Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns All around .45 ACP...

I just loaded up a batch of my old favorites for my 1911 pistols. I have been pushing the 200 gr. H&G 68 to around 900 - 950 fps from various .45 ACP pistols for many years now. These are from Missouri Bullet Company, 18 Brinell and Hi-Tek coated. It works for a whole lot of chores for me. Go pick some blackberries and run into a cranky copperhead, small game as in head-shooting rabbits or squirrels, targets at the range get nice clean holes cut through them. It is accurate, very manageable, and feeds buttery smooth. And while I wouldn't want to have to turn a mean hog or pissy black bear with it I could be worse armed. Same for a couple of meth heads cruising around looking for easy money. I have 230 gr. Gold Dot and Ranger T +P. But from the lightweight commander size Dan Wesson the 200 gr. SWC at 900 fps just seems natural.

A 200 grain semi wadcutter cutting clean .45 caliber holes through targets at 900 FPS is no slouch. I would not feel poorly armed, not having the JHPs in the gun. In fact today I was carrying my Glock 22, .40 S&W loaded with 170 grain poly coated SWC, that run 1200 FPS.



When I carry my .45, most the time it is loaded with a 250 grain hard cast flat point at 925.

JHPs are great but not always needed, and don't always produce the desired results. Not much, man or beast shrugs off a heavy hard cast bullet and deep penetration.

I concur completely on the 200gr. SWCs. I don't know how many I've shot over the years, but it's probably six figures worth. They're all I used back when I was competing, and I used them for practice, SD, and anything else I wanted a .45 for. I'm just now using up the last of the ones I loaded 30+ years ago. I used them at the USPSA Nationals, countless local and out of town matches, and never had an issue with them. When I set up my 550 again, I"ll be using them, again. My favorite bullet of all time.

That's a great loading & I use it a lot too; also 185's which I've always used for competition.

The Missouri bullets are good, as are the same from Bayou Bullets which, until recently, was owned by Jerry Miculek's brother...........not sure who owns it now but I assume the bullets are the same.

Across a dozen or so 1911's, they've never been a single issue with them not shoot well, that I recall.

MM

The 200 SWC at 900 fps is probably my all-time favorite load in my all-time favorite cartridge. I like other cartridges and loads, but if I were forced to spend the rest of my days with just one, it would be this one. Has shot great out of every .45 I've ever tried it in.

I have a bunch of 200gr cast lead RNFP's loaded over a light charge of W231 for around 730fps that I run with a 16.5# spring. It's super accurate out of my Colt GM.. I'd like a capable load for trail and woods, but I don't want to tamper with what works. So I usually just carry a revolver or use 230gr ball. Eventually I'll likely procure enough of the 200gr bullets to experiment. A charge of Unique for 850fps should do it as long as accuracy doesn't suffer.

The 200 grain H&G 68 and 3.5 grains of Alliant (formerly Hercules) Bullseye make for an outstanding NRA bullseye load to 50 yards, its popularity for that dating back to the 1940s. These are from the Missouri Bullet Company:

I rely on pretty much the exact load you describe for about all my 45 use. Not many animals I would hesitate to shoot with it at the proper ranges. I have never stopped one inside a pig from any angle. Not much more I can ask for.

I've been loading a long time but I don't know what I know what H & G 68 is.
my preferred powder these days is alliance sport pistol for a 45 acp

I just started loading for .45 acp and am leaning on it a little. I'm using 250gr hard cast from acme over long shot at just over 1k fps. Not good enough to shoot like Jerry M. though.

My dirt pistol backstop probably has a ton (2000lbs.) of 200gr SWC's waiting to be recovered and reused.

MP molds makes an 8 cavity aluminum mold that is a clone of the H&G 68. I need to dial in a load with Univesal as I have a good supply of powder and bullets. I agree a 200 SWC in the 45 acp is a great combo, great accuracy and enough oomph for most applications.

Here's Missouri Bullet Company's version of the H&G #68, perhaps the most popular cast .45 bullet there ever was.

https://missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=57&category=5&secondary=13&keywords=

Several great loads exist for this bullet, and each shooter generally has his own preference, it's just a great shooting bullet, although I have no experience with MBC's version. Back when I was competing, I used 5.8 231, 5.4 AA #2, or 7.0 Unique (the old formulation). 5.0 Bullseye was another good one used by lots of folks. Those loads were centered on IPSC/USPSA shooting and were at, or close to, 900fps, and made "Major" caliber easily.

Got 2K of those to go through yet. Favorite load is that bullet on top of 8 grains #5.

okay thank you I shoot a lot of them myself. for some reason reading the one deal I was thinking somebody was talking about a powder definition of H&G 68 🥴🥴

This is the TOML gun that I built for a fund raiser for the That Others May Live Foundation. A military rescue foundation for the benefit of the family members of the rescue crew members killed or severely wounded in rescue operations.

It is a Remington R1s conversion: 80/70, Novak sights, Videki trigger, looped jeweled hammer, Slide fitted to frame, frame cut for Safari grip safety, ramp mated and polished to a mirror finish, internal sharp edges broken, extended slide release-stop, ext ambi thumb safety, S&A flat main spring housing, lowered ejection port, shaped extractor & ejector, firing pin, springs, acton job, 3# trigger, match barrel and bushing, two piece rod, reverse cup plug, five fitted mags number to the gun that each feed a full mag of empty brass, two grip sets, one of exhibition rose wood, the other of Vietnam Water Buffalo bone. A sheet of paper with a four leaf clover group, shot listing all of the mods, with the gun.

Winner got the option of any engraving they wanted. Winner opted for the bone grips being engraved with a full length HH-60 Blackhawk Rescue Bird on one grip with the Pedro 66 logo and on the opposite grip panel the full crew by name and rank. They ware all killed in a four 50 cal ambush setup by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The engraved gun with the engraved grips looked good in the laser engraved glass case with the blue velvet background. The Crew Chief of Pedro 66 won the gun.

H&G Hensley and Gibbs, some would consider them the best mold maker. Precisely machined cast iron molds with a thick sprue plate and nice trough machined in and very consistent cavities. Their tooling was sold to Ballisticast and the early iteration also made outstanding molds, then the company went to [bleep]. Probably their two most famous molds are the 050 148 35 cal full wadcutter (made in both .356" for 38 supers and .358" for 38 sp), and the 68, a .452" 200 gr swc.

That bullet will cut a full caliber hole deep! If hydra shok and gold dot hollow points weren’t available I wouldn’t have any worry about an effective defensive load to carry. I don’t hunt with the 45 ACP other than having it even when rifle hunting but a 200gr SWC at 1000-1050fps will reach vitals on a deer from most any angle I’d try with a rifle. My go to powder has become power pistol.

I’ve told it a few times on here, but I busted a trapped pig at about 12’ with a heat treated H&G 68 at around 950fps. He wasn’t huge, about 150lbs or so.
Dead into the thickest part of the thickest part of the on side shoulder. Nickel sized exit in the off side shoulder (straight line right through the thickest portion) and hit the ground stone dead right there.
A sample of one, but eye opening. I don’t fret much in TN carrying those.

I've got a 50 cal. ammo can full of loaded 45's with the H&G 68. Yeah, I like em & have shot them for decades. But I've been playing with what some are calling the bowling pin bullet. It's a 215 SWC that has the body of the 68 but a shorter fatter nose & a .330" meplat. Redding/Saeco has it as a #58. I got it going 900 fps & my chrono quit. I bought a new chrono but haven't gone back with the testing. Maybe when it cools off. Looking for about all I can get with stock springs & without crazy ejection or other signs of, Too Much.
Thinking Magnus states, "yes, it feeds". I was surprised how well it does, & OAL wasn't a pain to find. Afterthought, the dummy photographer could have included an H&G 68 for reference.