Smith & Wesson Forum

Go Back   Smith & Wesson Forum > Ammunition-Gunsmithing > Reloading
o

Notices

Reloading All Reloading Topics Go Here


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-23-2010, 12:58 AM
bwickens bwickens is offline
Member
Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC  
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: The Land of Lincoln
Posts: 202
Likes: 63
Liked 29 Times in 10 Posts
Default Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC

Anybody tried these in their .45 Colts? It might be a good bullet to use when I'm too lazy to cast. Don't need a hardcast bullet at .45 Colt pressures/velocities.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-23-2010, 01:29 AM
john traveler john traveler is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: west coast
Posts: 1,486
Likes: 0
Liked 55 Times in 34 Posts
Default

I've fired thousands of this bullet with my standard load of 8.0 grains Unique. It performs just fine as long as you don't try for "magnumized" velocities.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-23-2010, 01:45 AM
BUFF BUFF is offline
SWCA Member
Absent Comrade
Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC  
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: SLC, Utah
Posts: 5,062
Likes: 739
Liked 3,271 Times in 1,282 Posts
Default

I have, but it has been a few years since I bought any. Years back a local store was going out of business and I bought several boxes of 500 bullets each at a very good price. Or maybe 250 each, I forget. Less than half the normal price. I shot up several hundred of them and found them to be pretty good. They are swaged with some sort of waxy, dry lubricant, and didn't lead, but the lubricant remaining in the bore looked like leading. It scrubbed out easily. 8.5 grains of old Unique (it wasn't old then!) with that bullet about duplicated factory ballistics. The recent production bullets look the same as the old ones I used.

I have always found Speer's swaged bullets to shoot very well.

Another alternative is the same swaged lead bullets that Winchester and Remington load in their traditional .45 Colt ammo, the conical flat tip. They are often found in bulk packaging at catalog sales outfits like Graf & Sons. They have a sort of concave base to aid in expanding slightly and filling up both the cylinder throats and then the barrel bore. I have found them to shoot well in any .45 Colt barrel. The Speer bullet shoots best in current bore sizes of .451"-.452", but not as well in older barrels that measure .454" and bigger. I prefer them to the Speer SWC. The flat faced SWC may be a better game bullet than the round nose/flat tipped traditional bullets, but I don't use either bullet to shoot anything bigger than rabbits, so even the round nose is a sufficient stopper for me.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-23-2010, 02:01 PM
bwickens bwickens is offline
Member
Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC  
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: The Land of Lincoln
Posts: 202
Likes: 63
Liked 29 Times in 10 Posts
Default

Thanks for the replies. I've been using Hornady's 255 grain RNFP as my "Too lazy to cast" bullet. It has more of a blunt nose than Winchester and Remington's conicals and also has a waxy powder lube on its surface. Was interested in the Speer for the SWC shape.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-29-2010, 09:56 PM
GPerry's Avatar
GPerry GPerry is offline
Member
Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC Speer .45 250 gr. LSWC  
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: central Ohio
Posts: 25
Likes: 7
Liked 6 Times in 1 Post
Default

I shot a bunch of these in the early 1980's when I was a teenager learning to handload with a Lee Loader. I used HP38 and the 250 Speers because that's what my local gunshop had in stock. I loaded them to about 850 fps and got good accuracy out of my 4 5/8" Ruger BH. This was before I got into casting, and commercial lead bullets were not available like they are now.

The Speers have gotten more expensive since then, but I still think they are an excellent bullet for factory-equivalent loads in the .45.
__________________
Elmer Keith is my hero.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
colt, commercial, hornady, remington, ruger, winchester

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Speer 240 gr LSWC? jimbo728 Reloading 27 01-26-2016 04:25 PM
Use of Speer 158 gr LSWC in .357 Mag Doug.38PR Reloading 14 07-13-2014 01:15 PM
Speer 158 LSWC leading! tacotime Reloading 86 03-24-2014 11:26 AM
Speer 250gr LSWC in .45ACP? tacotime Reloading 9 09-06-2013 09:56 AM
Leading with the Speer .38 158gr LSWC tacotime Reloading 24 10-19-2012 09:23 AM

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3
smith-wessonforum.com tested by Norton Internet Security smith-wessonforum.com tested by McAfee Internet Security

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:02 AM.


Smith-WessonForum.com is not affiliated with Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: SWHC)