I wasn't even searching for .45acp or load data, but this thread popped up. Another example of odd but interesting.
90 grs, 2000 fps .45 ACP can be had rather readily. 12 grs of Bullseye does the trick. The bullet is cast of "no lead" solder, available at any plumbing supply store. It's 5% antimony, 95% tin. It's expensive, at $8 a lb, but you get 70 bullets per lb, ya know. How many would you ever need? Cast this alloy and use the Lee 155 gr swc mold, the bullets drop out at 100 grs. A centerdrill in a lathe, and they are hollowbased to 90 grs. They are very hard, and lead the bore very little. 90grs at 2000 fps is 800 ft lbs. The recoil is no worse than 200 grs at 950 fps, so it's still quite controlable in alloy framed, compact ccw guns.
Specifications above: 45acp, 90-grain bullet in an SWC shape, 12 grains of Bullseye, and ‘alloy framed, compact ccw gun”.
So let’s look at those. Lee doesn’t list a 155-grain .45 caliber bullet, but do believe they used to; or at least someone did a long time ago. The lightest .45-caliber bullet with an SWC profile that Lee lists now is 200 grains, so to be fair let’s use that one to get the basic shape, but manually change the weight from 200 grains to just 90 grains.
An “alloy framed, compact ccw gun” is at most a Commander, so to give this load data as much chance as possible for success, we’ll use the commander's 4.25” barrel length.
Max pressure for .45acp is 21,000 psi, but the +P version can safely go to 23,000 psi, so we’ll run with that since this is intended as a ‘serious use’ load. And to keep pressure for this load as low as possible, we’ll load this to the longest possible cartridge length; the full 1.275 inches that .45acp maxes out at.
And we put that in QuickLoad to see what it estimates as far as velocity, pressure, etc.
Velocity – at the bottom-right, circled in blue. And it's right on the money. Not 2000 fps, but 1983; well within standard deviation variances. Looks good.
Maybe we’re onto something here. What’s the pressure on this? Still within the 23,000 psi max of 45acp +P by any chance?
Wonder of wonders, it's nowhere near the 21k psi of 45acp or even the 23k psi of 45acp +P. But surely it's less than a .45acp
proof load..? Maximum for even proof loads is 30,450 psi for 45acp and 32,200psi for 45acp +P; surely we're still under that..?
No. Max PSI is shown in one of those scary red boxes, also circled in blue. And it's not 21k psi, not 23k psi, not 25k psi, not 30k psi, and not even 35k psi. This grenade runs more than the
40k psi maximum of .45 Win Mag. So if you’re willing to load your alloy commander (or other 45acp "alloy framed, compact ccw gun") to beyond .45 win mag pressure, you can do this. You may not
survive it, but you can do it. At least once...