185 gr. or 200 gr. for 45acp

[Evansmount]

was just curious as to what weight bullets you people are shooting in you 45's. I shoot 200 gr. and never have tried 185's and my friend shoots 185 gr. and has never shot 200's. Is the selection of bullet weight gun related (one just shoots better in a particular gun that the other), personal preference or some other reason?

[Brian74montecarlo]

For 45acp I don’t know the results but I’ve tried every single weight bullet I can get my hands on in my 9mm guns and I can say this -
115 grain shoots the spiciest of all
124 grain is similar
135 grain I can tell feels softer in the hand shooting and the gun does not try to kick up as badly
147 grain is less loud and also softer feeling in the hand as the gun fires
165 grain sub sonic is much quieter and very light feeling compaired to shooting 115 grain you can realley tell the diffrence

I tested them all by loading a pistol mag with 3 rounds of one kind and 3 kinds of another and shot them to get a real back to back comparison - I was very surprised with the results

[High Left]

160, 185, 200 ... choice of bearing length and nose length. Short nose might have feeding issues, gun to gun.

Long nose, light weight, short bearing length equals more case volume ... more powder required?

Cast bullets generally priced by weight. How many more 185's will you get?

'Scrapping out' the last few 160's I have loaded. 185 button nose long gone. Nothing but classic 200 (68?) left ...