Low recoil load 45acp for SW 625 with 6in barrel

[Nick_C_S]

You are going to get lots of answers.

Heh heh, indeed you are

3.5 Bullseye with a 200 grain SWC. Should be in the low to mid 600s. I don't know of much lower than that.

Yep, I landed at 3.4 grains with my 200 LSWC's. 662 f/s through a full-size 1911. 12Lb recoil spring. (The Colt I'll mention below.)

I also worked with the super fast propellants of Nitro 100 and VV N-310:

3.0gn N100 = 704 f/s.
3.2gn N310 = 678 f/s.

With all these, I tested even lower charge weights, but the soot and unspent propellant scattered about was just more than what I consider acceptable. The Vihtavuori N-310 was the cleanest.

Back story: I have a Colt 1911 'Series 80'. Purchased new in 1984, it was my first semi-auto. I really liked it and shot it a lot - a lot - for a couple decades. I probably have about 20 to 30K rounds through it - maybe more. These days, my old Colt is in a state of semi-retirement (I have a Kimber now that is my 1911 "beater" gun. I run it hard.) and the above-mentioned ammo is all I feed it these days.

About the press: I strongly recommend a single stage - especially for a beginner. I used only my RCBS (the brand I recommend) single stage for 31 years. It served me very well and couldn't be happier with it. It's still operational and runs like the day it was made. It was only until 2015 when I moved to a progressive.

 

[FITASC]

Along with that press, allow enough money for a SCALE...........

 

[mikld]

"I have been seeing a lot of requests for "light recoiling" loads on forums lately. Why?"


Uhm, maybe because they want to shoot a particular gun, for whatever reason, but don't want to go full power out of it.

Duh. That may be an obvious answer, but with the number of questions I'm seeing, hardly a good answer. Lately I have been reading many of these questions on forums, appearing to be people buying guns too big for them, a trend? (remember all the "lightly used" 44 Magnums that flooded the market shortly after Dirty Harry? Many bought the big 44, shot it once and sold the gun). I've seen questions like "I bought my wife an LCR in 357 Magnum and I need a light load". Just asking "why" for a logical reason and to bring up reasonable conversation. I really couldn't care less what anybody else shoots....

 

[CMarsh]

For me I wanted to level the playing field some. The few steel matchs I have done I find my follow up shot are slower than everyone elese. That is when I found out most of them are reloading and loading softer loads. SW 625 is a great platform for me. It is big enough to fit my hands, it use moon clips, and I already own 2 other 45s. I really dont want to have a bunch of diffrent cal pistols. I already have a bunch of diffrent cal rifle rounds and it is a nightmare to keeping them all feed.
Thanks again for all the great info! My local gun shop has a deal on RCBS so that is what I am going it. Also a lot of people seem to be using it.

 

[jmorris]

A coated 230 grain RN pushed by 2.8 gn of Clays will make minor it is very soft. You can see the bullet going down range, 550fps+.

That’s using 45 ACP brass. I use GAP brass for my 45 ACP revolvers now because I don’t need tools to moon and demoon but only worked up major loads for 45 GAP brass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-ZrSfHrfd0

FWIW if you use SPP brass you can get a better trigger pull and still retain 100% ignition because they are easier to ignite. In other words if you back off the main spring to the point your revo starts giving you a click instead of a bang and like the way it feels, switch to SPP brass.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Mikld said -- 'Duh. That may be an obvious answer, but with the number of questions I'm seeing, hardly a good answer.'

The OP never said a single thing about his loads being tiring, yet it must be the case that because a bunch of people bought .44 Magnums back whenever and they were too much for them....

I don't think my answer is bad as much as your "question" is, on its face, flawed because you already asked, answered, and assumed the answer in your mind (buy a different gun!) as being the only correct answer for everyone in every situation.

Yikes.

 

[mikld]

For me I wanted to level the playing field some. The few steel matchs I have done I find my follow up shot are slower than everyone elese. That is when I found out most of them are reloading and loading softer loads. SW 625 is a great platform for me. It is big enough to fit my hands, it use moon clips, and I already own 2 other 45s. I really dont want to have a bunch of diffrent cal pistols. I already have a bunch of diffrent cal rifle rounds and it is a nightmare to keeping them all feed.
Thanks again for all the great info! My local gun shop has a deal on RCBS so that is what I am going it. Also a lot of people seem to be using it.

Thanks. It's nice to get a straight forward answer. Seems you've put a lot of thought into your shooting/reloading...

 

[gwpercle]

Good advice, going with loads used in Bullseye competition. Here's some loads using various powders.

200gr Lead SWC, Standard Primer, 3.9gr Red Dot:
200gr Lead SWC, Standard Primer, 3.8gr 700X:
200gr Lead SWC, Standard Primer, 3.8gr Bullseye:
200gr Lead SWC, Standard Primer, 4.0gr WST:
200gr Lead SWC, Standard Primer, 4.1gr AA#2:
200gr Lead SWC, Standard Primer, 4.2gr W231:

Don

Any of the above loads and let me add
5.0 grains of Unique (725 fps) , I won a first place trophy with this one .
Gary

 

[Nick_C_S]

It would probably be good to mention that most (all?) of the load recipes we posted here were shot through semi-autos. Mine included.

Our OP has a revolver.

Let's not forget that revolvers have a barrel/cylinder gap that bleeds off gasses. At these low charge weights, it's important to make sure an impact of some sort is seen downrange. We are discussing low charges that are getting near stuck bullet territory.