I have had a S&W Model 25 4" barrel .45 Colt revolver now for a number of years. It was a gun given to me by my father when I became of legal age to own a handgun and was essentially my first handgun. Because of it's size I had never really considered it as a carry gun, but I have recently modified it somewhat with Hogue grips and picked up a great holster for it. A couple of HKS speedloaders I have offer rapid reloads. And I have been hitting 2 liter pop bottles with it consistently in single action mode @ 100 yds with 250 gr lead RN Remington. While this may not be a big feat for lots of shooters, this is the only handgun I have ever owned that I could reliably hit anything with at that distance. I certainly could not do that with any of my Glocks. Needless to say I am impressed by it's performance and have considered carrying it when hiking (mountain gun) and at other times when I don't care to carry in the open. Normally when I think of a SD handgun I think of a semi-auto, but this revolver has made me reconsider.
The issue that I am having difficulty with is finding a good performing, modern cartridge that will give me an adequate SD weapon as well as a trail gun. It seems this caliber, like several others (.44 Special, .41 Magnum, etc) have more or less been left behind in the ammo development department. And I have seen no test data pertaining to penetration/expansion. Therefore I really have no base to assist me in comparing the various rounds available. I have asked this question over at tactical forums several days ago and so far have received no response. I guess few people (if any) know anything about this caliber.
So, does anyone know of any good loads I could trust to perform well? I have been searching to see if there is a Speer Gold Dot offering and so far I have turned up zilch. So I would guess there isn't. I have been able to locate 3 hollow point loads, but I don't know how good any of them are. Federal offers a 225 gr lead SWC HP in it's classic line. If this bullet performs similarly to the .38 special swc lead hp's, then it should be a decent choice. Then there are some 225 gr Winchester Silvertips (which I have a couple of boxes of) that have a listed muzzle velocity of 920 fps. But based on the performance of .45 ACP Silvertip, I am not overly enthused at this point. And the last JHP load I saw was the 200 gr Cor-Bon moving along at 1100 fps. This load seems to have the most potential on paper, but I tend to disagree with Cor-Bon's philosphy in general, which relies mostly on energy transfer with rapid expanding, shallow penetrating performance. Whether this Cor-Bon offering exhibits the same performance or not, I have no idea. Other than these 3 loads it seems there are only 250 gr LRN, 225 gr lead SWC's and cowboy loads.
So, which .45 Colt load would you choose based on the intended uses I have mentioned? Or would you just leave this highly accurate revolver lying in the top shelf of the safe where it has spent so much time? I realize a .45 caliber projectile starts out pretty big anyway, but I would prefer something that offered decent expansion with good penetration and accuracy. I look forward to your comments.
-Charging Handle