230g 45acp Bullet
03-24-2014, 05:30 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Posts: 3,732
230g 45acp Bullet
There are a pile of these bullet around here. When ammo for the 45acp pistol got scarce, i accrued plenty of components so we could keep shooting. Well..one thing led to another, and i started wondering about using these bullet in my muzzle loaders, and whether they could be used for an inexpensive hunting bullet. They are a hard cast bullet intended for practice.
The past few weeks, i wondered if one could modify these bullet to be a hollow point. After acquiring the tooling necessary, i proceeded. This morning seemed to be a good day to try these 'hollow points'. First, the capture of the original unmodified bullet. Distance from rifle to jugs was 35 yard.
The hard cast bullet penetrated through 4 water filled milk jugs, and buried deep into a stack of phone books. Using the same 'trap' the 'hollow point' bullet was tried.
It went through 3 milk jugs, and dented the fourth; it was found on the ground lying between the third and fourth jug.
Then the hollow point bullet was given 6 chance at 100 yard. Load was 90g Blackhorn powder, modified 45acp practice bullet, mmp short black sabot, Federal 215 primer.
Video of 230g bullet
Video of 230g modified bullet
Last edited by ronlaughlin; 03-24-2014 at 05:42 PM.
03-24-2014, 06:08 PM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
Man Ron, that's really interesting. I have something like 700 of those bullets out in the garage and hardly shoot my .45 ACP any longer. I've often thought about doing exactly what you did by trying to hollow point them with a regular drill bit and drill press. But figured consistency would be crap.
What did you use to get that neat clean cavity?
Did you weigh and sort the bullets after the operation, and if so, what kind of consistency did you get?
Performance of that recovered hollow point sure indicated it would work fine on game if you can get hunting accuracy out of it. Do you plan to do a normal five grain increment load trial to see if you can find a decent load?
What did you use to get that neat clean cavity?
Did you weigh and sort the bullets after the operation, and if so, what kind of consistency did you get?
Performance of that recovered hollow point sure indicated it would work fine on game if you can get hunting accuracy out of it. Do you plan to do a normal five grain increment load trial to see if you can find a decent load?
03-24-2014, 07:24 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
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A #3 center drill was used to make the hollow. The work was done on the lathe, with the bullet held in a 7/16" collet. The collet held the bullet tight without marring it. It would be difficult for me to get the bullet centered on a drill press, but i know you could do it. What i mean is, you could do it; not me.
Yes, i did weigh the bullets. It was a pleasant shock to see how close to the same weight they were; be assured they weren't exact. It was surprising to me to learn, that if one drilled a hundred bullets, one would be able to find plenty for hunting, that would be the exact same weight or nearly.
There are hundreds, and hundreds of real hunting bullets here, which probably means i won't spend too much more time with these ones. However, it was fun to see they would expand. It seems they should do lots of tissue damage to a critter, and do that thing called 'hydrostatic shock'.
What?...........you don't think a 5" six shot group at 100 yard is good enough? Every single shot ever made using this home made hunting bullet, would have put a deer down right now, and into the freezer? No?
Yes, i did weigh the bullets. It was a pleasant shock to see how close to the same weight they were; be assured they weren't exact. It was surprising to me to learn, that if one drilled a hundred bullets, one would be able to find plenty for hunting, that would be the exact same weight or nearly.
There are hundreds, and hundreds of real hunting bullets here, which probably means i won't spend too much more time with these ones. However, it was fun to see they would expand. It seems they should do lots of tissue damage to a critter, and do that thing called 'hydrostatic shock'.
What?...........you don't think a 5" six shot group at 100 yard is good enough? Every single shot ever made using this home made hunting bullet, would have put a deer down right now, and into the freezer? No?
03-24-2014, 07:33 PM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Saxonburg Pa
Posts: 3,925
Absolutely not!! In hunting conditions those groups would be even worse. What your posting is absolutely no respect to what your hunting or the sport.
03-24-2014, 08:52 PM
#5
Typical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: West TN
Posts: 847
Terrible sectional density is what I think of when wanting to try those on deer. Hardcast 255s would bore thru nearly all the jugs you dare line up. Out of curiosity I'd like to see how those would perform if instead of making HPs out of them you instead blunted/flattened the nose of them as if they were hardcasts. Bottom line, .451 dia, sub 230grn bullets just won't make great deer bullets because of their typically "avg/below avg" accuracy & aforementioned poor SD.
But certainly for cheap plinking/practice, they'd be great!
But certainly for cheap plinking/practice, they'd be great!
03-25-2014, 05:13 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
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03-25-2014, 05:26 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
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Only if the accuracy can be improved. Shooting them the way they shoot now, wouldn't be any fun at all for me. It may be i will try less powder, and a rifle with a tighter barrel. These bullets are inexpensive; 500 bullets for $70, i think, but if they don't shoot any better than they did yesterday..
