45ACP Cast Load

[Char-Gar]

And while we're at; There is just no good reason to hot rod the 45 ACP.

I shot the 45 ACP in 1911's, SIG 220's and some other pistols for years and then drifted away from that cartridge while pursuing other endeavors. Most of that shooting was with the 230 grain bullet weight.
I recently returned to playing with the 45 ACP and was instantly reminded that it is a great cartridge. On this recent journey I decided to go with the 200 grain SWC (H&G 68 style bullet). Both bullet weights (230 & 200) perform very well in the 1911.
While you can push a 45ACP pretty hard, there's just not much to be gained doing so. Why beat up the pistol to get a few more fps?

About 1963, I decided to hot rod my Remington-Rand with some loads recommened by Jeff Cooper. The bullets were 200 grain cast really whistling down range with a mega dose of Unique. All was good until about the 10th round, when the firing pin stop hit the ground followed by the fireing pin and spring. It took some time crawling around in the West Texas dirt to find all the parts. After a good cleaning and reassembly, the pistol worked just fine for several more years with normal pressure loads.

I have been cured of hot roding a 1911 pistol since that day.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Char-Gar - EEK!

NOT what you'd want to happen during a self-defense situation, even WITH a backup pistol...

Used mostly near Max loads of Unique back in the day, burns a bit dirty but works reliably, with Cast (fairly hard) 230 Gr. LRN boolets mostly, now I want to try some LFP's so am working towards that. Liked the J-Word (Speer?) JFP's back then but Cast is great in this caliber.

I'd also put Wolff pack recoil springs in mine & a recoil buffer, longer frame life = less $$ spent on maintenance = a good thing. Didn't hot rod them but that last round has more slide movement due to no drag from the top round in the magazine, so those seem to help; Can see that the recoil buffer gets hit somewhat. Was mainly wanting absoute reliability, with good power & accuracy next.

[Petrol & Powder]

A 45 ACP cartridge that produces a velocity of roughly 850 fps with a 230 grain projectile will do a lot. I don't know what pushing it faster will accomplish.

[tazman]

I guess it would depend on what you were planning on shooting with the load. I can see where someone could want more power but could not afford another pistol/cartridge combination.
I wouldn't want to feed my 1911 a steady diet of the higher power stuff though.

[35remington]

People tend to go on and on about how they plan to save the frame with this or that addition to cushion it.

Unfortunately, the sharply angled corners of the slide near the breechface are stress risers for cracks as well, and the hotter the load the harder the slam the breechface takes. Nothing you do can lessen this force save not leaning on the throttle.

I tend to agree that little benefit is obtained from exceeding 850/230. The extant hollowpoints perform well at that speed and hard cast or ball penetrates well.

A gun run in its intended operating range tends to not only be more reliable, but runs reliably for a longer period before something breaks. A lot of this is intuitively evident but reminders have to be issued frequently sometimes.

[Lefty SRH]

My 220-230gr cast RN 45ACP load has been 3.8gr of CLAYS. Many many round have been shot with this load. Its very accurate and very clean in both my 625JM and my Kimber 1911.

[ericandelaine1975]

Maybe this will help.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[ericandelaine1975]

I would not use 10gr of blue dot. Its to much over the max load.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[ericandelaine1975]

Maybe this will help.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

This is from the Lyman casting book 4th edition. Sorry I forgot to tell that part.

Sent from my SM-P905V using Tapatalk

[WRideout]

In my experience, Blue Dot used in low pressure loads leaves a lot of unburned powder behind when fired. It seems to like a significant amount of pressure to burn completely. As in a hot magnum load.

Wayne

[Larry Gibson]

I conducted this test today using 235 gr TC bullet cast in a new (to me) Lee 6 cavity mould I acquired last month or so. The bullets were AC'd and "aged" 10 days before sizing or loading. Pressure was measured via Oehler M43 using the Contender barrel. Accuracy was excellent, as expected in all the firearms. The 50 yard ten shot group from the M98 (Rhineland conversion kit) measured 1 1/2". This load works for me.

45 ACP Lee 45-230-TC 5 gr Bullseye

Soft alloy (BHN 9-10), sized .452, BAC lube, 235 gr fully dressed, OAL; 1.199”, mixed cases, WLP primers, loaded on Dillon SDB. Oehler M35P with start screen at 10’ (2’ screen spacing). 65 degrees, 25% humidity. 10 shot tests.

Firearm Barrel Length FPS SD/ES PSI (M43)

Combat Cmdr 4 ¼” 849 12/38

Para 14 5” 891 6/18

Series 70 5 ½” 894 12/39

Contender 10” 976 13/46 16,700

M98 16 ¼” 1025 18/67



Uberti ER SAA 4 ¾” [ 6 3/8”] 866 10/30

M1917/25 6 3/8” [8 1/8”] 877 15/48

[Airman Basic]

Back in the 70s, maybe early 80s, I bought a Gold Cup. I was not overly careful back then so developed a load using data from different gun mags. Your 10 grains of Blue Dot and a 250 grain Keith SWC. I know, crazy. Didn't use many of them. Kicked too hard. But it was a deer killing dude, as far as I could shoot it. Must not have hurt the 1911 too much. Still have it.

[LAH]

Thanks Larry. I used that charge for years with the FMJ. It's a great load & used by the government I'm told.

[Loudenboomer]

I've got a 70 series gold cup with an early Clark comp left over from playing IPSC games in the 1980's. It has digested many thousand 5gr. bullseye loads. Most were the HG 68 200 gr. I used the same charge with the Lyman 225 gr. (My Alloy was 211 gr)

I did switch to Winchester Super Lite powder. It seemed to have the lowest felt recoil of any .45 powder I tried. It was discontinued about the time I quit playing the IPSC game.

[Plate plinker]

Bullseye for the 45ACP pick your own charge. Bullseye recipes abound for the 45ACP.

[milltownhunter]

I have used 9.0 gr of blue dot with cast and jacket 225 230 gr for year out of 5 colt gold cups and 2 officers I also use data In 5'' and 3'' s&w revolver very good groups under 1 1/2'' at 25 yards complete powder burn also works good with 147 gr 9mm have killed deer out to 95 yards with xtp 230 gr

[bigboredad]

A lot of assumptions in the answers due mostly to the limited info provided by the op. My feeling is if you want/need the power of that load for what ever and it's safe in your gun proceed on. A highly respected individual on this board has run that load for years with zero problems. He has just recently started downloading all his loads only because he turned 60. I have shot that load is not what I want but since when does what I want or anyone else on here have anything to do with your needs or wants.

Sent from my SM-T377V using Tapatalk

[bob208]

my 1911's and 1917 s &w wheel guns have been eating the lee 228 round nose with 6.2 gr. unique for years without a problem. I have about 1000 rounds loaded and in ammo cans.