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.45 ACP Ammo Question - FMJ vs JHP

PaulieDC

PaulieDC

Elite
Hey all, recently got my first gun, SA 1911 Range Officer. Not even gotten to a range yet and I'm clueless about ammo. I saw a YouTube vid where a fella talked specifically about ammo for a SA 1911 RO and stated that you really only want to shoot hardball through it... the JHP ammo that's basically slanted on the sides like a cone doesn't shoot well through it these 1911s. He said he's shot them a lot in the past and good ol' white box Winchester hardball ammo never failed him once.

I try to take everything in with a grain of salt... is he on the mark?
 
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Some guns will not like all JHP ammo, only way you can be sure is to get several brands and weights and see which your gun likes, but there is nothing wrong with hardball ammo either. Don’t get discouraged if your gun won’t feed some JHP, that’s why I said to get several on hand and try each, but with the ammo shortage now, it may be difficult to find some out there, good luck with your results.
 
Annihilator said:
Some guns will not like all JHP ammo, only way you can be sure is to get several brands and weights and see which your gun likes, but there is nothing wrong with hardball ammo either. Don’t get discouraged if your gun won’t feed some JHP, that’s why I said to get several on hand and try each, but with the ammo shortage now, it may be difficult to find some out there, good luck with your results.
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What took you so long? It was a full five minutes since I posted the question. :ROFLMAO:

Seriously, thanks for the reply. That makes sense. To be honest I'd be fine with hardball only while getting used to my new friend. Before the gun arrived I was able to snag 100 rounds of white box Winchester FMJ, and 100 rounds of Legend Pro JHP, literally because it was in stock for 3.2 minutes and I was in the right place at the right time. I'd almost be fine with selling the JHP, grab more Winchester hardball and just start out simple.

BTW, are you allowed to resell ammo? There's a lot I don't know yet... I do live in AZ which apparently makes things easier than some other states.
 
As a private citizen you are allowed to sell whatever you want. Federally. Your state may have its own ridiculous firearm/ammo laws. Remanufactured/ reloaded ammo is different. There’s liability.

As for your gun not liking JHP. That would be a gun I would sell fast.
 
Bassbob said:
As a private citizen you are allowed to sell whatever you want. Federally. Your state may have its own ridiculous firearm/ammo laws. Remanufactured/ reloaded ammo is different. There’s liability.

As for your gun not liking JHP. That would be a gun I would sell fast.
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Good point. BUT-- I think I'd better just shoot the JHP I have like Annihilator said, and see how it goes, as opposed to someone's take on YouTube. Thankful I even have any, lately it's been a chore to find any, and when you do it's $.75 to $1.00 per round. Oy.
 
JHP bullets come in various shapes and hollow-point opening sizes.

In the past, some brands like Speer Gold Dots, which have large openings, resulted in feeding issues. Others like Hornady XTP have smaller openings with a different bullet profile typically fed with fewer issues.

If you have the chance to try different brands see what happens in your pistol. Otherwise, FMJ was used in many military conflicts with success, and is always good since becoming proficient with your pistol is the best goal.

My .02
 
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Talyn said:
JHP bullets come in various shapes and hollow-point opening sizes.

In the past, some brands like Speer Gold Dots, which have large openings, resulted in feeding issues. Others like Hornady XTP have smaller openings with a different bullet profile typically fed with fewer issues.

If you have the chance to try different brands see what happens in your pistol. Otherwise, FMJ was used in many military conflicts with success, and is always good since becoming proficient with your pistol is the best goal.

My .02
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Again, excellent info. Taking it all in. I have email notifications everywhere just to try and get some ammo. Like everyone else, I wish I could go back a couple years and bit 5000 rounds when it was $.25 a shot, LOL.
 
If I were you, I wouldn’t rely on FMJ... and if I had known that a gun I wanted to buy had problems cycling hollow points, then I would not have bought that particular gun. But if I found that out after buying the gun, then I would buy a box of several different brands of hollowpoints in order to test the YouTube theory before buying a different gun then selling that one. If after, say, 3 different boxes of different hollowpoint brands with different bullet specs (ie gold dot vs HST vs hornady), none feed reliably, then that gun would be packed up and sold to someone else.

I kinda find it hard to believe that a modern gun’s design would prevent ALL hollowpoints from cycling. I bet you could find a good hollowpoint. It just sucks that it might be difficult to test and find the hollowpoints that work due to the ammo shortage.

In my opinion, if you have only one gun and it’s this one, keep it (even if it only shoots FMJ) until you get a different gun that can shoot everything. Then make that first gun disappear.
 
After first shooting 500 rounds of 230 grain round nose fmj I've shot 130 of these without a single failure in my range officer target.
image.jpeg
 
Caro said:
I kinda find it hard to believe that a modern gun’s design would prevent ALL hollowpoints from cycling. I bet you could find a good hollowpoint. It just sucks that it might be difficult to test and find the hollowpoints that work due to the ammo shortage.
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Exactly. I have 100 rds of Legend Pro to test and I'll keep hammering away to get more to test. Rupert1911 has had no probs with the Federal that he posted a picture of. My gun is identical inside, only difference is I have a red dot and accessory rail, so I'll be looking for that ammo next.
 
There are definitely users on this forum with more personal experience than me, but years ago Springfield offered free 1911 Armorer's Certification Schools for police firearms instructors and quartermasters. I knew several officers who completed the course. They all swore by Springfield 1911's, but advised officers who purchased one to break the gun in with up to 500 rounds of ball ammo before running JHP ammo through the gun.

They also advised officers who had any issues running JHP ammo to upgrade their magazines to Wilson Combat, Chip McCormick, or Ed Brown mags. I'm getting older, so there's a good chance that I received this advice a decade ago. I'm not sure if it still holds true today, but it was popular advice at one time. It wouldn't hurt to verify it with current shooters.
 
wmg1299 said:
There are definitely users on this forum with more personal experience than me, but years ago Springfield offered free 1911 Armorer's Certification Schools for police firearms instructors and quartermasters. I knew several officers who completed the course. They all swore by Springfield 1911's, but advised officers who purchased one to break the gun in with up to 500 rounds of ball ammo before running JHP ammo through the gun.

They also advised officers who had any issues running JHP ammo to upgrade their magazines to Wilson Combat, Chip McCormick, or Ed Brown mags. I'm getting older, so there's a good chance that I received this advice a decade ago. I'm not sure if it still holds true today, but it was popular advice at one time. It wouldn't hurt to verify it with current shooters.
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Decade or not, that sounds like very good advice! Plus, by the time I put even 300 to 400 hardball rounds through this, I should have a half a clue how the JHP rounds will perform. I like it. FMJ is less expensive anyway. Kinda. 😀
And even though I’m a noob playing with A-Zoom and Tipton snap caps at the moment, it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to notice that the two bundled magazines are not best-in-class, lol. To be honest, they feel like a glorified Pez dispenser to me. And I’m not kidding, I was going to ask if there are other magazine brands that would be suggested, in this very thread! And ba da bing, you answered it. Thanks!
 
I’m just going to throw this out there:

most .45 ammo is 230 grain. That round vs a human with clothes on and a coat/jacket is still going to go thru and do tons of damage. I wouldn't get caught up in jhp vs ball in a .45 as much as I would in a smaller 9mm round. I dont even buy jhp for my .45’s anymore. Only ball
 
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