Hollow Base bullets for Handguns

Guy Miner

Master Loader
Apr 6, 2006
17,453
4,514
Just picked up 250 of these to try, 185 grain plated bullets for the .45 ACP.



Have had great success in the past with 148 grain hollow base wadcutters from a .38 Special, and with some .45 cal 230 grain lead round nose bullets, with a slight hollow "dish" in the bottom of the bullet.

This will be my first time trying these, inspired by my accuracy success with the 185 gr JHP Nosler bullets from my .45 ACP Kimber.

I'll let you know how it works out!

Guy
 
I'll definitely be watching your results, Guy. Forty-five caliber bullets are rather pricey here.
 
Mike - I've had GREAT results from inexpensive 200 grain lead semi-wadcutters too... If your pistol will feed them, they can provide superb accuracy.

Guy
 
Looks good Guy. I shoot the plated 230 gr bullets out of my 45 ACP Kimber. My buddy and I split a 4000 pc order so I have plenty of bullets. Mine are dished but not like those you have.
If you load them backwards, you would have an awesome hollow point. :)

JD338
 
I shoot the Rayonier 180 gr. Hollow Points in my .40 S&W and they shoot real good. I've never seen or shot a hollow base pistol bullet. Usually a hollow base is undersized and the hollow base swells to fit the lands upon firing. Is that the reasoning behind the hollow base?
 
In the old muskets the mini ball was designed with a hollow base so it would expand to fill the rifling and I believe a French man invented it.
But the hollow base bullets I have used are not under sized. My experience with Berry bullets are they make for great plinking or practice and I wouldn't expect target bullet accuracy from them.
Winchester used to make a concave base jacketed 185gr semi wad cutter in .45 but dropped it when the machinery wore out and didn't invest in new tooling. It was one of the best target bullets made and I still have some factory match ammo I use to measure the accuracy of my reloads against for Bullseye shooting. I cast my own 200gr semi wad cutters and 185gr wad cutters for local matches but when I would go to Perry for the Nationals I would load the 185gr Nosler HP match bullets.
Star used to make exceptional swagged bullets but are long since gone out of business. Delta Precision was suppose to be making the Star bullets off the old Star equipment but I haven't had good luck with them for extreme accuracy in my pistols at 50yds.
I lock my pistols up in a machine rest when testing target loads and the loads have to shoot 1 1/2" for match performance. The old Winchester match ammo would do better then that out of my pistols and the Nosler bullets come very close to the old Winchester ammo.
 
TD, you've done a LOT more competitive pistol shooting than I have.

I do remember years ago, getting outstanding accuracy from a couple of different swaged lead hollow-base wadcutter bullets, 148 grains, from my .38 Special loads.

Loaded them to around 600-700 fps and... my goodness! Happy shooter here.

BTW - I had a couple boxes of old Winchester 185 grain .45 match ammo... YES! That stuff can shoot!

Guy
 
Sometime I'll have to take a picture of the bullets I use for hand gun target shooting and post them so the guys can see what is used. Bullseye is a totally different game similar to precision rifle shooting. I use 4 different calibers and at one time 5, .45 .38spl, .38 super, .32 S&W Long and .22lr. You shoot a rim fire stage, center fire stage and a .45 stage 90 rounds each for a maximum score of 2700 In the history of the game I don't think anyone has fired a perfect 2700. I have shot into the mid 2600 and had one high shore of 2685 when I was shooting regular. Shoulder surgery and the broken ankle has taken it's toll on my precision shooting with a hand gun.
Guy if I remember right 3.8grs VV N110 under the Nosler 185gr HP works very well. Also 3.8grs of Bullseye with a 200gr lead hard cast semi wad cutter works fairly good in a .45 also. I'm currently using Solo 1000 in my .45 with a 185gr semi wad cutter.
 
Nice...

Yeah, I've only dabbled in the accuracy game with handguns.

No guys, we're not talking about your .44 mag at 1400 fps here... :grin:

Regards, Guy
 
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