My experience is that the 40 is easy to load. I've loaded and fired many thousands of 40 S&Ws for a wide assortment of Glock and Ruger .40-cal. semi-autos... and I've not had a problem with 'bulged' brass at all.
Also, my handloads have functioned interchangeably in Glock & Ruger firearms. (I confess, I've never been around a 1911 in 40-cal or 10mm... so I can't shed any light on loading the short-40 or the 10mm for that grand platform).
My preferred powders have been Blue Dot, WW231, and more recently, Titegroup. Loads are near-max. as listed in Hodgdon, Speer and Hornady manuals, as well as on-line listings from Alliant, Hodgdon and Winchester.
I seem to prefer the mid-weight bullets, although I experimented some with the light-weight Nosler 40-cal. 150 -- 170 gr. weight bullets are my preference. The 165gr Rem. sabre bullet is a favorite, plus I fired many thousands of cast TC bullets in several different Glocks... (Yes, I'm cheap, and I'd rather shoot more and spend less, so I find shooting cast bullets very appealing).
But please don't tell Glock, they think these cast-bullet loads won't work in their products, and I wouldn't want to alarm them. (With cast bullets, you do have to clean the chamber periodically, but the Glock rifling handles cast bullet loads VERY well, thank you).
--CC
[This message has been edited by Capt_C (edited 11-16-2001).]