Options for loading your 45 ACP

Reloading your 45ACP

                With the prices of today’s ammo, reloading is becoming more and more popular. With that there are many different styles of reloads. There are different styles of bullets, powders, and primers you can use. There are a lot of good manuals to help you get started if you are new to reloading. The one that helped me the most was Modern Reloading Second Edition by Richard Lee, because it goes in-depth on how to reload, the different presses that you can reload with, and gives you a comprehensive reloading chart.  You always start a new load with a primer, and then you have to choose a bullet. After you figure those two out than you choose your powder, and how much to use in your load.  

figure 1 large pistol primers(top), small pistol primers(bottom)

            It all starts with your clean brass. After making sure it is sized and deprimed you have to pick out your primer. There are a few companies that make primers, and there are options for what kind of primer you use. To pick out a primer you have to figure out if your casings takes a large pistol primer, or a small pistol primer. Usually you can tell what kind of primer you need by looking at, the difference is quite a bit as you can tell from figure 1.   After that you can get into magnum or regular primers. The one thing to be careful of when using magnum primers is that it can cause a plus P load. A plus P load is cartridge that will be slightly over charged, and if not using the correct firearm could end badly. When choosing what company to go with there are the big ones like Winchester CCI and Federal, but there are also some smaller companies getting in on the reloading boom, no pun intended.

figure 2 semi wad cutter(left), flat nose( center), round nose(left)

            The next thing to do is to figure out what type of bullet you want to use. There is a lot to consider when choosing your bullet. Are you using it just for target plinking, or for self-protection?  For target shooting you would normally go with a lead bullet either as a semi wad cutters or a round nose. Semi wad cutters (SWC) are known for putting nice neat holes in paper targets, but you have to be careful not all hand guns will cycle them. Flat nose bullets are a good all-around bullet for target practice.  Round nose (RN) will normally cycle in all hand guns, but you won’t get the clean hole in the target.  You can see the difference in the three by figure 2. When buying lead bullets there are many companies that manufacture them. For self-protection you would normally go with a jacketed bullet, which means that it has a copper or brass plating around the lead. You can get jacketed bullets in a RN or hollow points. The RN, or round nose, is just like the lead round nose but with better ballistics, and less deviation in your bullet pattern. With a Hollow Point (HP) you have a wide variety in what kind to get (figure 3), but pretty much all do the same thing. Companies that manufacture good hollow points are Hornady and Nosler.

Figure 3 Different types of Hollow points

            Finally you have to decide which powder to use. Now here is where it gets interesting, because there are so many different manufactures of powder. There are also many different types of speeds at which the powder burns. There are a lot of common powders that reloaders use such as Bullseye, Unique, AA, Hogdon, and Longshot. They are all good powders but they all have different burn rates, which is how explosive the powder is.  I have used both Hogdon and Bullseye myself, and would recommend either of them. When John Browning First made the 45 ACP they used Bullseye. The one rule of thumb I was taught when I started reloading was to choose a powder that would fill the cartridge the most, because leaving to much open space in the cartridge can cause some of the powder not to burn. This leads to variances in the loads and target variances in the end. Once again I would send you to the Richard Lee’s reloading book there is a great chart with all the possible powder choices in it for any load you would like.

            The Final thing I would have to say on reloading is that you should always be careful not to over load a cartridge, which is called a hot load. It is not good for your firearm, or potentially your body and face. But you should have fun and experiment, and find what kind of load you like. Safety is a huge concern when you are reloading especially when just starting out. If you ask any experienced, and responsible, reloader they will tell you to load on the light side for safety. Once again this is just an outline to reloading, and if you are serious about getting into it, I would suggest getting Modern Reloading 2. It is one of the many books I read when I was getting my start into reloading, and was probably the one that helped me the most. 

The evolution of 45 ACP handguns

The life of 45ACP firearms

Since John Browning started designing the m1911 in 1890, and the 45acp to go with it, the 45 caliber handgun has gone through some major changes to keep it up to date, and one of the most favored hand gun calibers. I will go through the most popular .45 hand guns and how they changed to keep current.

Well the modern 45 ACP fire arm was designed due to the US military’s request for a 45 caliber semi-automatic hand gun, which is where the m1911 comes in. After the m1911 was introduced, and then modified in 1924 to the M1911A1 so it would be more user friendly, it was the main stay of the 45 ACP. It wasn’t till 1975 that another company came out with a new model of 45, and the Sig Sauer P220 was designed and introduced. The P220 was based off of the M1991A1, but with some new upgrades. Instead of the locking lugs on the barrel and slide it was designed to utilize and enlarged and squared off Breach with a matching section of the slide. It also brought with it the option of double action or single action, and a decocker for safety.

Then in 1979 Glock came out with the Glock 21. A new and revolutionary style of firearm. It had a polymer frame, and a magazine capacity of 13 round due to the double stack feature. The main advancement was the new striker firing pin. The striker firing pin is based off the way a bolt action rifle’s firing pin work. Where the when the action is pulled back the firing pin is locked in place as the rest of the action is closed up ready to fire. But with the Glock’s safe firing system as you pull the trigger the firing pin is pulled the rest of the way back and released.  As you can see the difference from the two pictures left is the Glock striker style, and the right is the 1911 hammer style.

          The 45 ACP stood as the main stay of the US military unto 1985, because of pressure from NATO to standardize ammo to the 9mm. Then a few years later in 1991 when the US Special Operations Command started the Offensive Handgun Weapons Systems program. The Program was looking back to the 45, because they needed more man stopping ability. And they needed a platform that could take a silencer and laser sight. A few new Hand guns came out due to the program like the Colt OHWS and the H&K MK23. The Colt OHWS was based off the M1911, but with a single stack 10 round magazine. The Heckler & Koch MK23, which won the contract, was based off of the H&K USP with a few upgrades. It featured a double stack magazine with a 12 round capacity.  Both featured a silencer and laser sight.

Now days with the advancement in metallurgy and new technologies guns are evolving even more, and getting smaller. The Springfield XD, which is becoming very popular, was developed in 1999. Is very similar to the Glock, but with more safety features. They also developed it into three different guns. They came out with the XDM which features a match grade barrel that is 3.8 inches and made of stainless steel. And a lot of companies are following in that same direction offering base models and match grade models.

With most states going to conceal carry a lot of gun companies are modifying their fire arms to fit into the sub compact category. Like Springfield’s XDC which is only a single stack magazine and a 3.3 inch barrel. Also Kimber, one of the best manufactures of 1911’s, came out with a sub-compact 1911 which they call the ultra-carry. The ultra-carry only has a 3 inch barrel, but holds the original 7 round 1911 magazine.  There are also new 45acp derringers that are made of titanium, so they are lighter and can take more abuse.

As you can see over the years the 45ACP hand guns have gone through many changes with culture from the original colt 1911 to the modern polymer framed hand guns of today. Where many of the changes are slight and can only be seen by those that know hand guns. There are those that have come out with radical new designs such as Glock.   I can’t wait to see what new types of hand guns come out in the future. 

The different kinds of .45 ammo

The Different Styles of .45 Caliber Ammo

The 45 caliber is my favorite round, but knowing which cartridge you should choose is difficult. So here are the some differences between them, and how they came to be. There are 4 main types of .45 caliber ammo. It all started with the original .45 colt. Then the 45-70 was developed as a .45cal rifle. Next came the .45 ACP. There are also off shoots/competitors of the colt and the .45 ACP, which I will go into more latter. Let’s start on what does .45 mean. The .45 stands for the diameter of the bullet itself. As you can see from the image it is actually a little bit bigger so that it gets a tight fit in the barrel. The main differences are in the overall cartridge length and case design.

                                                      

       

          Let’s start, where the 45 began, with the .45 Colt. It is caricaturized by its smooth cartridge and pronounced rim.  It is sometimes referred to as the long colt, because a few years into its run as the main Army side arm Schofield had their version of the 45 out as well. The 45 colt was designed in 1872. It was developed off of the colt 44, with a few differences, for the US Army. The 45 Schorfield, or as it is more known 45 S&W, was develop in 1875. The 45 S&W was also used by the Army at the same time. Until the Amy standardized to the colt 45. Then in 1957 the 454 casual was designed, by Dick Casull and Jack Fullmer, off of the colt as a magnum version. The main difference is length, and amount of powder it holds. They say you can fit a 45 colt into a 454 casual firearm, but not the other way around.

          The 45-70, or known as 45 government, was developed in 1873 as a rifle round for the US Army. It was originally made with a 405 grain bullet that was accurate out to 300 yard. Later they developed the 500 grain bullet for it that could reach out to 3,350 yards. Its effective range was 1000 yard, but in 1879 at the beach of Sandy Hook it shot out to 2 mile. In that test it penetrated 3” of oak, and then 8” in to the sand, which even by today’s standards is still an amazing shot. The two rounds are designated by their bullet grain after the cartridge size, like 45-70-405 or 45-70-500.

          In 1904 John Browning, One of the most well-known gun designers in history, introduced the 45 ACP, Automatic Colt Pistol. He developed it for the Colt semi-auto .45 pistol, which was later known as the m1911. The 45 ACP is also known as the 45 auto, which is still one of the most popular hand gun cartridges around today. I will be going into this camber model more in the future, so check back for more blog posts.   

 

A few variants have sprouted of the 45 ACP, which include the 45GAP and the 45 super. The 45 GAP was made by Ernest Durham, an engineer for CCI, for Glock in 2002. It is a specialty, off shoot of the 45 ACP, with what is supposed to be the same power as the 45 ACP. But it is shorter with a strengthened case head, as you can see from the photo (figure 2). It was specifically made for sub compact weapons, and even a few other companies picked it up for a few years, but both companies have since fazed it out. The only company still producing weapons in the chamber is Glock. The 45 super is another off shoot of the 45 ACP. It was developed off the same case dimensions as the 45ACP, but made out of a thicker and stronger case. They also had to go through a chamber redo due to the fact 45ACP case head are not fully supported, and with the extra power they needed to fix the gap at the feed ramp on most pistols. It is said to have around 300ft/s over the standard 45ACP. But it also allows for a smaller framed hand gun.

         
        It is interesting to see the history of one of the most popular calibers of over 120 years. In fact the colt 45 was almost the colt 44, if not for the military saying it would only use 45 caliber handguns from then on. And it will be nice to see what new innovations are yet to come for the .45.