Playing with the .45 ACP, some time back a friend who I will not embarrass but whose initials are John Killebrew sent me some 230 gr. flat-nose bullets. These are just the right shape for really efficient bullets in the .45 ACP.

I tried some with 10.6 gr. of Blue Dot and found them to be accurate and pretty stout! Over the chronograph they averaged 1034 fps. I figure plinking with them would hammer the auto after awhile but as a carry load they have enough power to punch through a car door or several inches of wool clothing and fat.

They do recoil enough that fast follow-up shots would be a little slower.

I put some more together this past week and am looking forward to trying them out. I cut the Blue Dot load to 10.5 gr. and loaded some with 6.5 gr. Unique and some with 6.0 gr. 231. I plan on shooting them and seeing which are them most accurate and consistent.

More to come.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Dang Jim that is on the hot side, it's a 45 acp not 45 Magnum

My normal 45 load with a 185 LSWC is 6.1 grs of 231, so I am interested in what that 6.0 231 load chronos at.

Gunner

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https://www.instagram.com/41gunner/
41 Mags rule, Baers rock!

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Jim:
I've been using that bullet for years and it's a dandy in the .45. I don't run it nearly as hot as your loads - about 750-800 fps depending on barrel length. Got a Combat Commander that really likes that load and it don't beat up my creaky old hands like hardball.

and actually have some loaded down to around 700 fps for just fun playing. The heavy loads are for serious times when I am praying I don't have to use them.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

15 or 20 years ago perhaps, there was a gun glossy article from a name everyone would recognize who wrote that when a rural western mountain deputy he carried a 1911 with kosher, accepted hollowpoints for that era.....but he also kept a magazine of factory target semi-wadcutter fmj, a.k.a "softball"

He wrote that, at automobile accident scenes he used those milder target loads to put seriously injured horse & kine & elk & moose & bear & mule deer out of their misery and that those loads worked as well for him for those purposes as buckshot/slugs and magnum sixguns did for other's that he had witnessed.

He also stated that the loads seldom exceeded 700fps. from his commander length barrel and they barely cycled the slide in cold weather when the oil/grease was thickened.

One of my favorites, I run them about 850 fps.

Not that this is exactly the same thing, but...

Hot .45s makes me think of something Mike Cumpston once said to me

".45 Colt can do anything a .44 mag can do, and people have blown up lots of guns proving it."

I have been loading a slew of Lyman 452488's... 200-grain SWCs... over 9.0 grains of Blue Dot for use in my M25-5 resolver. Now that I see you're shooting 230s over 10.5 grains in your semi-auto, I'm reassured that I'm not likely to blow myself up with those loads any time soon.

BTW, the 452488 seems to work quite nicely in the Smith 25-5, with the caveat that they don't want to chamber cleanly unless I've run them through my .45 Auto Rim roll crimp die. Of course, that seems to be a requirement for all my cast .45 loads.

-AaronB