100% for all the years the .40 has been out after my testing. Saw no need to test anything else since it worked so well.

The 165 Sierra is definitely the best 40/10 bullet. Taken a pile of hogs with it.

As an Indiana Hunter Education Instructor I need to recommend factory .40 S&W and 10mm Automatic deer loads to the students. All of the hunters with whom I have spoken will be using Glocks with factory i.e. unsupported barrels. Any help would be appreciated. I rarely encounter reloaders among the students.

I have tested a bunch of factory loads that are suitable with the unsupported barrel. Surprisingly the Hornady Critical Defense load penetrated the ballistic buffalo quite well and expansion at 25 yards was very good. It is also very accurate. it out penetrated the XTP 155 and 180 and the Gold Dot 165 and 180. When I had the scope on the gun it shot under an inch at 25 yards from the storm lake barrel and right at 1" from the factory barrel. Velocity was right on the money. We chronied 1178fps.

http://www.hornady.com/store/40-s-and-w-165-gr-critical-defense

I would imagine so. I've dropped them straight down while bow hunting in MS with G19s shooting 127 +P+ Rangers on several occasions.

The reason I ask is I have a model 35 that I could easily drop a 357 sig barrel in. I've been told the 357 sig has more knockdown than the 40 s&w.

I'm not so sure. I've used .357 Sig with Gold Dots on deer. Got every one I shot, but most took 2-3 shots at close range.
With my drop in .40 barrel in my Sig and the 165 Sierra JHC darn near every deer has been a one shooter.

Here are some .40 bullets from shooting the ballistic buffalo

Barnes tac 140, 165 Gold Dot, 165 critical defense and 180gr Winchester

When I started loading for the .40 I could tell you just couldn't do much velocity wise with the 180 grain bullets. They are maxed out quick, kinda similar to a 147 grain in a 9mm. BUT, with the lighter bullets, the 155 and 165 have a lot of potential. I can almost get "factory loaded" 158 grain .357 velocity out of 155 .40's Pretty good. Good luck to you on your hunting with the .40 S&W!
If your a reloader get yourself a Blackhawk 5 1/2" .45 colt and be done with it

The .40 with the 6" barrel will break 1400fps with 155grs and 1350 with 165grs.

I've loaded up quite a few warm .40's and from a 6" barrel it's very capable no doubt. I've ran 180gr XTP's as fast as 1400 fps and 200gr as fast as 1300 fps (both JHP and WFNGC Beartooth). If that doesn't work for deer then there's something wrong!

However, that said I think the achilles hill of either warm .40 or warm 10mm is the bullets, that even the tougher ones (XTP and Gold Dot) are usually showing signs of fatigue and failure before you hit max velocity. Sometimes it's fun to max something out to see what it can do, but in this case backing a litte off max velocity might help out as it would cause the bullet to hold together better which in turn increases penetration.

One load I worked up that I like is 8.5gr of Longshot (8.0gr was max for years, worked up to 9gr in stock Glock bbl) under a 180gr XTP that from a bone stock Glock 23 runs right around 1200 fps and I've found it very accurate. It's powerful, not too fast for the bullet and the G23 is super easy to carry.

Someone mentioned 357 SIG, I took to loading it with actual .357" XTP bullets and from a 6" can run a 158gr XTP to 1450 fps and a 140gr XTP to 1550 fps.

I loaded for the 10mm for years but got out of it because the velocity you can get from a warm .40 isn't much different and the 40 eats less powder and costs less overall.

Sierra's website doesn't label any of their .400" bullets "JHC" now. Is that the same as their 8445 stock code?

Any idea why that bullet was superior?

I have an EAA Hunter (10 mm, 6" barrel), which so far I have used only on paper. When I want "better than plated" ammo I shoot Noslers, usually 200 gr JHP with 8.5 gr Blue Dot at 1075 fps. These shoot pretty well (2" 5-shot groups at 25 yards off a rest) but I haven't seen a lot of reports of using Nosler pistol bullets on game. I'm interested in alternatives if I get a chance to hunt with it.