Bullet weight vs Barrel lenght

[Bradster]

Can anyone tell me what is the best weight bullet to shoot out of short barrel pistols?

For instance what bullet weight would be better for a 4 inch 1911? 185 or 230gr?

[knight0334]

It can be a trade off either way.

For shorter barrels you may want the 185gr slug. The 230gr would be really at a turtle's pace in the shorter barrels.

However each firearm is different, yours may prefer one over the other. Try them both out and be the judge. Numberswise the lighter probably wins, but guns, carrying and such isn't about math. Any badguy you may have to shoot will not be able to tell you that you just hit them with an *** grain bullet.

[Bradster]

Well i guess the next question is whether the short barrel can stabalize the 230gr or when talking short distance shooting does that even come into play?

[Bradster]

And is there anything that will tell me what pd recoil spring i should use for a specific weight bullet?

[TheSB]

Firearm: Colt Commander
Barrel Length: 4.25"
Caliber: .45 ACP
Bullet Diameter: 0.451"
Bullet Weight: 230 grains
Make: Federal JHP Hydra-Shok
Velocity: 807 FPS
Recovered Bullet Diameter: 0.678"
Recovered Bullet Weight: 198.0 grains
Distance From Muzzle: 20'

230gr at 807fps isnt exactly snail paced, but it is slower than the 185.

I suggest you take a look at this comparison: http://stevespages.com/page8f45acp.html

Should get you started on making an informed decision on what to shoot.


SB

[knight0334]

Its not the barrel length that stabilizes the bullet, its the rifling. And all it takes is just a faction of an inch of rifling to start rotation. The barrel can be smooth bore upto the end of the barrel, then the last 1/2" is rifled and the bullet will have the same amount of rotations per second, if not more since the freebore would allow for the bullet to build up speed with less resistance(Weatherby trick).

The longer the bullet or the slower the velocity the faster the twist rate that you'll need.

What the shorter barrel does is provide less velocity and a shorter sight radius.

[mjfletcher]

Only thing I'll add to this is to keep physics in mind. Shorter barrel means less time for energy to transfer from the expanding gasses in the chamber to the bullet resulting in greater felt recoil than the same bullet fired from a longer barrel. A heavier bullet will absorb less energy from the expanding gas than a lighter bullet (thus the lower muzzel velocity) so there will be greater felt recoil wtih a heavier bullet.

Now whether the physics matter in your case is a completely different question and only you can answer that one.