Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns which 45 acp hollow point bullet?

I have had a great deal of success with the current production (there have been some changes in recent years) Hornady 200 gr. XTP. The newer design has a longer nose (i.e. can be seated longer before the full caliber shoulder hits the rifling (now roughly 1.240" to 1.250") where as the older 200 gr XTP's had to be seated fairly short like 1.210" or so to chamber in most pistols. The hollow point cavity has also been increased some (wider and deeper).

The new version shoots accurately for me and hits very hard. For defense purposes, I load them to +P levels using currently published data from the Ramshot/Accurate manual. They hit hard at 1075 or so.

Mark in GA

Whichever one shoots the best out of your gun. They all work well.

Ron, test those Speer "flying ashtrays" for penetration.
I've seen them bounce off sheet metal a 25 ACP would pierce.

400 gr .475 lfn hp next to a 158 gr .357 hp.



The 357 mold casts like a dream, with the 475 mold I've yet to find the baby bear's porridge temperature to get them to cast just right.



I figure with a near 300 gr wc after the nose blows off, it'll be a fairly effective pill.

from the google searches I've done, Federal's HST bullet looks great but isn't available as reloading component.

I haven't looked into hard cast lead hp. Thank you to those who posted them.

I ordered some 230gr Speer Gold dots to try.

Regarding the Hornady XTP-hp. I'm not sure the 230gr 45acp bullets will expand given the low(er) velocity thus thinking of dropping down to the 200gr to up the velocity to aid in bullet expansion.

Sounds like you think you need a 40 S&W with 180gr. pills.... . I think if you give the 230's a try you will like what you see..... Run them any where from 800 to 900 fps (if your barrel will allow) and you should be golden..

No one said anything about HARD cast.

Or day XTP's expand very well and out penetrate Gold Dots in my experience and is my number one choice for a hollow point in 45ACP.

good point.
I have shot them into gallon milk jugs which just blew the jugs up.
have never fired them into metal, which i probably should.
I just took delivery of a 200grain mould from slovenia, with a deep pentad hollowpoint option. They kind of look like black talon when fired according to the pictures. gonna try that too.
through the years i have loaded a ton of stuff in .45acp. As another poster said, i would suspect most all of them would work.
I still have a bag of 180grain jhp projectiles i bought probably ten years ago that i haven't loaded yet. Big petals on the sides.
I kind of have the attitude that hollow points working properly is a lot more important on stuff like 9mm. A .45 is still a .45 hole.

Federal HydraShock is my prefered defense load. I do not handload any .45 ACP, so I don't worry about finding components.

The penta hollow point is popular, but in practice not much different than the round hollow point. I was part of the original group buy when we developed the penta hollow point for the 452-200 Mihec mold, but lobbied for a triangular pin instead based on my own testing. A triangular hollow point will make the bullet expand in 3 parts, but the penta hole has too many facets and just doesn't do much other than looking neat.

Actually, that mold does better with a shallower cone hollow point anyway if you're pushing it to full power or +P speeds. The standard pins are a bit too deep and narrow.

I THINK i got the pin for the shallow too, i took a casual glance and set it on the shelf.
I have one of those half moon moulds for another caliber made by the same guy and they are pretty slick looking.
the reality is for me while i have fired thousands of rounds of .45acp, almost all of it has been 200grain H&G68 swc. With the exception of stuff going into select fire which i have kept to jacketed.
I have never felt particularly exposed even with that H&G bullet.

yondering:

off topic but i got an email from a guy the other day reference powdercoating bullets, he wanted back the stuff i sent him for another guy that is going to start it, so i sent him your stuff you posted plus stuff from the cast bullets forum. The virus spreads.

Guess this load will work on 2 legged critters also

Took a big doe with my Les Baer 1911 .45 and hand load(230gr Montana JHP over 8gr Silhouette) ,25 yd shot perfect placement and exit

Exit


Entrance

The old H&G #68 (or it's variants, I use Lee's for the 6 cavity mold) at about 800 fps is really underrated for it's performance. It doesn't make huge holes like the hot hollowpoint loads, but cuts a nice caliber size hole and penetrates deeply. I wouldn't feel bad at all carrying that load if it's what I wanted.

I usually use the Mihec 452-200 for +P loads, since the hollow point cavity is a little narrow for reliable expansion at low velocity. I found it to be a very accurate bullet at any velocity though; couldn't say for sure if it's more or less accurate than the H&G #68 in my guns, but it's in the same ballpark anyway. Good bullet.

Dittos on the lee 200 swc six shooter mold for the 45 acp. I have an H&G #78 but in the acp the lee is a better bullet. Ended up with the heavy weight mp 452640 mold for the 45 colt. Need to break in the mold and do some load work for it.

I've used the 230 Gold Dot and XTP with good success. I like the XTP price...

What's your load on those ?
They kook interesting.
Mike

6grs of Unique, it's in AR brass.

I use the Gold dot for carry,But for the last 3 seasons Ive loaded the 230XTP for deer hunting with good results good accuracy and penetration with 1.5x expansion.So far I'm 3 for 3.