Hot 45 acp cfe loads

[CNH-320]

Has anyone else tried 230 gr with cfe beyond the published 6.8 max charge? I’m interested in shooting pins and I think the extra velocity would be good to knock the pins off the table better.
Today I tried 7.1 and 7.3 cfe under 230 xtp’s and my chrono numbers got me 948fps and 972 fps average. The primers on the 7.3 load are flattened but I’ve seen worse, especially with W231.
The 6.8 load does give good accuracy though, the best of the day.
Anyone else try pushing cfe over max?

 

[houdini]

I never go above the max, do not want to damage my gun.

 

[gerrycaruso]

Assuming your gun will handle them, have you looked at plus-P load data?

 

[Mountain]

I am not your usual safety nazi and will push some cartridges aggressively. That said, I won't play games with fast burning pistol powders. If you are already getting good accuracy at the max load and flattened primers, methinks you will gain more from more time practicing than getting edgy with loads. 45 already has a decent amount of juice to knock pins off of a table. If that's not enough, go 10mm.

CFE is a moderately fast powder and I'll assume that there is plenty of extra space in a 45 acp cartridge. That means room for error, double charges, etc. If you are on the very edge of known safe loads, any small error could have big consequences. Those flat primers are telling you to STOP.

Why risk this?

* per @gerrycaruso , known +P excepted if your gun is OK for those.

But wait, there's more:

Tried Ramshot Enforcer? It can generate velocity higher than any other 45 acp powder and will remain below the psi limit for standard 45 acp. Enforcer pushes 230-grain bullets to ~1070 fps and at a pressure of only 19,636 psi, which is below the maximum standard (not +P) pressure limit. Note that it is a somewhat slower powder than is CFE. Again, I would not mess with fast powders beyond their limits.

 

[drgrant]

Lol 950 with a 230 is already juiced, honestly id tune /below/ 7.3 and see how it goes. 80% of my pin loads were around 850 fps, even the juiced ones were usually only going around 900-925.

 

[gerrycaruso]

As Mountain said, more practice may be better than a heavier load. I use a 45 auto for pin matches and have found that a center hit with just about any load will drive the pin off the table. A hit off center will knock it over but not push it off the table. I use 230 grain plus P jacketed hollow point factory ammo only because I get it for free.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Would a different bullet design help? The NOE copy of Lyman 453423 feeds and shoots fine in the only 1911 I’ve tried it in. Saint Elmer Keith designed it for use in a 1911 and 625 revolvers.
Wide SWC about 240 grains. I hear that the don’t glance off of pins as easily as RN

I thought I had pics but I guess not. Easy enough to look up.

 

[CNH-320]

Thanks for all the replies. I read everyone’s input and decided on the proven 6.8 gr cfe under the xtp bullet. I don’t believe the extra power is going to be necessary for me since this will be the first time shooting pins in over 10 years.

 

[67ray]

One problem is when the pins get used the projo can start to accumulate in the pin making it heavy. They get harder to knock over unless you hit them at the top. Extra juice in the cartridge can help.

 

[drgrant]

As Mountain said, more practice may be better than a heavier load. I use a 45 auto for pin matches and have found that a center hit with just about any load will drive the pin off the table. A hit off center will knock it over but not push it off the table. I use 230 grain plus P jacketed hollow point factory ammo only because I get it for free.

If the person running your match is cheap you will want all the juice you can get it doesn't matter how good your hits are.... The pins start to turn into bullet tampons because they get so heavy. A lot of the pin shoots basically the deal was that they would run the pins until they couldn't stand up anymore.... some of them even would get recycled between matches. At one notorious nocentma club basically the deal was that people would often passive aggressively fight the operator's skinflinting by bringing things like 44 Magnums and just blowing the s*** out of his horrible overused pins...... when the 44s came out it was lumber harvesting time.

 

[CNH-320]

It’s been over 10 years since I shot pins last so I’ll be feeling things out this time. I’m using a pistol with a 6” barrel so I’ll get the little extra velocity at least.

 

[CNH-320]

So the pin shoot went good. My first match I only missed 1 pin, so I shot 29 out of 30 off the table.
At the end I participated in the open class to get another chance to shoot. It was the last match and the pins were full of lead, I didn’t do so well because the pins didn’t want to roll off the table so I’m thinking next time I might load some rounds a little hotter than max for shooting at the end. I might look into other powders to get me the extra velocity while staying in pressure.