A new 45 ACP round nose

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  • Last Post 14 January 2018
Eutectic posted this 11 January 2018

 

 

Last year I designed a round nose bullet for the 45 ACP. The objective was to eliminate the function problems many pistols have with the common semi-wadcutter and truncated cone bullets. I wanted the bullet to be useful in as many pistols as possible. It was not designed to fit a particular pistol so I did not expect match accuracy.

 

Initial testing of loads for velocity and accuracy was a big surprise, the groups were exceptional! Rifle shooters may scoff at 1” groups at 25 yards, but pistol and revolver shooters will understand. The pictured group is not a “one of”, the bullets averaged 1.2” and several groups under 1” are on record. This was not done on a Ransom Rest, but benched using a Red Dot sight with no magnification.

 

The bullet is in the Accurate catalog, 45-231B.  Because of the excellent results I designed a 200 grain bullet with the same ogive. It is Accurate 45-201B and it is also proving to be remarkably accurate.

 

I have tested these bullets for feeding in several 45 ACP pistols. However none are stock military 1911 types, if you have a stock mil 1911 and are willing to test some for function send me a PM.

 

A full report will be published in a future issue of the Cast Bullet Association journal The Fouling Shot.

 

Steve Hurst

25 yards 45-231B

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David Reiss posted this 11 January 2018

Steve,

Where is the photo of the bullet? 

 

David Reiss - NRA Life Member & PSC Range Member Retired Police Firearms Instructor/Armorer
-Services: Wars Fought, Uprisings Quelled, Bars Emptied, Revolutions Started, Tigers Tamed, Assassinations Plotted, Women Seduced, Governments Run, Gun Appraisals, Lost Treasure Found.
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Dale53 posted this 11 January 2018

I'm not Steve Hurst, but here is his bullet:

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=45-231B-D.png

Here is the lighter one:

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=45-201B-D.png

Dale53

Don't forget to make the urls live, I took care of it this time. Just makes the forum friendlier to use.

David

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Starmetal posted this 11 January 2018

That's interesting. It's also interesting to note that the original load for the 45acp as Browning designed it was with a 200 grain bullet! It had a fairly high velocity too. I'm not sure of the shape of the original bullet. 

I can say that the Lyman 225 gr roundnose is a very accurate bullet also out of everything I've shot it from including pistols, revolvers, and carbines. 

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Eutectic posted this 12 January 2018

Thanks Dale, I figured people could look in Accurate's excellent catalog. 

Starmetal, Lyman's 452374 is an excellent 45 bullet, it matches the ball profile and is guaranteed to feed well. I found the RCBS round nose to be a little more accurate probably because it has a full diameter front band. The difference is small and probably unimportant in a stock pistol. 

Steve

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Starmetal posted this 12 January 2018

Steve when I first got that Lyman mould many many years ago and looked at it I was pestimistic about that small lube groove doing it's job.  I couldn't have been further from the truth as it sure does have enough lube. The first gun I shot that bullet in was my Ruger Blackhawk 45 Colt with the 45acp cylinder. It just dropped my mouth open how accurate is was and especially out of that Ruger. Right there with a 70 series Gold Cup. My semi-auto Thompson just loves it too.  I wasn't lying when everything that I own in 45 caliber shoots it great. Steve can you shed any light on why Lyman made it a 225 grain instead of a 230 grain to more closely duplicate the hard ball bullet? Was it because there's no jacket that they made it 225 grain to get the duplicate shape of a jacketed 230 grain bullet?

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John Alexander posted this 12 January 2018

Mustafa Curtess, a contributor of many excellent articles to the Fouling Shot and an enthusiastic experimenter, shot lots of pistol type cartridges for accuracy in both pistols and rifles. He always claimed that well designed round nose bullets would outshoot the other more popular designs. I hope he is still on this forum, reads this thread, and comments.

John

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Starmetal posted this 12 January 2018

John Alexander I totally agree with you.  My idea was that the roundnose was more streamline and would shoot better. Yes I know we're just talking pistol/revolver cartridges and their low velocities, but it made more sense to me then thinking a flat wadcutter or swc would be more accurate then a roundnose.  I understand it as the wadcutter was so that targets could be easier scored. 

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 12 January 2018

ken has to mention that 22 rimfires are round nose and they can shoot zeros  ... sorry ... ( g ) 

ok, round nose have total support except for the radiused nose, but that is a very strong shape that sags very little upon ignition ...... and may distort less than a wadcutter as it guidesmore smoothlier  into a chamber throat ... 

ken

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RicinYakima posted this 12 January 2018

Starmetal is correct, in that the 452374 was my best shooting .45 bullet, but got lower scores on Bullseye matches. Judges will never give you full count for a round nose hole in the paper. How can they, when it is just a slit with no defined edges?

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Starmetal posted this 12 January 2018

Ricin it's a shame too that roundnose revolver bullets kind of suck for hunting too!  Too bad they can't have it all, accuracy, target scoring, and hunting performance.  

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Eutectic posted this 13 January 2018

Hollow point round nose bullets work just fine. On 231B the hollow will be in the meplat and cause no problems.

Check out hollowpointmolds.com and Ed Harris for good info.

Steve

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Starmetal posted this 13 January 2018

Hey Steve here's Mihec's hollow point version of the RCBS 225 grain.

https://www.mp-molds.com/e-shop/molds/hollow-points-molds/mp-452-225-hp-pb

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