Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading 45 ACP. Ramshot Enforcer

There’s some previously published data from Ramshot that showed velocities a little over 1000 FPS from a 230 grain Speer Gold Dot. Has anyone here tried this? Did you achieve the same results?

I would, but I don't have any 230gr fodder (I shoot 185gr & 200gr cast). Enforcer is a very slow powder for 45acp (slower than 2400/AA9), so you will run out of case capacity before you run out of pressure.

I remember when I first encountered that data many years ago. I called Western and they assured me it wasn't a misprint and that they did test it. They had a similar fantastic velocity with 165gr JHP 40sw, which I tried and discovered that it was very difficult to pack enough Enforcer into a 40sw case to make it happen.

One thing I recommend, don't substitute case manufacturer as getting enough Enforcer into the case is likely difficult.

I think it is very safe pressure-wise in the 45acp. Have fun!

OK, you are the second one who has seen this data. I cannot seem to loacate it. Would you please tell me where I can find it? Western Powder's web data does not list it nor does Hodgdon's (they now own Ramshot and Accurate) and My Speer manual #13 does not list it for their bullets. Please advise. Thanks!

All I can do if reference this article. It gives an explanation as to why that data is no longer published. It is however still valid data.

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/fast-loads-for-the-45-acp/99214

I would, but I don't have any 230gr fodder (I shoot 185gr & 200gr cast). Enforcer is a very slow powder for 45acp (slower than 2400/AA9), so you will run out of case capacity before you run out of pressure.

I remember when I first encountered that data many years ago. I called Western and they assured me it wasn't a misprint and that they did test it. They had a similar fantastic velocity with 165gr JHP 40sw, which I tried and discovered that it was very difficult to pack enough Enforcer into a 40sw case to make it happen.

One thing I recommend, don't substitute case manufacturer as getting enough Enforcer into the case is likely difficult.

I think it is very safe pressure-wise in the 45acp. Have fun!

I would like to experiment with this a bit. I have some 185 grain JHP bullets on backorder, some 200 grain coated lead SWCs on backorder, and some plated 200 grain SWCs on order. I do have some 200 grain XTPs on hand. When they come in, at least some of them, I would like to try a reduced powder load of Enforcer since these bullets that I have are 30 & 45 grains less than the data referenced for 230 grain bullets. You mentioned a problem with case capacity, but with using 200 grain bullets and a bit less powder, would this be an issue? I'm thinking probably not, but I currently do not have any Enforcer powder. Your thoughts on this?

I have just recently started loading for .45 ACP and am still experimenting with different loads. I have a 4" barrel which seems to make more of a difference than I expected compared to a 5". I have been a bit disappointed with velocity results of loading the 200 grain XTPs with CFE Pistol and with Vihtavori 3N37. The best I have been able to get is an average of 910 FPS and that was 0.2 grains over what Hodgdon's published max is with the CFE Pistol. I don't really want to push that any higher, but I do feel safe there. If I could get these safely to 1000 FPS, I would be delighted.

I've been loading 45acp for 20+ years and I've always looked for high performance. So from a 5" barrel, a 200gr at 1100fps and 185gr at near 1200fps are "hot" loads and very doable with the right powders. My 4" velocities were 60fps less. I tended to burn a lot of AA5, Silhouette, Power Pistol, HS6, although the latter two lack flash suppressants.
After I started shooting aluminum-frame Commander-size, I started tuning my loads to keep recoil reasonable, so 185gr1000 4" barrel.

I shot a zillion of "low performance" loads of 185gr & 200gr 900'ish fps using Clays, Universal, etc.

I carried a 1911 for years as my woods carry and I wanted a good black bear zapper. That was why I tended to desire high performance.

Would you please share your load data for the .45 ACP 4" barrel 1000 FPS loads? That is the goal I am looking for. THANKS!

Use the book max for AA5 and Silhouette. Western Powder's load data is pretty good according to my chronograph.

If you don't have a chronograph, I strongly recommend you back off the Max 3% and see how they feel. E.g. 9.7gr of AA5 behind a 185gr XTP versus 10.2gr. Why? Because even though the 45acp has lots of pressure headroom, your pistol may not be sprung right, or you may not like the "buck & roar" of hot loads. And don't substitute bullets. If you have a chronograph, do what you want.

I did some experiments with the Ramshot Enforcer powder. This load comes from published Ramshot data published in 2003. I have a link to the source somewhere recently on this sub-forum for verification. The gun used is a S&W M&P M2.0 Compact .45 ACP with a 4" barrel. Two very similar bullets were used: 1) 200 gr Hornady XTP JHP and 2) 200 gr X-Treme Bullets X-Treme Defense JHP. Both bullets were loaded with mixed brass, Remington large pistol primers, and 15.7 grains of Ramshot Enforcer. All powder charges were individually measured with an electronic scale. All cartridges were crimped using a Lee Factory Crimp Die. COAL for both loads was 1.215". Velocities were measured with a Caldwell chronograph. The average of 10 shots of each bullet loading was: Hornady XTP -- 965 FPS and the X-Treme X-Def -- 957 FPS. The published Ramshot Enforcer data was for a 200 grain Hornady XTP bullet with 15.7 grain powder, a Federal 150 primer, and a COAL of 1.215". Their data claimed 1,126 FPS from a 5" barrel. Note that mine was a 4" barrel. Ramshot's claimed pressure is 16,843 PSI for this load, well below the SAAMI pressure for a .45 ACP at 21,000 PSI. The pistol did not indicate excessive recoil and the recovered cartridge cases did not indicate any over pressure issues that I could determine. Frankly, I was hoping for 1,000 FPS, but with a 4" barrel, I think I should be happy and call it good to go. I don't think I'm going to find anything that will get me any better with this bullet/gun.

Before doing this, I called Ramshot about this as I was really wondering about them no longer publishing .45 ACP data for Enforcer powder. The nice lady I spoke with said they no longer had any records located there, nor anyone knowledgeable about such since they have been sold to Hodgdon. I noticed that at the time of the data publishing that I had found, Enforcer was made in Belgium. The Enforcer that I recently bought is noted on the label as being a Hodgdon product and is made in Canada. I then called Hodgdon customer support and had a detailed discussion with him about all of this with all of the details, including the fairly recent load data label from an Enforcer container that was referenced in the Shooting Times article and their favorable test results. He said he knew nothing about any of this and Hodgdon has no data available on using Enforcer in .45 ACP. I asked if they might want to look into this and he replied that they were way behind with load testing and had little interest in adding more to the pile of research they have to do already.

Earlier, someone here stated they contacted Ramshot a few years ago about this and they verified their pressure and velocity data was correct, but decided it was not efficient or something like that and that being the reason they dropped publishing the data. I believe this to be true. This powder charge did fill the case pretty full, but it was not a compressed load. As a comparison, with the same XTP bullet and 7.4 grains of Hodgdon CFE Pistol powder, I get 910 FPS. So, with a little less than half the grains of powder with CFE Pistol I can get just 55 FPS short of the Enforcer load. That does make the Enforcer much less efficient than CFE Pistol, but for me the additional 55 FPS is well worth using twice the grains of powder, especially since there is no pressure issue at all. I plan to use this load for "business use" and will use other more "efficient" powders such as Titegroup or Universal for target loadings with lead or plated bullets. JMHO,YMMV.

...referenced a load using a 230 gr Montana Gold bullet. I am not sure, but I think that is a coated lead SWC, but I may be mistaken on that. .

MG is brass jacketed over a hard alloy.