Anything special about reloading Berry's 185gr. HBRN in .45acp?

[Dave R]

I like these Berry's .45acp. 185gr. HBRN. But I worry that the hollow base increases case volume enough that the powder charge may need to be changed to account for that.

I have just used regular 185gr. load data to date, and no problems to date. But I figured it wouldn't hurt to check the combined wisdom of THR reloaders.

If anything, a 'normal' powder charge for a 185gr. .45acp would be a little lighter with this bullet because of the additional case volume, right?

 

[ReloaderFred]

I've fired literally thousands of the Berry's 185 grain Hollow Base Round Nose bullets. In fact, I received my most recent order from Berry's today, and it included 6,000 of the .45, 185 grain HBRN bullets.

I've used several different loads with this bullet, including Winchester 231, Green Dot and True Blue. I haven't done anything special in loading it, and have had excellent accuracy and functioning in my 1911's, Witnesses and Springfield XD. I couldn't ask for more in a bullet for practice.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[grendelbane]

This is a good question. I have not got around to any actual test firing, because of the winter weather. However, looking at Quickload leads me to believe that it will take some where in the neighborhood of an extra .3 grains of WW 231 to produce the same velocity in a moderate load as compared to a more conventional 185 grain load.

I intend to load some and see if this is the case. I can't test for pressure, but I can see how they do over the chronograph.

It will be interesting to see if Quickloads calculations come close or not.

 

[Walkalong]

When I played around with it I found it took around .1 to .3 grains more of any given powder, depending on burn rate. They shoot quite well and, of course, feed very well because of their shape.

 

[345 DeSoto]

Any actual numbers on the charge weight/powder preference for this particular bullet?. Any adjustments for a 16 1/12" barrel?..

 

[Walkalong]

If I was loading exclusively for a 16 1/2" barrel, I would use slower powders such as AA #5, True Blue, Blue Dot, etc, versus say W-231, Red Dot, AA #2, etc. Other than that, just follow your load books data, or use online data from the powder maker.

You won't get a great deal more velocity doing this, but a little, if velocity is what you are looking for.

Try starting at 75% of jacketed data and work up slowly.