Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The Old War Hores Is More Capable Today Than Ever

Today I performed a little penetration test with the 45 ACP and the Buffalo Bore 255 grain hast cast load.. The load is advertised at 925 FPS

tradmark has stated over and over on another forum that "it is about the bullet" and I totaly I agree it is about the bullet

The load and the weapon




The test media waa comprised of 11 gallon milk jugs filled with water



The results the 255 grain hard cast penetrated and exited 9 jugs




The exit in the lwer corner of jug #9 caused the bullet to miss jugs 10 & 11





There is no doubt that this load has enough penetration for a 500+ pound Bear and in my opinion exit an Elk with a rib cage shot placement

I'd have to agree. Simple tests sure can take up some time. Thanks.

Looks like toilet water.....

Looks like a good load.

How'd you let the slide serrations get so rusty?

Rusty? Why It's a "Stainless" model

That gun goes every where with me, it is either on me or under the seat of the truck in some very adverse conditions. This gun never misses a beat always fires and feeds. I have at times literally blew the dust off of it and it still worked perfectly without a hitch. That stock Springfield has and is an extremely reliable weapon. In another thread a poster posted that 1911 need lots of care and maintenance to be reliable and that simply is not true

Wonder why I love 1911's

Looks interesting JWP. Have you done the same test with a 230gr flat point for comparison?

No sir I have not, the speed is close between the 2 and I don't think that the 230 will keep pace. As soon as I get enough jugs I am going to try a 44 mag 240 grain JFP factory load for comparison

Here is a link to some water jug penetration tests that may put shed some light on the penetration performance of this load


http://stevespages.com/page8f.htm

Whhile looking at the penetration performance that were gotten with various calibers in the link remember that the 9 jugs was a bit over 56 inches of penetration

I've known a few "Old War Hores"...

So you're getting more than double the penetration - but those in the link were all HP loads. The only one that didn't expand was fired through multiple layers of cloth before the jugs.

C'mon! As long as you're doing the testing, I want a direct comparison to a standard-velocity 230gr flat-point.

I need more jugs, I have no problem doing more tests, but I need more jugs

Heck...use beer cans! They are quicker to come by.

Dan

Yeah, I've known a few myself!

is that one going to be your control?

JWP -

Here's a great tool for removing the rust on those cocking serrations. It's a very fine stainless steel brush; much finer than you're going to find anywhere else. These are used for carding after a coat of cold rust blue, but I've found a bunch of other uses for them, including de-rusting of many things. I've used them a bunch to swipe away light surface rust on my reloading machines or dies. A few swipes with this very fine brush and that rust on the cocking serrations will be all gone.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=6732/Product/GUNSMITH_CARDING_BRUSH

Good idea

Do we know who makes that bullet, and is it available as a component?

Pete

Well, JWP, in the name of discussion, I believe that load sucks and would be a poor hunting/self defense load.....
That's because the bullet is nothing more than a standard round nose. I, for one, would insist on at least a wide, flat point as you have advocated in the past.
Do yourself a favor and get some, either cast lead or jacketed and run the test again. Pushed at over 900 fps., they should penetrate plenty and blow up a few of those jugs while doing that. At least a little anyway.
Try some 230 gr. XTP Hornadys as well at 900-950 fps. Not hard to do with the .45 ACP.
I prefer the 2.5 gallon water jugs when I test. Gives a better idea of the side disruption caused by the bullet. I just buy them and shoot them lined up end to end w/o opening them.
I've shot enough stuff to know that round nose bullets, even .45 ACP RN bullets, are poor killers. Sure, they work on brain shots, but not always even there. No significant side disruption.
BTW, nice, well used gun. Happens when you really live with a gun as one should with a personal weapon. E

I agree E, the flat on the meplat is not as large as I would like to see for sure and certain. The LBT design hard cast 255 grain bullet that Beartooth Bullets sell has a much better meplat.
I am testing available factory loads at the moment since many do not reload, the re loader has better options for sure

Here are the first 3 jugs in the 45 test, The 2 photo's will show both the entrance and exit sides

Jeez, and I thought that you were writing about old war whores!

JEff

I was wondering which letter you left out of that word, myself.