I am giving the .45 ACP ARX 118-grain bullets a thorough evaluation in my Springfield 1911. I’ve been using my Winchester 231 load (7.0 grains, to be precise), and I continue to be impressed with just how accurate these bullets are.
One day recently when I was on the range with the 1911 and my ARX reloads, it was very windy. I shot at 25 yards, had a decent group, and then two things happened:
I moved the target out to 50 yards, and
The wind picked up significantly.
You might call someone who evaluates a load for accuracy under high wind conditions not very bright. Hey, guilty as charged. That’s exactly what I was doing.
Under those extremely windy conditions, I was surprised. The bullets impacted the 50-yard target a foot to the right. I kept cranking in windage adjustments on the 1911’s rear sight and I still couldn’t get the bullets back on target.
A cold and foggy morning on the West End Gun Club range. The left arrow points to my 25-yard target, which I subsequently moved out to 50 yards. The right arrow points to a target on the 100-yard line (I brought the Garand along; it’s not addressed in this blog). I had to wait for the fog to clear a bit; I could barely see the target.
Realizing there had to be more to the story, I went out to test the load again at 25 and 50 yards a few days later when the wind had died down. It was cold and foggy, but there was no wind.
Five rounds with ARX bullets at 25 yards. All five went into the 10-ring.
I put the target at 25 yards and fired 5 rounds with my ARX load. Nice, I thought, as I looked through my spotting scope. All five shots were in the 10-ring, and 3 of those were in the X-ring.
I then moved the same target out to 50 yards and fired another five rounds. Wow, was I ever pleased. The 50-yard group was right on top of the 25-yard group, with a couple that went a little high (but they were still in the black).
Five more rounds on the same target as above (a regulation 25-yard pistol target), this time at 50 yards. Beware of old guys; some of us are still pretty good shots.
The above results and my experience the preceding week convinced me of three things:
The ARX bullets are probably more affected by wind than conventional bullets at longer ranges (not surprising, as they are half the weight of normal 230-grain hardball bullets),
The ARX bullets are exceptionally accurate, and
The ARX load is a relatively flat-shooting load (I didn’t have to make any sight adjustments when going from 25 to 50 yards).
I like these ARX bullets, and I like this load.
Next up? I’ll be evaluating this .45 ACP ARX load in a couple of my revolvers. That’s going to be interesting. I promise.
When you’re a retired engineer who likes to play with guns…well, read on.
After my great results with 8.8 grains of Power Pistol under the 118-grain ARX bullet in the .45 ACP, I learned that Power Pistol is no longer available. That was good news and bad news. The bad news is I that I can no longer get that powder. The good news is that I already have something like 850 loaded rounds with Power Pistol (those will last me for a while). More good news is that I have an excuse (not that I needed one) to find another load for my .45 with the ARX bullets.
.45 ACP cartridges reloaded with ARX 118-grain poly/copper composite bullet.
Winchester’s 231 worked great in the 9mm and I had some on hand, so that’s what I thought I would try next. Inceptor lists two load ranges; I stuck to the standard (i.e., non +P) range. With the 118-grain .45 ARX bullets, Inceptor showed the Winchester 231 propellant range to be 6.3 to 7.0 grains. I loaded at 6.8 and 7.0 grains. I test fired at 10 yards, just as I had done before with the Power Pistol loads.
In the full-sized Springfield Armory 1911, both 6.8 and 7.0 grains of 231 functioned reliably. The 7.0 grain group was noticeably tighter than the 6.8 grain load. The two targets on top were with 6.8 grains of 231; the two on the bottom were with 7.0 grains. The two 7.0-grain groups were right on top of each other if you look at both targets. There was one flyer in the first group, and that’s due to me. The second group was one ragged hole. This is a good load in the 5-inch Springfield 1911.
The top two targets were shot with 6.8 grains of Winchester 231; the bottom two were with 7.0 grains of 231. There are five shots on the bottom right target; they cut one ragged hole.
From a velocity and velocity variation perspective, the Springfield 6.8-grain load was tighter, but I’m sticking with the 7.0-grain load (it grouped better). If there was a difference in felt recoil between the two loads, I couldn’t detect it. Here’s the chrono readout for the Springfield and the 6.8-grain load:
The 6.8-grain 231 load chrono results.
Here’s the chrono result for the Springfield and the 7.0-grain load:
The 7.0-grain chrono results. The extra 0.2 grains of propellant bumped the average velocity 57 fps.
As a point of reference, the average velocity with the 8.8-grain Power Pistol load was 1299 fps, so this is only a little bit slower (16 fps, to be exact). The bottom line is that the 7.0-grain 231 load is a suitable substitute for the 8.8-grain Power Pistol load in the full-sized 1911.
I next turned to the Rock Island Armory Compact. It’s one my good buddy TJ of TJ’s Custom Guns worked over for me and it is superbly accurate and reliable with conventional cast and jacketed bullets. The Compact has a 3 1/2-inch barrel. The ARX bullets did not perform well with either powder (Winchester 231 or Power Pistol) in the Compact 1911. They tumbled in flight and they were not accurate. The 7.0-grain 231 load functioned the pistol reliably, ejected all cartridge cases, and held the slide open after the last round. The 6.8-grain 231 load worked the slide and it stayed open after the last round, but on the last round the cartridge case remained in the chamber. These factors (along with the poor accuracy and the tumbling in flight) showed the ARX bullets and 231 are not good in my Compact 1911.
I tried the ARX bullets with my prior 8.8-grain Power Pistol load in the Compact 1911 Everything on the gun functioned the way it should (I had reliable ejection and the slide stayed back on the last round), but the accuracy was poor and the bullets tumbled in flight just as they had with the 231 loads. The shorter 3 1/2-inch barrel just doesn’t give the bullets enough velocity to stabilize.
Here’s what the targets looked like with the Compact 1911. The left top is the 6.8-grain 231 load, the top right is the 7.0-grain W31 load, and the bottom two are with 8.8 grains of Power Pistol. Accuracy was terrible with all, and like I mentioned above, all loads exhibited tumbling. This is why we test loads. Some work, some work wonderfully well, and some don’t work at all.
Whoa! Things went to hell in a handbasket with the ARX bullets in my Compact 1911.
Here’s a closeup of the tumbling. It’s obvious what’s going on here.
The bullets tumbled in flight when fired in the Compact Rock. The lower left shot was flying sideways as it passed through the target.
These bullets need a minimum velocity to stabilize, and the Compact 1911’s shorter barrel isn’t delivering it. Here are the chrono results for the 6.8-grain 231 load (the chrono didn’t pick up a couple of the shots):
Lower velocity = less stability. Things fell apart with the Compact’s shorter barrel.
Here are the results for the 7.0-grain 231 load:
The chrono picked up a round fired by someone else. It didn’t matter; the results were not good at these lower velocities.
I didn’t bother chronographing the Power Pistol load in the Compact when I saw that those were tumbling, too.
It appears that the .45 bullets need something above approximately 1200 fps to stabilize. I’ll probably next test the 7.0-grain 231 load at 25 yards and 50 yards in the Springfield 1911 to see if the bullets are stable at those longer ranges. I don’t know how much velocity they’ll give up as a function of range and I’m not willing to stand downrange with the chrono to catch them as they fly by.
