I steer clear of +P in .45 and especially if you're shooting any 1911. 1911s are simply not designed for excessive loads. Even with a 22 lb spring and recoil buffers in the gun, you will get frame and slide damage if you fire a lot of 'em in it. Sigs and Rugers and such might be tougher, but I still leave the heavy loads to my revolvers. 9mm +p ain't as hard on guns in my experience, especially full sized guns. This is one reason I never got too excited about 10mm and especially in guns based on the 1911 like the Delta. They had a rep for excessive wear.
In .45 ACP I did work up a load on in a 1911 for chasing hogs at night with dogs. It's a tough sport, knew a guy with dogs and I'd go with him. I had .357s, but thought the 1911 would do the trick. In hind sight, I was full of it, LOL! .357 has better penetration with heavy bullets. Anyway, I later got a .45 Colt Blackhawk, so this load data never gets used. Proper tool for the job, I say.
Anyway, I cast a 200 grain SWC and a 220 grain cast hollowpoint. I prefer the SWC load, have to cast the bullets hard enough I don't know if that hollow point would even flatten out. The SWC wouldn't have to. Anyway, I loaded the 220 grain cast HP with 7.5 grains of Unique for 1050 fps. I loaded the 200 grain cast SWC with 12.0 grains of Blue Dot for 1080 fps. This is about as hot as I felt safe to shoot even with a 22 lb spring in the gun. When I fired 'em, the plastic recoil buffers were smashed flat in less than 25 rounds. LOL! They would normally last 500 rounds of normal ammo. This is why I don't like +P in .45ACP Do what you want with yours, but I think a 200 grain Speer gold dot at 950 fps will do anything that needs doing with a .45ACP. I get that with that same 7.5 grains Unique, lighter bullet, and didn't see near the recoil buffer bashing with the load. The 200 grain bullet accelerates faster and my thinking was it's out of the barrel and pressures further down before the action unlocks. But, it shoots sweet. If you need more'n 400 ft lbs in the .45ACP, you need to buy yourself a .41 or .44 magnum revolver or perhaps a .45 Colt Ruger or if you have a good .357 sitting around.........
My range load involves that 200 grain Lee TL SWC over 5.0 grains of Bullseye. I get 900 fps,/360 ft lbs, and enough momentum to sling bowling pins or smash the pepper poppers flat. It's accurate, too, and to me, that's important.
) Anyways I got a 1000 200gr RN coper plated bullets and will be using Power Pistol and VV N350 powders (I've got a few lbs of each)... I will also try some +P loads (200gr @1000fps)8)
