How Good is Old .45 Ammo?

m1911ball

M1911 Ball Drawing

Purely for academic curiosity, I shot some old .45 ACP ammo just to see if it would go BANG! The answer is yes, “most of the time.”

Click on Photo for a larger pic…

Peters Cartridge Co. M1911 Ball from WW1 went BANG! ten times for ten rounds, giving an average velocity of 836 fps, with an extreme spread of 88 fps, and a standard deviation of 27 fps, making a 4-inch group at 25 yards. Typical hardball performance for ammo which was 95 years old!

Peters Cartridge Co. M1911 Ball made in 1927 similarly went BANG! ten times for ten rounds, with an average velocity of 859 fps, an extreme spread of 70 fps and a standard deviation of 18 fps, for a 3.1" group at 25 yards. Again, typical hardball.

Frankford Arsenal M1911 Ball made in 1933 did not do as well. I have no explanation. The ammo appeared bright and clean, so I doubt that it was environmental factors. I had to attempt to fire three cylinder loads through my 4-5/8" Ruger Blackhawk before I got ten rounds through the chronograph. The first cylinder full had one noticeable hang fire and two misfires. Two of the rounds which did go off suffered case splits. The second cylinder full had 1 noticeable hang fire and 3 misfires. The third cylinder full had one misfire and four of five rounds which went off suffered case splits. Average velocity for the ten record rounds was 830 fps, with an extreme spread of 104 fps, a standard deviation of 28 fps and a 6.1" group at 25 yards. Sort of hard to follow through with them hang fires, I need more practice shooting flintlocks I guess!

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