Wind Up Those Warhorses!

Enhanced Punch For Your 1911, New Magazines
For Luger Lovers.

By Payton Miller

There are certain bullet weights pretty much considered the gold standard in terms of effectiveness (not to mention popularity) for a particular caliber. The 230-grain .45 ACP—whether in FMJ “hardball” format or JHP—is one of them. My background in shooting a 1911 is by no means as extensive as a lot of guys, but I figure I’ve ground through a couple of pallets’ worth of 185-grain target wadcutters, 200-grain long-nosed SWC and, of course, 230-grain FMJ over the years.

Recently, I had a chance to try out something pretty interesting. Namely, Buffalo Bore’s 255-grain Outdoorsman load, a +P hardcast flatnose item with a claimed velocity of 925 fps. In other words, a 1911 load equaling the throw weight and surpassing the velocity of the storied Single Action Army’s .45 Colt load.

I was already a fan of the Buffalo Bore’s .38 Special Outdoorsman load (a 158-grain hardcast SWC at around 1,200 fps). The .45 ACP version promised more of the same—bumped-up velocity combined with a heavier-than-standard bullet weight to ensure the kind of penetration you might want if you’re trying to make your outdoorsy handgun perform a task somewhat beyond its “pay grade.”

I was curious what sort of accuracy I could expect at 25 yards from this heavyweight, so I borrowed Thomas Mackie’s dead-stock SIG 1911 and gave it a try.

The result was four shots in a 1-inch cluster with three of them forming a cloverleaf. Of course there was the operator-induced flyer 2 inches to the right, but all in all, a pretty auspicious outing. Chronograph results? Well, from the 5-inch barrel they exceeded Buffalo Bore’s typically real-world claims—an average velocity of 944 fps, an Extreme Spread of 33 fps and a fairly minuscule Standard Deviation number of 13. If you’re looking to bump up the potential of your 1911, this stuff would seem to be an excellent candidate. Oh, and reliability in Thomas’ out-of-the-box SIG was 100 percent. Finally, although I am by no means insensitive to handgun recoil, I was unable to determine any significant difference between this load and a “passed-the FBI-protocol” 230-grain JHP.

Mec-Gar USA offers blued or nickeled P08 magazines. Both performed
flawlessly in this pair of 1917-vintage Lugers.

Few classics are as fun to shoot as an old Luger, and a new
magazine can make it possible.

Buffalo Bore’s heavyweight .45 ACP (top) matches the weight of the
255-grain .45 Colt (bottom) and exceeds it in velocity—all from
Browning’s shorter, rimless case. Accuracy at 25 yards from this
SIG 1911 was impressive indeed.

Cycle Or Stall

Semi-auto pistols have several advantages over revolvers, but there’s a reason most folks who shoot self-loaders are never content with the amount of magazines they own. Why? Well, without a working magazine, your $3,500 custom 1911 or full-zoot, striker-fired polymer 9mm is little more than a single-shot paperweight. And a rather difficult one to load besides, unless you’re three-handed.

It’s not too tough to find magazines for your current, Berettas, Springfields, Kahrs, S&Ws and whatever else is commonly available. But what happens your tastes run to less “off the shelf” stuff?

We recently were faced with a tougher challenge—namely getting magazines for two elderly (is there any other kind?) Luger P08’s. One was of Erfurt manufacture, the other a DWM. Both were true-blue WWI relics circa 1917. But the magazines we had for them were weak and unreliable things—bent feed lips, shot springs, you name it. Not to mention the fact they were—original as they may have been—flat-out unsightly.

Since Lugers are no longer coin of the realm in the world of semi-auto pistols, we figured our particular magazine odyssey was going to involve a long and circuitous Internet search. But a phone called solved the problem painlessly. Mec-Gar USA came to the rescue and sent us a pair of new ones, one blued, one nickled.

Both were proper 8-rounders featuring heat-treated carbon steel tubes, high tensile music wire springs, polymer buttplates and followers.

We took both Lugers and both magazines to the range and ran mags and guns with a variety of 9mm loads ranging from 90-grain CorBon JHP, 115-grain HPR JHP, 124-grain Black Hills hardball and 147-grain Winchester Supreme JHPs. Both magazines performed flawlessly in either gun. We didn’t get a slip or a stutter and had an absolute ball emptying out magazines and marveling over the Luger’s toggle-link action (not to mention its “one-of-a-kind” trigger pull!). Sometimes you forget just how much fun it is to shoot a classic. Price: $41.80 (blued), $46.45 (nickel finish).

Shooting Facilities provided by: Angeles Shooting Ranges, 12651 Little Tujunga Rd., Lakeview Terrace, CA 91342, (818) 899-2255 www.angelesranges.com.
By Payton Miller

Buffalo Bore, 366 Sandy Creek Rd., Salmon, ID 83467

Mec-Gar USA, Inc. , 905 Middle St., Middletown, CT 06457, (860) 635-1525

The FG-42 was—and is—an awesome example of German small arms innovation.

Airborne Increase

Rock Island Auctions saw another highly desirable German FG42 surpass last year’s FG42 sale price of $299,000. This one went for a whopping $322,000. Easily one of the most interesting small arms of WWII, the select-fire Fallschirmjägergewehr 42 was specifically developed for parachute units. And it retains an almost mythical level of panache with aficionados of German military small arms. Editor Jeff, in fact, is on the trail of a semi-auto-only version of one. It weighs 9.3 pounds and employs a 20-round detachable box magazine. The caliber was the same as that of the bolt-action K98k infantry rifle—7.92mm. No shorty 7.92 Kurz for this one! For further information on RIA’s schedule, contact them at www.rockislandauction.com, (800) 238-8022. Photo courtesy RIA.

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