Hottest .45ACP ball ammo?

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

OK. Just to further confuse things, the MFS page in Hungary has some different velocities too.

11.7 gram .45 ACP FMJ (+P?): 310 meters/sec = 1017 feet/sec
14.9 gram .45 ACP FMJ (Match?): 260 meters/sec = 853 feet/sec

The energy calculations on that page look OK (except for maybe some roundoff errors.)

- pdmoderator

 

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Update: Acquired some of the MFS .45ACP +P and ran it through Der Heckler last weekend.

Clean burning.

Grouped about fist-sized at 25 feet from a Weaver stance. Perfectly adequate.

Powerful recoil. Reminds me of .357 magnum.


- pdmoderator

 

[RugerOldArmy]

Out of curiousity, I checked reloading data (Speer, Hornady, Lyman). A few non +P .45 Auto loads get into the 900's. A number of them w/Alliant powders.


Alliant . 45 230Gr FMC loads

I found Alliant's +P loads strange in comparison. It looked like, from the standard loads, Green Dot would get up there with lower pressures, but they chose power pistol for the +P load.

Alliant .45 230Gr FMC +P loads

Although I know of no good/safe/authorative source for +P loads, it looks like Green Dot might make a serious 230 FMJ load. I've tried some of the Power Pistol and Blue Dot loads (near max), and they get your attention. Dunno if I'd recommend pursuing such a thing. .45 Auto doesn't have the same design goal/intent as .454 Casull

 

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Well, the Alliant +P load does get the pressure up...

Wonder how much velocity you could get safely with 22K PSI or less?

- pdmoderator

 

[RugerOldArmy]

That was my point. 920 fps w/Green Dot at only 15,800. I wonder if it has something to do with the OAL that they specified. Power Pistol does seem to do very well in Speer w/a longer OAL...

Interesting...but I'm more than happy with 850-875fps w/230 FMJ. If you really want the power, there's .460 Rowland

 

[Daniel L]

Is it recommended to use hot ammo in order to break in a new handgun?

 

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Not AFAIK.

My reasons for looking for hot ball ammo are explained above.

- pdmoderator

 

[Gunnutz13]

Hot 45 ammo

Cor-Bon used to make a hot 45 acp that surpassed the 1,000fps mark, but it was pushing something lighter than 230..maybe 185 grain, so I guess it's a mute point if the criteria is heavy metal.
Anybody still have any Winchester Black Talons' laying around...that's my carry round for self defense. And before this gets a life of its own...Winchester voluntarily pulled this stuff from the market after the Long Island train shooting...it's still legal to own and carry...though it could be a liability in a self-defense shooting court case.

 

[Black Snowman]

For ease of comparison and to avoid math errors feel free to use my spreadsheet and plug in your own bullet weights and velocities:

Muzzle Endery and Momentum spreadsheet

 

[saltydog452]

'fast' 45 ACP ball.

Maybe someone can help iron out the kinks in my memory, but I seem to remember about 20-30 years ago there was some concern that the Govt. mandated ball and FMJ ammunition issued to security forces at nuclear and other sensitive installations would over penetrate.

Some tests were run with jacketed ammunition where the lead core was replaced with epoxy. If I remember right, 45 ACP 'ball' bullets weighed in at just a tad over 100 grains, moved at about 1700 fps, and was severly limited in its penetration capabilities.

I don't remember anything about 9X19 or 223 being tested and what little I recall about the 45 ACP is 'fuzzy' at best. I suspect that reliability would have been a problem.

salty.