Draws dawn and dusk trash duty, everyone knows how rugged they are as an all weather sidearm, mine also happens to ride in the quietest holster I own, will be packing it starting Oct 1 during bow season and carrying on into muzzle loader season here at the farm, issue is, I built a mineral station up on the mountain for the deer a few months back, well, a damn big black bear and giant feral boar have took up residence in the area.
Not looking forward to creeping around in the dark with those two around, I have a bear tag, hogs are a gimme, I didn't want to tackle either on the ground with my carry load, 7grs of Longshot pushes a 230gr gold dot to 922 fps average, just confirmed this morning over the chrono in preparation for shooting the new bullet, loaded a 200gr Lehigh penetrator over 8grs Longshot, Lehighs website recommends 7.7grs power pistol for a +p 45 ACP load, Longshot being a bit slower burning, I dumped 8 grs and headed to the chrono, 1031 fps, great, I loaded three more and got similar speeds, definitely +P performance, brass looked good with no bulges.
Loaded the rest of the first box of 50 bullets into the new R-P cases at 1.230" col, headed to the bench, at 10 and 15 yards it prints plenty good enough for intended purposes, fit, function and accuracy were first rate, I have damaged fmj rounds on differing mediums, both round and flat point fmj's, I don't think a bear or hog will hurt this bullet, just thought I'd drop a line or two in case anyone has been contemplating using the 200gr Lehigh in their 45 ACP's.
BTW, does anyone know why a black bear would climb into a mineral station? surely the hell he's not eating so many fawns he needs a shot of salt to go with them.
