Heavy 45 ACP boolit loads

[bigted]

Not exactly lookin for HEAVY LOADS here. Just cast and PC'd some Lee 255 grain boolits for my Colt SAA and decided to size some to .451 and try to develope some loads with them.

Began with ??? Grains Bullseye but wondered if anyone here has loaded these heavy's and if so, what was your experience and loads? I do not want to batter my 1911 but if they are accurate, I believe they should carry nough punch for western Oregon black tail deer.

[Tracy]

I have, with Bullseye and 2400. Also WC820 in guns that are set up for .45 Super level loads. The Lee 255RF works well, and so does the Lyman 454424/452424 Keith bullet.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Shoot me a PM with your email address and I’ll send over 2 articles in heavy bullets for 45 ACP for use in revolvers. Also autoloaders if your gun is set up for it.

[megasupermagnum]

I loaded the Lee 255 grain SWC with 8.5 grains of bluedot. I don't believe it is a max load, but is all I feel should be shot in an aluminum frame semi-auto. I remember about 850 fps from that combo in a 4" barrel, and would have no hesitation using it on deer, especially cast nice and soft.

[Outpost75]

4 grains of Bullseye, TiteGroup, WST, 452AA with 250-grain Remington .45 Colt conical seated to 1.25" OAL.

[jcren]

Miss placed the load data, but worked up a hog load with that bullet for my hi-point carbine that chronoed 950 (subsonic and mild) using CFE pistol that is extremely accurate in my 1911 and surprisingly mild. Haven't chronoed it in the pistol, but it blew the 3 inch target off my old pistol spinner. CFE pistol has become my favorite powder for heavy loads, good velocity and a mild recoil pulse and report.

[littlejack]

Speer #12 manual has a load for their (discontinued) 260 jacketed hp. A few years ago, I was experimenting with heavies in my Taurus PT1911. I substituted the Speer jacketed in their book, with the Lee 255 grain rnfp. One of the positive aspects of the Lee boolit, is that it is .080 shorter than the Speer 260 jhp. So, holding the same COL, made for more free space under the boolit. I used the Herco powder data in the book, and the load worked perfectly fine.
All the best.

[DougGuy]

I used the K style 255gr LSWC on bowling pins, sheesh a good center hit would lift the pin and THROW it about 6' behind the table. I used 700x but cannot remember the exact charge but it worked well in a magnaported 1911 on a Para frame. It did have some serious recoil for a 45 ACP.. You knew you had a handful, no pressure signs or split cases so I guess it was good to go.

The full 13rds in the Para weighed the gun down and the magnaports helped a lot keeping the front sight on the pins.

[bigted]

So I took my 45 out today with the heavy 255's loaded ahead of 4 grains bullseye. The Lee 255's were PC'd Ford light blue powder. They shot well ... maybe a little heavy but doable just the same.

Somebody mentioned Very Soft boolits and I think this would be the ticket ... PC'd soft lead would expand great and leave no lead in the barrel.

I will need to chrono these. I only loaded 10 of them just to get a feel for what they are all about.

[35 Whelen]

I personally wouldn't use a fast burning powder such as B'Eye with heavier than standard bullets unless you're just shooting really light loads.

30 or so years ago I read an article in one of the annual 45 Auto magazines in which they tested heavy loads; as in 250-300 grs. I took a load from there that consisted of a stiff charge of Blue Dot under a commercial 255 gr. Keith type SWC. I don't remember the charge (and I'm not going to walk out to the shop in my skivvies), but the load chronographed at around 950 fps from my old Colt Series 70 and was very accurate, with one 100 group going 7".

Good luck,

35W

[bigted]

35W, that 7 inch group ... at 100 yds or 100 rounds? Woww I cant imagine 300 grain boolits in a auto. Those at 900ish fps would be very potent on deer I would imagine ... specially if a 100 yard group even a 7 inch group would be in there. Interesting.

Do you remember how hard your 255's were on your 1911?

[yeahbub]

I experimented with the Lee 255gr RNFP with a snoot-full of 2400 and also Lil Gun. I don't recall the max charge weights I stopped at, but I continued increasing until the primers looked like factory ammo. The 1911 I tried this in has enough slide travel to allow the use of 2 shock buffs plus a steel washer to distribute the load evenly, so there wasn't any frame/slide hammering. I didn't chrono them, but they were slamming out there with impressive power and they were easy to hit with. Someday, I'll have to print them on paper and get some velocity numbers.

Some years ago, I experimented with Blue Dot under the Hornady 200gr XTP. IIRC, the load I finished out at was 11.5gr and I got right at 1200fps with no signs of excessive pressure in a 5". I wanted a cast load for practice, but once again the cautions about working up carefully when substituting components applied. It's not safe to just substitute cast for jacketed. I was getting pretty flat primers well short of that charge when shooting the Lee 452-200-TL. I attributed this to obturation and drag in getting the boolit moving, but the possibility of reduced case volume may also play a part. YMMV.

[35 Whelen]

35W, that 7 inch group ... at 100 yds or 100 rounds? Woww I cant imagine 300 grain boolits in a auto. Those at 900ish fps would be very potent on deer I would imagine ... specially if a 100 yard group even a 7 inch group would be in there. Interesting.

Do you remember how hard your 255's were on your 1911?

I checked my old load log and it was 8.6 grs. of Blue Dot and the commercial 255 gr. SWC, and these were hard bullets, I'd guess 22 Bhn. I chronographed the load on two seperate occasions and got 971 fps and 978 fps. This is not a +P load, so I figure the high velocity was due to the amount of bullet in the case. I remember it being the design with a fairly short nose.

35W

[35remington]

If you are getting 880 fps with a 255 grain bullet that is noted as being rather deeply seated in the case, the safe bet is to figure it is Plus P in actual generated pressure.

[35 Whelen]

If you are getting 880 fps with a 255 grain bullet that is noted as being rather deeply seated in the case, the safe bet is to figure it is Plus P in actual generated pressure.

Probably so, AND I had a typo in my post. The actual velocities were 971 and 978 fps, definitely in the +P range. But on the other hand, Buffalo Bore's 45 ACP +P load of a 255 gr. hard cast bullet ran 960 fps in a Colt Gold Cup, very comparable to my load fired from my Colt. Even more interesting, at least to me, is Buffalo Bore's 45 Auto Rim 255 gr. load runs over 1,000 fps MV. The last few months I've been shooting a couple of 1917 S&W's with ACP and AR loads. A couple of nights ago I compared the water capacity of Starline 45 AR brass to various 45 ACP brass and they're practically identical, within a grain or so of each other. This would indicate that either BB's ACP +P load is possibly less than +P or their AR load is maybe closer to +P+.

This evening I tested a few loads in one of my 1917's, all with Blue Dot. 8.5 grs. under a 454424 255 gr. SWC ran 827 fps and 9.0 grs. ran 928 fps. Just for grins I loaded 8.5 grs. under a 286 gr. SWC from a 45-270SA mold, velocity was 867 fps and this load was very accurate at 25 yds.

FWIW, Alliant has listed in one of their reloading guides 8.3 grs. of Blue Dot under a 260 gr. JHP (Presumably a Speer) as a 19,000 psi load, i.e. non-+P, and slightly under SAAMI's maximum "standard" pressure of 21,000 psi.

Brain Pearce published some 45 ACP data in which he loaded Sierra 240 gr. JHC with charges of Blue Dot running from 8.7 to 9.3 grs.

So the Blue Dot loads here aren't at all out of line.

35W

[Harter66]

I've run 5.5 gr Unique under 454424 and 452-255s as well in S&W and Colts 1917s with no ill results . These do run right at 900 fps with the very old Hercules flavor .
They also work well in a High Point carbine when loaded to just clear in the mags .

I also started with the Speer #12 260 gr data .

[35remington]

Just as a sensible recommendation, I would not suggest running 255 grain bullets in an 1911 auto loader at 975 fps in any amount, and would really back the idea of knocking 100 fps off that speed for even occasional use. 975 with a 255 likely exceeds Plus P spec.

No free lunch in the safe way to bet and the gun will thank you. Reliability also suffers when the gun is overdriven, with inertial related malfunctions increasing in likelihood. Energy forward is slide momentum and velocity backward, not a good thing. A critical component to 1911 reliability is not overdriving it.