Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What is your favorite all around, do it all, bullet for the .45 ACP ?

All I know about the incident is that the Kaffir wasn't down for good until 230 fmjs vented him out.

Just for the record, my serious self defense load is the factory, 230 gr. Federal Hydra-Shok.
I'm not trying to duplicate that. I'm interested in kind of a "do all" load. Paper targets, maybe steel, which requires lead, small game, but with enough penetration for say a face on shot with a black bear. E

Never heard that before with a .45 ACP. But, then again, all of the .45 ACP shootings I've seen, save one, involved the 230 gr. loads.
The exception was a BG that took a 190 gr. Super-Vel HP bullet high in the chest. Bullet angled downward, and blew apart the aorta artery. Lodged against the opposite side of the rib cage. Expanded to 3/4 of an inch. Caliber sized entry hole. Wound channel almost 3/4 of an inch across. The guy made it about 10 feet on wobbly legs. And was very dead when approached. E

E;

I ran a few water jug tests with .45ACP JHPs a few years back. Posted here, way back, IIRC.

The GoldDots are superlative, but the Winchester "white box" 230 JHPs are PLENTY good, shoot well, cheaply, and I can't think of much they won't do.

I use a revolver in 45 ACP and I loved Speer's 255g SWC with red dot pushing them along, now they market a 250g SWC. Heavy bullets are my choice if the gun will handle them.

In my 2 Auto's I am using the above mentioned Winchester 230g JHP's, I have faith in them. I am not sure if they will always expand, but being a 230g 45 slug, it doesn't really matter.

Anyway the 255's make clover leaf groups at 25 yards, and not from a rest either. My eyes suck now, and tendonitis has set in too, but I have done it more than once in front of witnesses with one hand, back when I was a young man.

Thanks, VA. E

I cast an LBT 230 gr Wide Flat Nose/WFN for my Ed Brown Special Forces 45 acp. It's a wonderfully accurate and deadly bullet.

Alan

PS, I sell them over on Gunbroker.

Since, in real life, I'm not limited to just one bullet, I like 200 gr lead SWC for routine range work, & 230 gr Gold Dots or HydraShocks for any carry use.

I'd use 230 ball B4 any SWC's if I couldn't get JHP's.

I have a stash of the old, long since discontinued Super Vel 190 gr JHP's & they do more damage than any bullet I've ever seen.

MM

Hard to beat the old school 200gr Speer, the one with the gapping hole. Now all of the current generation 230HP will expand and penetrate about the same and I feel the golddot, HST are the most consistent.

For me the wildcard to still be played with the the Barnes slug, cutting the weight and jacking up the speed while maintining integrity sounds like a good thing but at $1 each it will be a while before I do anything other than look at them on the shelf.

Did some testing yesterday using my standard 2.5 gallon water jugs. They measure almost 12 inches long, by 6 inches wide and about 10 inches high.
I was disappointed with Hornady's flat point, 230 gr. FMJ. Jeff Cooper used to say that this bullet was the best compromise in the .45 ACP for penetration and tissue disruption. Sure didn't look very impressive at 890 fps. Hardly ruptured anything on the container, just punched through.
The more or less standard 200 gr. lead SWC did noticable better at about 930 fps. Ruptured the sides moderately, and passed all the way through.
The 185 gr. Remington Golden Saber HP did alot better at busting up the jug even though it wasn't going much faster than the 200 gr. SWC. Not nearly as much as the 10mm shooting the 180 gr. Rem GS at about 1200 fps. and not quite as much as the 158 gr. .357 lead SWC at 1100-1200 fps. Passed through the jug quite well.
Next time I test, I'm going to try the 230 Federal Hydra Shok factory load as well as their new 165 gr. Personal Defense load. E

Well if you really want to see something try the Doubletap ammo. Mike is not real shy about using power and his 230 gold dot at 950fps and his 185 gold dot at over 1100fps are very impressive.

I can drive them that fast with handloads. With the .45 ACP, extra velocity seems to make quite a difference. E

I use both the 200 grain SWC and the 230 FMG so far.I sure would like to find some of those 230 FP bullets.Are they the same as the 230 Hap bullet?

Interesting penetration data on the 45acp.



Jayco

200 gr., lead SWC seems to feed thru everything nicely, with good accuracy.

185gr. Winchester SilverTip.

LogCutter.....Where was this test on the 45acp done? I would also like to ask what type of media they used ok. I ran my own tests this summer into a bundle of very wet compressed newspaper and the best penetration I could get using 200 and 230 grn bullets was 10 inches, using Hornady, Federal, Winchester, Cor-Bon and Power-R-Ball ammo. Most shots on target were in the 8.5 inch range at 6 feet from the newspaper.

Now just to let you know, my 10mm penetrated some 12.5 inches with Winchester 175 hollow points. I got 15 inches with FMJ bullets in the 180 grain weight.

Hav you chrono'ed them?

Your penetration in wet pack is very close to the results tht I got in my tests

I got it here.

http://www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar95.htm

Jayco

Tried that load on deer - SUCKS!