Hello, A few years back I purchased a 45 cal barrel from green mountain barrel. I intended to put this on my TC Hawken stock years back but am finally getting to it. I have a bunch of 200 grain shockwave bullets.. What would you all recommend I start my loads at, I'm useing 3f goex, and what also would be maximum I would dare load ?

I have the same rifle barrel. I shoot the same thing. I like 100 grains of powder. The max is 110 according to Green Mountain Barrel Company. I personally think this is a level done for legal reasons. GMB makes Knight barrels. You can shoot 150 grains of loose powder safely out of them. I see no reason the GMB .45 could not do the same. I would put the max if I were shooting at 120 grains of loose powder.

I have that barrel in fact I have two of them. My load is a 409 gr RCBS 11mm bullet paper patched. I use 80 gr of pyrodex p. Ron

Hey cayugade, have you ever casted bullets for this barrel, if so which ones ? and also with this 1/28 twist rate, which is better a long bullet or a short one ? thanks, Steve

I too have the same barrel and I get good results with 70 gr of Pyrodex P and excellent results with 80 grs pushing a 200 gr XTP(10 mm) bullet in a Harvester light blue EZ load sabot.
Excellent accuracy, a joy to shoot, and a good deer stopper.
Your Goex FFFg should give you similar results.
I would say start at 70 gr and work you way up in 10 gr increments until you find your barrel's sweet spot.

I have that barrel also. It' one of my favorites.

Here's my standard hunting load with 200 grain XTPs.



Also, you might try the 180 grain Speer Gold Dots.



And if you don't mind paying for those suckers, try the Barnes.

Pressure builds faster in a .45, so you can get better velocity with less powder. I've never used more than 100 grains of powder in my .45. I've had the best luck with the 200 grain XTP, 200 grain SST and 200 grain Shockwave. The SST and Shockwave shoot identically, but in my experience perform slightly different on game.

I would use one of these bullets, start at 80 grains loose powder and work your way up in 5 grain increments until you find the best shooting load. Depending on the bullet I am using, I either use 80 grains or 95 grains of powder.

I cast some .451 423 grain pure lead conical bullets and tried them without a sabot. I had mixed results. One day they shot pretty good, the next day, you wondered if someone switched rifles on you.

The best bullet I ever shot out of that rifle was a 185 grain Dead Center 40mm in a light blue sabot. That just shot light out over the others. Also the 200 grain Hornady XTP 40 caliber in light blue sabots shoots real well. Semisane tells me they are a great hunting bullet. So because of being a cheap devil.. that is the bullet I shoot. Plus I have some 185 grain Speer bullets that do well in it also.

I would suggest trying the less expensive Hornady200gr XTPs to start out. They are much cheaper than the others and they are available in bulk 100 packs for under $25. The 200gr XTP should perform ok for hunting deer at Goex and Pyro speeds. 200gr SSTs and the Barnes 195gr bullets hold up better at faster speeds and "fly" a bit better for long range shots.

Another interesting bullet is the Barnes .40-155gr TAC-XP. Its the least expensive Barnes. They shot very well in my Elite 45 with a 1-30 twist.

That is good advice. I used the .40 cal 200 grain XTP for several years with good results. They are cheap and usually shoot accurately with the right load. They performed very well for me with moderate powder charges (70 - 80 grains T7). I had some trouble with them coming apart with heavier charges of T7 3f, though the deer shot with them still died quickly...