250gr WFN 45acp in a 1911, any value?

[Fowler]

Untitled by William Fowler, on Flickr

I had a chance to cast a few bullets, the bullet on the left is my standard 230GR LFN that is a fantastically accurate and reliable bullet, the bullet on the right is the 250gr WFN in question. I lubed the crimp groove as well since it is going into an auto but I left half the batch of bullet out to PC and see what the gain/loss there is.

My RCBS single stage dies turn out to have a broken decapping pin in it, its been years since I single staged a 45acp case. So Ill pick up one of those this week hopefully and see if I can get some live ammo finished up to test.

[dougader]

All barrels are different, leade and all. My LW barrel leade was so short the shoulder on BT 250 grain RNFP forced me to seat it even deeper than the 265 grain WFNGC. You may or may not run into that problem. That's why I ended up loading the 265 for my 45 Super.

No matter, the 250s work great in my revolver and Rossi lever gun.

The 230 grain bullet on the left looks like a party crasher, to be sure, and a great bullet in its own right.

[handloadingnotes]

Mar 2, 2021 7:59:48 GMT -5 Fowler said:

So the question is would a stout 250gr WFN load in a 45acp specifically in a 1911 platform have enough gain to be worth trying? This would be a specific load for ranch/pig/varmint work, understanding the range limits.

I'm looking forward to seeing what loads everyone has come up with here! Heavyweight 1911 loads are interesting to me, and here's a page of the ones I've tried, but I'm starting to doubt their utility. They work fine, but you can probably get better results with more conventional bullets.

From what I've learned, a heavy-for-caliber slug is a good way to get good penetration without as much muzzle blast in a handgun. But a 1911 does not throw a big fireball or have a loud high-pressure crack like a "magnum" revolver. I sure do see the value in 230 grain wadcutter for a .357 Magnum (Western Powder has data). That can save your ears! But more speed vs more bullet weight is a much more subtle thing in a 1911. I can't always tell the difference between regular 230 hardball and much lighter 185 grain slugs driven faster.

I think you'll get better results with your 230gr LFN cast bullet that feeds well and has more room for more powder. Adding powder and adding bullet are both legitimate ways to be harder on both the target and your gun. I haven't found a heavy-bullet 45 ACP load that can do something in a 1911 that a conventional-weight bullet can't do. But it's a lot of work to figure out how to get those big bullets to feed, and work within safe parameters. If you want a big meaplate, the SAECO #58 215 gr. SWC worked well for me. Although I was only shooting at paper so take that for what it's worth! It sounds to me like you already have a proven winner of a bullet.

All that said, I hope you do try the 250gr WFN and let us know how it works. There's no doubt it will put a hurt on whatever it hits. And I'm sure other folks here besides me are curious how it works out.

[kooz]

I have been working on some .45acp loads lately and thought I would bring this thread back up and see if you guys made any progress on your loads . I have also been working up a 230gr WFN 900fps load . Using 6.3gr Unique and an OAL of 1.230 I am getting 913fps out of a M&P 4.5" bbl . I also tried a 260gr 454424 with 5gr/Unique for an OAL of 1.210 (leaving approx .030 of the band showing) the load fed just fine and gave 840fps out of the same M&P

[lar4570]

I shoot the Hunters Supply 45-275 in my 7" AMT Longslide Hardballer. With Bluedot I can get over 1000fps with commercial brass, TZZ military brass seems to top out around 960fps. I have a heavier spring and a slide shock buffer installed, but the cases just fall at my feet. Accuracy is pretty good, I'll try to post target pics tomorrow.

[lar4570]

[kooz]

Thanks for sharing . I really liked the way those 260gr Keiths shot out of mine, can't believe that they fed so well .

[gunsbam45]

I think if the hard casts feed and work they'd be great, but that said, even though I've killed MANY domestic pigs with a revolver, namely a 4" SP101 in 22LR, I've never fired a shot at a wild hog only ever went after them a couple days on a dry run. I used to follow some guys over on predator masters forum that kill a lot of big pigs. One of the discussions among them was some of the guys carried backup 1911s with 230 XTPs loaded up 900ish for hogs, and all of them were having the same issue, the hollow points weren't opening up in the pigs and were just blowing through at 900-950fps. I imagine you can run whatever weight and shape runs best in your gun and you'll be good if you can slip it in where you want it.

[lar4570]

My BIL came down to hunt hogs a few years ago. He brought a Marlin 44 Mag. We got into the hogs a couple of times and he connected. You could hear the smack and squeal. It was a fairly big pig for here, 200+, he said he centered the shoulder and shot. We searched for 4-5 hours cutting trail with a machete... and could not find anything.
Then he tells me he accidentally left the 240jsp behind and brought a box of 180jhp instead. My guess is the light jhp just blew up on the shoulder and never penetrated.

[rleprechaun]

I know this is about Heavy bullets in 45 acp, but I have to report great results with standard weight bullet. Starline 45 super case, cci mag large pistol primers, rim rock bullets .451 225gr tc 22brn bullets, 7.5 gr. long shot. I killed a 250 lbs hog with this load out of my kimber.

[fltbed]

I ran some tests about 20 years ago with my first gen Springfield "Loaded" model. Pa. was considering allowing autoloaders for deer hunting and I wanted to take one with my 1911. I couldn't get the WFN's to feed reliably but some old "Kieth" SWC's worked fine. IIRC, these were the RCBS flat base Kieth bullet. Weighed 260gr and loaded up with #7. Velocity was in the 925-930 fps range and shot quite accurately.

Never got to try them as the proposed rule change failed and I haven't played with them since.

A few years ago the rule change came up again but I planned on using my longslide RIA in 10mm. 200gr Bullet at a bit over 1200 fps. Of course, the rule change failed for deer hunting but we can use them on ground hogs so I guess that's something.

Jeff