Load data for 45ACP, 230g plated using CFE Pistol

[Tom5587]

With a box of Speer 230g plated projectiles and a bottle of CFE Pistol, I am setting out to make loads for bowling pin matches.  Load data in my manuals shows a never exceed load of 6.2 gr for lead, delivering 942 fps and 6.8 gr for a jacket projectile delivering 934 fps.  Both are with OAL of 1.20".  Cannot find a published load for plated round nose.  I contacted Speer and they sent data including loads for 12 powders - but not including CFE Pistol.

 

The question is:  Given constant OAL, and choice of primer, if I chrono rounds and work up to about 940 fps, how will the resulting pressure compare with the published data for lead and FMJ.  My assumption is that it would be lower - but we all know what it means to assume! 

 

Thanks in advance for any insight.

[Farmer]

What I’ve found over time is that with std loads lead gives the least psi, followed by plated then jacketed. For some reason it seems like I’ve been able to push Speer plated bullets faster than other brands with less psi.(think gold dots) I don’t know if it’s the type of plating they use or if the concave bottoms help. I usually start with the lead loads and work up from there. Is there a reason that you need to push them to 940?

[Tom5587]

Regarding the reason to push to 940 - Goal is to get as much energy as is reasonably possible into the projectile for bowling pin matches.  I realize that a flat nose or hollow point would be a better choice - but have a bunch of the round nose so thought that I would use them for a while.

 

At the never exceed loads in the Lee manual, lead and FMJ velocities are 934 and 942with resulting pressures of 20,100 and 19,800 respectively.  The Saami spec is 21,000 psi Maximum Average Pressure.  In the data sent from Speer, the velocity using accurate #5, which is very close to CFE Pistol on the burn rate chart is 982.  The theory then is that if the plated bullet does not result in higher pressure to achieve the same velocity with the same powder and OAL as lead or FMJ, then I should be able to push safely to about 940 fps.  The other data point is that the Speer data shows about a 5% higher velocity from a powder that is close to CFE Pistol on the burn rate chart.  Not sure whether this should give some level of confidence that pushing to 940 is a good idea.

 

By the way, how do you determine the relative pressures of different loads?

 

Thank You

 

 

[Farmer]

I usually use the good old inaccurate way of reading primers but when things get hairy I’ll measure case head stretch. The primer flattening has a mess of variables but if you know your gun and how it reacts you can figure out where to stop. I have 3 guns that make it impossible to get a good read because even with starting loads they look ugly. One of the concerns I would have is that your accuracy might fall off considerably at those levels. Also gun damage from a steady diet of such load’s unless things have been modified. My 230g GD SD load runs right at 875-910 depending on bbl length and if pushed harder it goes to shotgun mode. They are loaded longer than book but the charge has been increased to adjust for that also and all brass is the same.  I have had good luck with #5 and Silhouette getting higher velocities with tolerable psi. I did play with CFE some in my 327FM but not enough to draw a good conclusion if it would work well. In that one I got high psi signs, (hard extraction) before I reached the vel and accuracy level I wanted.