Took my 25 Classic, 6.5" nickel, out for a spin today. Had three loads. 200 gr Precision swc 6.8 gr Red dot, slight roll crimp just onto the shoulder. This load shot lights out. For me, four out of six touching at 25 yards is almost unheard of. Happened quite a bit with the whole box of 100.

Not as much joy with the 250 gr rnfp 6.0 Red Dot or the 230 gr HAP 8.5 Universal. Neither load was bad, just nothing like the swc.

I've been loading for the Ruger Blackhawk and my Rossi Puma '92 20" octagonal barrel lever gun. Have been looking for some really accurate loads for the Smith.

I have a 25-13 Mountain Gun coming, so will have 4" and 6.5" to play with.

I've been loading for semis for a few years, just getting into this revolver thing.

Sir, 200-grain bullets make nice plinkers in .45 Colt. They can also be driven pretty fast without resorting to "Ruger only" data. You might look for some 200-grain roundnose flatpoints for the '92; they'll probably feed better than semi-wadcutters.

As you may already have noticed, 200-grain bullets in .45 Colt print much lower than 250s. This can be annoying with fixed-sight guns regulated for 250s. With Smith Model 25-5s, it's actually a good thing; these guns print high with 250s, so the lighter bullet shoots much closer to point of aim.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

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Wishin' don't make it so.

I have yet to try any 200gr loads for my 45colts, other than factory stuff. I am waiting on more 255gr lswc bullets at the moment. I just tested some 250gr Hornady XTP bullets with 8.5gr of Unique, in my Mountain Gun, and they are very accurate. They chrono'ed at 835fps (avg.) and at 20 yards three out of six were touching with the other three just fractionally outside of the first three's group hole. I'm looking for more velocity, say 900-950fps, but I'm going to load up more of these loads due to the accuracy thru my 25-13 Mountain Gun. By the way, I chrono'ed some factory cowboy loads (Winchester) and they averaged 640pfs thru the 4" MG. I new cowboy ammo was light, but that's pretty slow.

Forgot to mention, my MG doesn't seem to like Winchester primers. I just picked up some CCI 300's, but have not had a chance to load them yet. I foolishly loaded up a few hundred cases with the Winchester primers before testing them. I have never had a failure to fire with my MG until I started using the Winchesters. What are you using for primers?

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Hastings

I've been using CCI 300s. Just ordered 5,000 Winchester lp from Midway. They work great in all my semis, we'll see about the Smiths.

Glad to hear someone else gets high printing from 250 gr loads. Thought I was alone and having some holding issue. Well, maybe we both have the same issue

I get high printing from my Ruger 4 5/8" .45 Colt as well. Saw an article where a guy built up his front sight with some brass bar stock to resolve the problem. He seemed to know his way around firearms.

I've come to prefer 200gr RNFP for 99.9% of my 45LC loads. There is a sweet spot in any powder I've used between around 850~950 fps that gives me my own best accuracy and pleasure.

I've run hot loads as fast as the reloading tables list. The closer I get to that top fps, the more my accuracy drops. Call it flinch or whatever, it doesn't matter.

200 gr @ 900 fps +/- gives me great results.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I have shot 200 gr swc's with 7.0 of Unique and they work just fine.

The various 200 grain .45 caliber semiwadcutters are usually intended as match or target bullets for the .45 ACP and those from a quality manufacturer shoot pretty well from most gunsf either ACP or Colt cartridges.

I have had outstanding accuracy from Speer's 200 grain swaged bullets and my home-cast Lyman 452460's.

I loaded them over 10.0 grains of Unique which gave me about 1,000 fps. (NOTE: This exceeds the recommended max loads, for non-Ruger class guns, in most manuals, although they showed no pressure signs for me. Use at your own risk. Most of my manuals top out about 9.5 grains Unique with the 200 grainers.) The load shot low in my guns, which wasn't a problem for those with adjustable sights.

I have standardized on cast 250 grain bulles in my .45 Colts now. They seem to shoot closer to point-of-aim in my fixed sight guns.

I've enjoyed star 185 acp/swhp over 6.7 gr 231 as a cowbow load. When they hit a steel plate they end up looking like lead dasies.

Both SWC & RNFP designs are great for the old Colt case. I've had much fun with the H&G 68 @ 200 grains. I just put a couple thousand 200 grain RNFP on the shelf & expect great things from them.......Creeker

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Joshua 1:9

I never fell in love with 200-gr LSWCs out of my Cimarron/Uberti New Thunderer 3.5" .45 Colt. But I've shot a couple different loadings that might be of interest to folks.

I used Meister 200-gr LSWCs and CCI large pistol primers, with a moderate roll crimp. (All data at 5950' above sea level.)

60° F
9.2 grains of Unique gave me an average 902.8 fps from the short gun, with a spread of 57.04 and a deviation of 22.82. This load was smokey, but was accurate.

6.5 grains of Trail Boss gave me 739.0 fps average, with a spread of 54.80 and a standard deviation of 21.40. This was also pretty accurate (though not as accurate as the loading above), and was a nifty plinker that left smoke curling from the barrel. (Trail Boss is a hoot.)

Now, on another day with temps a little lower (54° F), I shot the 200-gr LSWCs over less Unique, 9.0 grains (everything else the same). This gave me a mean of 919.0 fps, a much larger ES of 110.9, and a deviation of 43.60. The loading was still accurate, though.

All of these loads shot well (2") above the POA at 10 yards.

I wound up giving up on the 200-grainers in the .45 Colt, as I was able to get better performance with them from my gun using the .45 ACP cylinder (and I used less powder as well: win/win). Hope this was of interest and may be of use to someone.

I get great accuracy when loading .45 colt with a hard-cast 200gr SWC using 6.0gr bullseye, 7.0gr W231 or HP38, or 8.0gr unique, and Remington large pistol primers. Winchester and CCI primers don't seem to produce the same accuarcy when I load with them. I routinely get groups between 1.0" and 1.5" off the 25-yard bench from my Anaconda, Blackhawk, and 25-5. My 4" Redhawk and .45 colt Raging Bull are not quite as fond of these loadings, but still come in at around 2.25". I have not had very much success using softer Hornady swaged bullets with these loads so I stick with the hard-cast variety.

I haven't had any spectacular results with 200 grain bullets in .45 Colt cases as target loads - big case, small powder charge, light bullet not a recipe for great accuracy in my experience. They also generate quite a bit of fouling all over the gun and cases. Can't see the point of loading them faster either - if I want a lighter bullet for serious use I'll use a lesser calibre.

Now I generally put my 200 grain loads up in .45 S&W cases, and they are easily distinguished from the standard weight loads. In this case they do very well. One load with the 200 grain RNFP bullet with 5.0 grains of Titegroup hits 765 fps out of my 4-5/8" Blackhawk and puts the cylinder full in under 2 inches at 25 yards. That's plenty good for paper and plinking, and makes a nice head shot on small critters.

In my gun the .45 S&W load shoots three inches lower at 25 yards than my 300 grain boomer load, but that is just fine. I sight in with a center hold with the light load, and can use a bullseye hold with the big load out to 50 yards.

My favorite center fire revolvers are 625's in .45 ACP. They shoot extremely well with an H&G #68 Clone (MiHec six cavity mould).

In my Ruger .45 Colts my "standard" load has been the NOE mould clone of the Lyman 454424 ahead of 8.5 grs of Unique. It is safe in any modern .45 Colt, shoots to the sights at 25 yards, and is a pleasant load to shoot. My SS Ruger .45 Colt/.45 ACP shoots well with either cylinder (with the .45 ACP cylinder I shoot the same loads as I do with my 625's - 200 gr H&G #68 ahead of 4.0 grs of Bullseye or equivalent).

FWIW
Dale53

I enjoy shooting 200 gr rnfp with 6.5 gr Trail Boss out of my 625 MG.