What is the best 45 ammo for a Colt 1911?
I don’t load for auto loaders. Just hunting/target loads for rifles and wheel guns.
Man you just opened up a can if worms with 100 right answers. What is the purpose of your hand load? That might narrow it down to ten answers. Relative to target practice the cheapest low power load you can use that will function in your weapon. Relative to protection, Hornady and Corbon make some of the best. Hornady has some exellenct loading charts that will give you performance equal their +P loads. The information is all there, buy Hornadys reloading book. A few dollars well spent.
For people that shoot a lot o ammo per year it is good to remember that unjacketed ammo is better for barrel life. I like the cast bullets from Montana Bullet Works.
My basic 45 ACP load that I developed as a teenager uses a swc cast bullet and 5.7 grains of DuPont’s SR 7625. I currently use a 200 grain swc but I’ve used the same powder charge with 180 and 185 weight in grain slugs. It is a mild/medium load and great for matches. And since I’m so familiar with that load it is also my carry load because my Colt, Kimber, and Springfield 1911s all feed those SWCs reliably. It is a bit milder than shooting factory 230 grain hardball but would hit human targets very hard given the lead SWC configuration.