200 gr. 45 ACP

[161]

I just bought a S&W 625. Never really had much to do with the ACP before. I'm just curious, it seems a lot of people shoot 200gr. What little I have shot one it's been with the 230gr. Is there and advantage to the 200s? I have the Lee TC230TL. I have about 500 200 SWC that I been shooting.

[Wally]

I shoot a Ruger .45 ACP Blackhawk---I find the 200 SWC is an excellent choice in it. I also have the lee 230 TC-TL and prefer a 200 SWC to it. The TC-TL casts heavy at 240 grains, so one uses more lead when shooting it. For target shooting or plinking the 200 SWC is just as good, IMHO.

[jmsj]

161,
I have been working on a 625 w/ an ultra dot for a guy. He wanted a trigger job and to get it to stop leading. The trigger job was easy, the leading issues were a little tougher. The throats were .4505" and the bore was .4515". The forcing cone was also a little rough. He did not want me to ream the throats out to .4525" so I just polished out the throats to .4515"
Once I got the throats and forcing cone polished out, I started looking more closely at his loads. He was using a H&G 68 commercial cast type bullet w/ a hard lube. His loads pushed at Bullseye match velocities and pulled bullets mic'ed out a .452". After shooting about 50 of these I noticed that they were still leading a little but less than before. I cleaned the gun and tried some of my 45 ACP loads. These are all Bullseye type match loads using Lyman's 452460, RCBS' 45-201-SWC and Lee's 452-200-RF, all using FWFL for lube. The Lyman and the RCBS shot groups of 2"-2 3/8" but the Lee shot groups that went into 1-1/8"-1-1/4". These groups were fired at 25 yards w/ wrists rested on bags but no front rest for the barrel. There was just a little of leading in the throat still.
These are what worked for this gun and might be the complete opposite in yours. I do know that the small throats, rough forcing cone and hard lube were the leading culprits.
Good luck, jmsj

[Guesser]

I cast the Lyman 452460 and the RCBS duplicate for use in 2 semi-autos and two revolvers in 45 auto and auto rim. It works very well in all. An added benefit is the lesser amount of alloy used, only 30 grains, but it adds up. I tried some lighter than 200 gr., they weren't as good performers as the 200.

[S.B.]

Depends. If you're shooting action matches with your Smith, then I personally would load the round nose 230s(easier loading with moon clips, where speed is important.), you can darn near throw these from your shoulder and get them into the chambers. If your shooting bullseye matches definately go with the 200 SWCs(better accuracy and the bullseye standard for decades.).
Steve

[Tatume]

I carry a Les Baer CCO loaded with 180 gr +P ammo, and shoot 200 gr cast at about 870 fps for practice. The recoil and point of impact are about the same. But in my S&W 625 I like 270 gr Keith bullets loaded to about 950 fps. This makes a nice woods combination.

[fredj338]

No real advantage other than cost & maybe a bit less recoil. I shoot 200gr most of the time. Even in my M625 w/ moon clips, a 200gr LTC loads as slick as a 230gr LRN & a slightly nicer hole on tatget.

[bobthenailer]

for the 45 acp in revolvers or semi auto my go to cast bullet is a copy of the HG68 200 gr swc ! even though i have other bullet moulds 170 gr swc, 215 swc and a 230 rn . the RN bullet speeds up reloads in matches with full moon clips .
For me when giving up nothing as far as performance or accuracy goes and useing 30 gr less lead per bullet adds up, 200 gr 35 per lb , 230 gr 30.4 per lb if you do alot of shooting it adds up fast

[35remington]

A big band, lighter weight SWC skids less in my own 45 ACP revolvers than a heavier bullet when cast of cheaper and more easily available wheelweights as opposed to something harder or heat treated.

The result is better accuracy with less work. The heavier bullets can shoot well, too, but with a more conscious approach being needed in my experience. But best accuracy of all, for me, is with one of the target weight SWC's. That is, 185 to 200 grains.

Blame the very shallow rifling and long jump through the cylinder for the skidding with heavy bullets. Sort of an idiosyncrasy of this ACP revolver type.

[Tatume]

My 270 gr Keith bullets (RCBS 45-270-SAA) in the S&W 625 are among the most accurate revolver bullets I've ever shot. I don't do anything special when I prepare the ammo. My results with the 255 gr SWC (Lyman 452424) are also outstanding. I attribute the excellent accuracy to the modest muzzle velocity.

[Michael J. Spangler]

i just got a 625-4 and love it.

all i've run through it (other than a few j bullets from a buddy's box) has been the .454200 HP from MP molds

i ran most of them so far with 4.5 grains of BE and they shoot like a dream. nice light loads and off hand standing at 10 yards you can put as many as you want through one hole.

i'm working up some more loads now with 231 to see what's more accurate and i'm going to step it out a little further.

i'm just messing with target stuff mostly so i stick to the 200s right now. light and fun. i do plan on casting some solids to see how they shoot side by side. as suggested above the heavies would be good for meeting PF in competition.

i have some 255 grainers and 270 grainers to mess with at the next range trip. i'll let you know how they shoot!

[MikeS]

jmsj: I'm kind of curious, if you took some of the store bought #68's you have there, and replaced the hard lube thats on them with FWFL how they would lead then? Or in other words, is the reduction in leading you're seeing due to the lube, or the boolit hardness, etc.

While I don't have a 625 anymore I do have a 22-4 which is the modern 'vintage' Model of 1950 that's chambered in 45ACP. I've found that the #68's are as easy to load as are any of the roundnose boolit designs, I've also loaded the 452423 & 454424 boolits, and they're slightly harder to load quickly. I also ran into some problems when I bought some off brand full moon clips from an eBay seller, they're not made right to spec, and when I use those clips I have to really push the loaded clips to get them to seat fully. When I use the moon clips that I had from back when I had a 625 they all load nice and smoothly. Maybe the clips I just bought will loosen up after I've used them a few times, but for now I keep them aside so I won't accidentally grab one if I need to reload quickly.

My 22-4 seems to like almost any boolit I put in it, from the 452389 on the light end to the #503-45 (Mihec's #503 clone made to drop .453 boolits that weigh 285gr) on the heavy end. I also shoot some 45 AutoRim cartridges out of it, and I usually only load those with fairly heavy for caliber (such as the 503-45 or 454424) boolits, or any other load that I want to make sure doesn't get loaded into my 1911.

Finally to answer the OP's question, I don't really think there's any advantage to shooting 200gr boolits rather than 230gr ones, unless saving 30gr of lead per boolit means something to you. Personally I don't really think the 'savings' really adds up to much.

[S.B.]

I'd say hardness before lube problem? I personally think,too much is made of lubes, and not enough on alloys used.
Steve