.45 acp in 2023/24

[JHC]

Nice. I'm debating right now whether to order more HST, or switch to Gold Dot. That stainless slide USPc 45 is beautiful. Always wish I'd gotten one, but I only see them used and for significantly marked up prices. If I ever find an unfired one at a price that is at least somewhat reasonable, I may pick it up. It's nice that it can use my HK45C mags.

What do you think of that Critical Duty .45 load? A hard penetrating slug and very accurate. +p however

[SwampDweller]

What do you think of that Critical Duty .45 load? A hard penetrating slug and very accurate. +p however

I like it and have shot quite a bit of it through my G21s. I do notice considerably more snap compared to standard pressure loads, or even HST 230gr +P. Of course, that's subjective.

Only thing that I'm a little hesitant about: With the 185gr Critical Defense .45 load, I had a pretty bad malfunction with the HK45C I used to own. Upon feeding a round, the slide got stuck just short of fully going into battery. It took over 5 minutes and a lot of tugging to finally get the slide open to get the round out. Such an incident would've deadlined the weapon in a serious situation. Did a little looking on the HKpro forums and found that it wasn't super uncommon for people to have reliability issues in their 45C's using that load. I can't recall the exact potential reasons, but I think it had something to do with the shape of the bullet and the chamber throat. Granted, that was with Critical Defense, not Critical Duty 220gr +P, so its possible the issue is completely limited to that. I would need to get a case of the Critical Duty to run at least a few hundred rounds through to make sure.

Shooting the 230gr +P HST yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised how it shot. That combined with DB's various stories about the effectiveness of that load have me considering carrying that, but it's mostly between Standard Pressure HST and Gold Dot.

[Slice]

Gold Dot is great too and thanks for your appreciation for my stainless USPc. I purchased it new in 1998 or 1999, I can’t remember which. It’s a 1998 build. I had HK convert it to LEM around 2002. It was my first edc gun when 10 round limits were still in effect.

[Elwin]

I shot a few rounds of standard pressure 230gr. HST yesterday confirming zero with a carry gun I'm working up, and was pleasantly reminded of how very similar its recoil impulse is to target loads (in my case a 230gr. cast bullet over 5.2 of 231). With standard pressure 124gr. HST, there was a noticeable difference compared to 124gr. range loads.

If the velocity difference between the standard and +P 230gr. is potentially as little as ~30fps, I'm more than happy to stick with the standard.

[TC215]

What do you think of that Critical Duty .45 load? A hard penetrating slug and very accurate. +p however

Several years ago, at my old department, we ended up with a bunch of Critical Duty .45 for the SWAT team. We were worried that it would not function in our 1911’s (Hornady even told us that ammo had problems in some 1911’s), but it did fine. Surprisingly, it caused malfunctions in several USPs, which was the general-issue gun. We ended up going back to Gold Dot.

[Archer1440]

I shot a few rounds of standard pressure 230gr. HST yesterday confirming zero with a carry gun I'm working up, and was pleasantly reminded of how very similar its recoil impulse is to target loads (in my case a 230gr. cast bullet over 5.2 of 231). With standard pressure 124gr. HST, there was a noticeable difference compared to 124gr. range loads.

If the velocity difference between the standard and +P 230gr. is potentially as little as ~30fps, I'm more than happy to stick with the standard.

I run the standard pressure HST .45 in my alloy framed Colt CCO and the +P in my full-size steel 1911’s, USP’s and HK45T. Both rounds are excellent in terms of accuracy- shockingly so in my rattly but jaw-droppingly accurate CCO.

I’ve never quite figured out why that little *@&% is so accurate for me despite being far too small for my hands.

[SW CQB 45]

We have been a Gold Dot Dept for the longest time.

I still have access to a decent supply of GD 230 grain.

Many moons ago, I was talking to someone at Vista Outdoors and he said they push Gold Dot from a marketing standpoint, but he said there was nothing wrong with HST.

I asked to try HST sometime ago but was "shot down" (HA!) based on we had too much GD and there was no real justification to swap.

I am the lone .45 but my 1911 recently went back to Schauland Performance for a tolerance issue. Intermittently, it will stick a mag after the last shot, or after the last shot, the bullet will slap the slide stop inner lobe and try to push the slide stop out. This was with Gold Dot 230 and Speer Lawman 230 FMJ.

I did not get to mess much when I first got it back as it was a busy Dec/Jan for me. I recently shot 150 rounds and had 5 issues as listed above. The gun works good with ammo in the mag (HA!)

He told me my frame was out of spec is some areas. 2008, maybe I got a true Friday gun. I like Fridays!

I noticed my original plunger tube, the front detent in the tube had a lot of movement. I told Rob to change out the plunger tube since it has about 19K through the tube and he will likely have to fine tune the slide stop.

Stuck Mag


Slide Stop trying to come out


Dropped one hammering that trigger

[revchuck38]

I shot a few rounds of standard pressure 230gr. HST yesterday confirming zero with a carry gun I'm working up, and was pleasantly reminded of how very similar its recoil impulse is to target loads (in my case a 230gr. cast bullet over 5.2 of 231). With standard pressure 124gr. HST, there was a noticeable difference compared to 124gr. range loads.

If the velocity difference between the standard and +P 230gr. is potentially as little as ~30fps, I'm more than happy to stick with the standard.

I've been getting whichever is on sale when I need some.

[03RN]

We have been a Gold Dot Dept for the longest time.

I still have access to a decent supply of GD 230 grain.

Many moons ago, I was talking to someone at Vista Outdoors and he said they push Gold Dot from a marketing standpoint, but he said there was nothing wrong with HST.

I asked to try HST sometime ago but was "shot down" (HA!) based on we had too much GD and there was no real justification to swap.

I am the lone .45 but my 1911 recently went back to Schauland Performance for a tolerance issue. Intermittently, it will stick a mag after the last shot, or after the last shot, the bullet will slap the slide stop inner lobe and try to push the slide stop out. This was with Gold Dot 230 and Speer Lawman 230 FMJ.

I did not get to mess much when I first got it back as it was a busy Dec/Jan for me. I recently shot 150 rounds and had 5 issues as listed above. The gun works good with ammo in the mag (HA!)

He told me my frame was out of spec is some areas. 2008, maybe I got a true Friday gun. I like Fridays!

I noticed my original plunger tube, the front detent in the tube had a lot of movement. I told Rob to change out the plunger tube since it has about 19K through the tube and he will likely have to fine tune the slide stop.

Stuck Mag


Slide Stop trying to come out


Dropped one hammering that trigger

I think I was having the same problem with my loaded when the plunger tube came loose.

I made sure to properly stake the new one.

[03RN]

I shot my loaded for the first time since I had a bow tie cut milled. I wasn't really worried about function issues but there weren't any. You can even see the bowtie on the barrel lugs now.

The only malfunction was a problem with ice not allowing a mag to seat when I drew there was a click. I ejected the mag, blew the ice off and reinserted