S&W 625 JM & +P rounds?

Status
Not open for further replies.

jski

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Messages
2,283
Location
Florida
Is the Smith & Wesson Model 625 JM good to go with 45ACP +P rounds?

Smith’s website has:
SPECIFICATIONS
SKU: 160936
Model: Model 625 JM
Caliber: 45 ACP
Capacity: 6
Barrel Length: 4.13" / 10.5 cm
...
 
S&W has stated that the 625 will fire .45 Super rounds with no problems. I have been doing it for years. I shot 260 gr. heavy loads for pin matches. So did a lot of other guys. Shoot all the +P you can buy. But really though, +P is nothing but marketing crap for the ammo makers. Standard .45 ACP rounds are more than adequate to kill anything I have seen in North America. +P loads are kind of like putting 92 oct. Premium gasoline in a car that's rated for 87 oct.
 
Last edited:
A great deal of time and tax dollars were spent on developing and choosing the .45 ACP through testing at the Chicago stockyards. Many cows were shot in tests because one of the main Ordnance Board's design objectives required a round that would drop a horse from under an enemy cavalry troop. Not the enemy soldier - his horse. My opinion is that if you really need more cowbell than a .45 ACP then you need a shotgun.
 
I don't know if my loads are +P but the bullets are 260 grain and the powder moves them out right smartly and they take pins off the table like a setting maul. Shot one through a 160 pound whitetail, including one front shoulder. Ten years of shooting nothing else and mine is still tight.
Answer, yes.
 
The S&W 625 is the ultimate pin gun. The first time I shot plates with a heavy bullet load the pin would do a one and a half off the back side of the table. Instant feedback.
 
A great deal of time and tax dollars were spent on developing and choosing the .45 ACP through testing at the Chicago stockyards. Many cows were shot in tests because one of the main Ordnance Board's design objectives required a round that would drop a horse from under an enemy cavalry troop. Not the enemy soldier - his horse.

I've heard this horse thing before. Can you direct me to the source of this? I would love to read it. Thanks.
 
It's from a huge 10 lb. book titled "Guns of the World". I cannot remember the author's name. But there was an entire chapter on the U.S. Army Ordnance Board tests done by Thompson and LaGarde on cattle and human cadavers hanging from rope (just like Jeff Cooper's pendulum test for "Major power" ammo determination for competition shooters). They determined the energy delivered to the cadavers by how far they swung when hit. Very interesting book.
 
What about this I found on another website:
All N-frame cylinders, regardless of caliber, have a diameter of ~1.710".

At it's thinnest point, the cylinder lock notch, my S&W 45 revolvers average .030" thick (outside chamber wall thickness minus the lock notch's depth). My S&W 44 Magnum's average .040" thickness. That's ~75% difference in thickness.

The 44 Magnum's max SAAMI pressure is 36K psi. 75% of that is 27K psi, well in excess of the 45ACP (+P)'s SAAMI max of 23K psi, which is one way to look at the 45ACP's potential cylinder strength.
Actually, that's a 33.333... % increase in thickness for the 44 Mag,

The interesting point here is the chambers in the .45ACP are .452" to .454" in diameter vs. .429" to .431" in diameter for a 44 Mag. With the same cylinder used for both, that leaves less steel for the .45 cylinder.
 
Last edited:
Well isn't 625 a N frame?, and IIRC isn't 45ACP rated about 25K PSI?
Once the cylinder is bored for 45 caliber, there isn't a lot of material left, so it's not really about the frame. This is a good question. My barrel does not say +p, assuming that designation formally applies only to 38 Special.
 
RealGun, I just checked the SAAMI website,
The following calibers are listed as having+P:
.38 Special
.38 Super (all .38 Super is +P)
9mm Luger
.45 ACP
 
@jski

44 Mag case width at the rim is .457 and 45 ACP is .476. I would imagine the chamber diameters would follow those numbers as well so the 45 ACP is .016 larger diameter. So it would be reasonable to assume (uh oh) the walls are .019” thinner.
 
@jski

44 Mag case width at the rim is .457 and 45 ACP is .476. I would imagine the chamber diameters would follow those numbers as well so the 45 ACP is .016 larger diameter. So it would be reasonable to assume (uh oh) the walls are .019” thinner.
Which cartridge/caliber was the first N-frame chambered in?
 
45 Colt and 44 Special I believe.

Just looked it up and it appears 44-40 was also a chambering.
Here you go;
Smith & Wesson introduced their first large frame (referred to as the N-frame), swing-out cylinder, DA revolver, the .44 Hand Ejector – also known as the ‘Triple Lock” or “New Century” – in 1907 to compete with Colt’s New Service revolver.
...

S&W also introduced a new cartridge that was to become as famous, if not more so, than the revolver itself: the .44 S&W Special. This was based upon their popular .44 Russian but used a case 0.2 inch (5mm) longer and loaded a 246-gr. lead bullet moving at 755 fps. In addition to becoming popular for law enforcement and self defense, it quickly earned a reputation for accuracy and preempted the .44 Russian as the dominant target shooting cartridge of the day.
So it appears S&W invented the .44 Special to go along with their newly invented N-frame.
 
Last edited:
IMG_0411.JPG Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that this puppy could handle any .45ACP +P, Super, whatever load you'd care to put in it?

Just to throw a wrench into the monkey or is that throw a monkey into the wrench?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top