Better 45acp 230gr JHP bullets

[N555]

I have been loading berry's 230gr jacketed and the accuracy is meh but they are cheap and open up at normal 45acp speed.
Gun is a 1911.
I thinking develop a load for 200gr sig v crown, 230gr nosler assured stoping power or 230gr xtp when I see them again.
I have loaded sig v crown in 9mm and accuracy is very good.
The nosler asp bullets are new to me.
The 230gr xtp seemed very accurate.
Out of those 3 which one do you think is best or best of 2?
Or something else?
I would prefer not to spend a $ per bullet.
Powders I have are CBI, HP38, greendot and unique. Having the most cbi and the least unique.
My most accurate load of all time is about 4.5gr of wst under a 230gr fmj. But they only do about 700fps.

 

[longdayjake]

I know how the sig v crowns are made and I would expect them to be quite accurate. Will they feed in your 1911 though? That is the real question.

 

[Walkalong]

I’m like you, the V Crown in 9 MM has been very accurate.

RMRs jhps are quite good as well, but no .45……yet

 

[N555]

I know how the sig v crowns are made and I would expect them to be quite accurate. Will they feed in your 1911 though? That is the real question.

Mine feeds everything unless I load the coal way too long and then it just doesn't go into battery.
I just shot off about 70 berry's 230gr HP loaded to 1.24'' all cycled perfect.
That was after I loaded 100 at 1.25 and had one fail to go into battery, my only failure to function/cycle.

 

[N555]

I’m like you, the V Crown in 9 MM has been very accurate.

RMRs jhps are quite good as well, but no .45……yet

Yeah I'm probably going to replace my 9mm with v crown loads with rmr 124gr nukes when they have them in stock again. At least have a shoot off and see if the v-crown is worth paying more than twice as much.

 

[Walkalong]

At least have a shoot off and see if the v-crown is worth paying more than twice as much.

Doubtful, unless you're shooting matches. Sure isn't for me.

 

[Boom Vang]

Good accuracy, high expansion and cheap. Pick two.

Since cheap and accurate seem to be the priority, forget plated bullets. Accuracy is not their strong suit. Go to either cast plain lead or polymer coated cast lead. There is a treasure trocve of data out there for accurate cast bullet loads. But you won't expand them at in .45 ACP until the velocity is high enough to lead the barrel significnatly.

If you want expansion and accuracy with minimal fouling, you will have to spend for jacketed bullets.

 

[Charlie98]

I've not found anything that didn't shoot an XTP well... including the 9mm and .45ACP. I would also throw in the Speer GoldDot, but those are largely Unobtanium at the moment.

If you want check it out... WST is one of my favorite 200grn .45ACP powders. Grab a box of 200grn XTP's and work them up to a max charge of WST and see what you think.

 

[N555]

Good accuracy, high expansion and cheap. Pick two.

Since cheap and accurate seem to be the priority, forget plated bullets. Accuracy is not their strong suit. Go to either cast plain lead or polymer coated cast lead. There is a treasure trocve of data out there for accurate cast bullet loads. But you won't expand them at in .45 ACP until the velocity is high enough to lead the barrel significnatly.

If you want expansion and accuracy with minimal fouling, you will have to spend for jacketed bullets.

If rmr bullets made a 230gr HP we wouldn't have made a topic.
I already know plated accuracy is meh and I run silencers so lead is out.

You can have all 3 just need to know where to look.
For example I was using sierra 69gr match HP and they were about 30 cents each. Rmr came out with a 69gr hybrid match. Using LVPO and A2 sights I can't tell the difference except in my wallet. The rmr are more consistent than the serria on the scale, under the calipers and they expand.

 

[N555]

I've not found anything that didn't shoot an XTP well... including the 9mm and .45ACP. I would also throw in the Speer GoldDot, but those are largely Unobtanium at the moment.

If you want check it out... WST is one of my favorite 200grn .45ACP powders. Grab a box of 200grn XTP's and work them up to a max charge of WST and see what you think.

I already tried a max book charge of wst. I was getting poor accuracy and seeing a 140fps SD in a typical mag.
With about 4.5gr under a 230gr bullet they make 1 hole groups at 10yd and near single digit SD in a typical mag.

There's plenty of 45acp appropriate gold dot bullets available on midway right now. They have 185, 200 and 230 as of yesterday. They had two 9mm gold dots too.

 

[SingleActionAndrew]

Zero/Roze?

 

[41 Mag]

If I were loading upper end HP loads I personally would run rhe Gold Dot or V-Crown. If I was using them for hunting purposes as I often do, I would go with the GD or XTP.

That said, and as posted above, Zero makes a good bullet as well, and they are pretty comparable in price.

Just for smiles and giggles, I did a very informal unscientific test with several JHP'S a while back along with a cast out of my stock Colt 1911. At the lower end of this post is the results...
Jacketed vs Cast

There is also a link to the whole write up.

 

[OS/N]

All I run in my 45 is cast. 230TC - they seem to shoot best at 860fps in the 5" colt tube. Use W231 and True Blue mostly. Can get a few powder sparks with TB on the higher end but it does fine at 860 and below. That weight and speed should be close to the historical ball ammo used in the 1911. I wasn't trying to copy the original loading it just ended up (by testing) that way.

I couldn't find a factory ammo that would shoot well (was accurate) in my 1911 gov mdl so started making my own and never looked back. The 230tc ran well and shoots about 2" groups at point of aim at 25 meters. I did have to hand fit a bushing and install a group gripper to get to that level - umm well a 2lbs trigger job also but the gun is stock otherwise. All the factory types of ammo I tried pretty much shot like a shotgun out of this particular gun.

I load for targeting (accuracy) but if needed for defense I have no doubt that they would perform as needed.

 

[wmgeorge]

Wonder why hollow point for target shooting? I have just listed for sale 230 Gn cast and coated If you are interested. Been shooting 45 ACP for over 30 years, never hollow point for just targets.