Heavy 45acp

Might run into some feeding problems in a semi-auto. If you're thinking revolver, I look forward to hearing how it worked out!

Expect a huge POI change you may not be pleased with.

For self defense loads? I would prefer light or mid weight for caliber. Mid weight has proven extremely effective in many calibers. For the woods I would still not go heavier than 230 gr. but that’s just me. From everything I’ve tested and researched, I don’t like slow bullets.

I handload a 265 grain lead semi-wadcutter that works fine in my glock 30 and my goldcup 1911. you may want to spend some money on these and see how they work: https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=161

luck,

murf

I've used 240 gr. Sierra JHCs, but nothing heavier. There's not a lot of case capacity as it is

Antihero said:

I saw that, and am planning on picking some up. 265gr is a 45colt bullet I'm guessing? Part of this idea is because I've got 300gr 45colt bullets hanging around somewhere

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yes, that is my small bullet load in my 45 cal. blackhawk. that bullet works in an autoloader, but the c.o.l. has to be just right. there are heavy bullet articles out there for the 300 grain bullet in a 45acp. it works, but not very well, imo (too much bullet in too small a case).

luck,

murf

Going to be a deep seated bullet. How deep, how much reduced powder capacity. Heavier bullet, lighter powder charge, lighter bullet heavier powder charge. Lot of questions. Perhaps a Powley Load calculator.

Load to the depth needed and use .45 Super Pressure (28,000 psi) to try to make it work. Still be well below .38 Super +P (36,500 psi) pressure. Might need to play with some spring rates.

Disclaimer: That assumes your platform will take it.

All these rounds share similar SD's:
- 9mm/ 147 gr. (0.167)
- .40/ 180 gr. (0.161)
- .45/ 230 gr. (0.162)

Nosler - makes a 0.451" 250 gr. JHP (0.176), similar to the .357/ 158 gr. (0.177), that would be interesting - if it fed well and you could push it to ~ 900+ fps from a 5" Bbl.





GR

In 45 Super I've ran up to 300gr using a Gen4 Glock 21 and a KKM 4 port comp (with some slight barrel work to get the throat extended to reliably accept revolver style .452" bullets). No reason you couldn't in a 45 ACP. Hunters Supply makes a 275gr that has a good profile that would work in any .45 ACP gun, and I suspect that with Power Pistol, Longshot or 800X that you could run that 275gr @ 1000 fps pretty easily. I ran the 300gr at about 1150 fps from the 5" KKM comped barrel.

I carry Buffalo Bore 45s in my S&W 45 Shield when we hike in the mountains of New England.
-mike

Rod47 said:

Expect a huge POI change you may not be pleased with.

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Let's face it, 5.3 grains of powder is only going to push 300 grains so far, even if the round does feed properly.

SDGlock23 said:

In 45 Super I've ran up to 300gr using a Gen4 Glock 21 and a KKM 4 port comp (with some slight barrel work to get the throat extended to reliably accept revolver style .452" bullets). No reason you couldn't in a 45 ACP. Hunters Supply makes a 275gr that has a good profile that would work in any .45 ACP gun, and I suspect that with Power Pistol, Longshot or 800X that you could run that 275gr @ 1000 fps pretty easily. I ran the 300gr at about 1150 fps from the 5" KKM comped barrel.

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that is more like .460 rowland pressures (40,000 psi). be careful with this one.

murf

I loaded up some 250s about 10 years ago, found the recoil to be unnecessary rough.
Surprising difference between 230 and 250gr.

Antihero said:

Very heavy 45acp loads, say....300gr. thoughts?

Not looking at making it a mini magnum, just taking the heavy and slow method and going one further. I do remember someone was loading a heavy 45acp, but I'm assuming this is gonna be a reloading thing

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What are you trying to accomplish? What are you trying to accomplish that you can't accomplish with a 230gr? What specific handgun are you developing this load for? What is your definition of successful in this venture?

If you just want to shoot 300gr bullets from a 45 auto as and educational excersize then start with a sub minimum load for a 230 and seat the 300 deep enough so it feeds by manually working the action. If it were me I would use heavy .45acp brass like cut down .460 Rowland or 45 super and start with an even lower load to compensate for the even smaller case volume. Or make your own heavy brass from .308. I would also make sure I was using a fully supported barrel.

I believe .45 acp and .45 lc both use .452" jacketed bullets so you should be OK with a standard .45 acp barrel. BUT I would mic your heavier bullet to be POSITIVE they are not bigger in diameter than .452"! I believe lead .45 lc bullets are .454"... I would definitely stay away from lead bullets for expermenting and stick with jacketed bullets.

Above all go slow and be careful. Just because a hand gun will shoot a single round without exploding doesn't mean it will shoot the next dozen without exploding. Have a wooden dowel with the depth of a properly chambered round marked. Check the barrel between EVERY round with the dowel to make sure you don't have a squib stuck in the barrel. Just because a load is safe in one pistol doesn't mean it will be safe in a different pistol. I don't know of anyway you could declare any 300gr .45acp load "safe"... the best you could do is declare that the pistol hasn't blown up "YET!" If you get any barrel bulges I would throw the pistol away.

I have never used any but I believe there is ballistics software that will estimate chamber pressure from your load data... accurate powder volume of the case with a seated bullet will be necessary for such software to be useful. Determine your bullet seating depth. Cut a case down to reflect only the powder volume remaining with the seated bullet. Fill the cut down case with table salt leveled off. Dump 50 of these into a graduated cylinder to calculate powder volume (water isn't so great because of the meniscus... I.e. surface tension). Due to the reduced powder volume from the long heavy bullet and heavy brass I would experiment with very slow powder. Maybe H110?????... just a wag.

My guess is that if you work up a 300gr load to just cycle the action it shouldn't be too hard on the pistol. If you want to go beyond just cycling to a decent power level you will probably want to use a heavier recoil spring. I would also use a poly recoil buffer and inspect it for signs of damage.

I would want to have a conograph for testing the loads. A large deviation in velocity for a given load would concern me. Calculate the power of your load and compare it to a standard .230gr .45 acp round as a sanity check.

For experimenting like this I would want to be able to load where I am test shooting. Load 5 rounds with minimal powder. Fire them off checking for squibs between EVERY round. Evaluate the 5 cases and primers, if the action cycles, the velocity and calculate the power then load 5 more a bit hotter if the previous results warrant doing so. Loading several rounds over a range of powder weight and taking them out to the range usually doesn't work very well for me. ONLY CHANGE 1 VARIABLE AT A TIME! ...don't increase the powder charge and change the seating length at the same time... even if you seat the bullet to a longer OAL. If you do shorten the OAL then reduce the powder charge and work the load back up.

Be very careful:
1) Top end eye protection
2) Maybe a face shield in addition to the eye protection
3) Full hand shooting glove made out of a strong material like kevlar (Amazon $10)
4) Long sleeve leather coat or leather welding sleeve or Kevlar sleeve
5) etc.
Be very methodical, keep notes on every round fired! ...and let us know what you find? If we don't hear back from you we will assume that a 300gr bullet in a .45acp case is a bad idea!

in an autoloader, you can also use case ejection distance to get an idea of pressures (comparing an unknown load to a known load).

luck,

murf