British Motorcycle Gear

Categories: Guns

A Model 625 load…

When I first posted about the Model 60 load development plan and the Altamont grips I bought from good buddy Paul, the cover photo showed my recently-acquired Model 60 snubbie and a Smith and Wesson Performance Center Model 625 I’ve owned for years.

The Model 625 and the Model 60.

I like that photo because the two stainless steel Smiths look great on the wild boar skin.  That skin is from a pig hunt Paul and I did in Arizona a few years ago.

The earlier blog was about finding an accuracy load for the Model 60, but a few people wrote to ask if I had a favorite load for the Model 625.  I do: My usual accuracy load for the 625 is a cast 200-grain cast semiwadcutter bullet (sized to .452 inches) over 4.2 grains of Bullseye.

When I went to the range to run a few rounds through the 625 I picked a box of ammo I had reloaded in 2014.  It was different than my usual accuracy load.  I used the same bullet (a 200-grain cast semi-wadcutter), but instead of Bullseye I had loaded these over 6.0 grains of Unique.  And instead of .45 ACP brass in star clips, I used AutoRim brass.  This is the load I fired that 6-shot group you see in the cover photo above for this blog, and it’s a honey.  The group, that is…not the photo (it’s hard to get true colors when using an iPhone in the shade).  I shot at 50 feet while standing…there’s no rest for the Model 625 or the weary.

.45 ACP cartridges in star clips for the Model 625. These are loaded with 230-grain cast roundnose Missouri bullets.
The .45 ACP cartridge (left) and the .45 AutoRim cartridge (right). The AutoRim cartridge is designed for use in the Model 625 without star clips. The ACP cartridge has a 230-grain roundnose Xtreme bullet; the AutoRim cartridge has Missouri’s 200-grain semi-wadcutter.

The AutoRim brass is in the tumbler as I write this and when I reload it I’m going to go with the same load: The 200-grain cast semi-wadcutter over 6.0 grains of Unique.  It seems to be working for me.


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Joe Berk

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