Of the many firearms designs emanating from John Browning few have become as ubiquitous and storied as the Model 1911.
The single-action semi-automatic pistol became one of the most popular handguns of the past century, having earned its stripes on some of the world's most brutal battlegrounds. Since then, it has gone on to be the choice of every type of handgun enthusiast — from those looking for a personal-defense piece, to plain old plinkers. The 1911's acclaim has even led nearly every major manufacturer to produce their version of the pistol — a claim few designs can make.
Now, a company aims to give its take on the handgun or at least its ammunition. Winchester has just released Win1911 line, ammo the company has tailored specifically for use in the historic pistol.
Winchester is offering two new rounds in the line, both in .45 ACP — a flat nose full-metal jacket and a jacketed hollow point option. Both the FMJ and JHP rounds have nickel-plated jackets, a feature meant to facilitate cleaner feeding in a handgun known to sometimes have finicky ammo tastes. But it is not the components that are the intriguing aspects of the Win1911 line. It's the rounds' ballistics.
The FMJ and JHP have identical ballistic performance, both capped with 230 grain bullets and boasting the same muzzle velocity. The clone rounds are meant to give shooters seamless ballistics from practice to application, allowing them to chamber a self-defense round that performs in similar fashion to the round they'll punch holes in paper with at the shooting range.
The idea behind the Win1911 line seems solid, but only time will tell if it becomes as iconic as the pistol itself.
CALIBER | BULLET | BULLET WEIGHT | VELOCITY |
.45 ACP | Full Metal Jacket | 230 grain | 880 fps |
.45 ACP | Jacketed Hollow Point | 230 grain | 880 fps |
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Marketing. Nothing more.
Why bother? There is little or no .45 ACP of ANY kind to be found, as it is, so why introduce a snazzy new brand that won’t be available either!? Better use of Winchester’s time and energy would be find a way to get garden variety ammo back on store shelves at reasonable prices.
I don’t know where you live or ammo shop, but in my area .45 ACP isn’t exactly common but I can certainly find several varieties of Ball and at least one JHP load. That’s just at WalMarts and local gun shops. The last couple of gun shows I attended added several more choices into the mix, including top notch defensive choices like Federal HST. Finally, there’s plenty of .45 ammo available online. Try wikiarms.com. Shipping charges usually kill those sources for me but if you really need it, you can find forty-five on in Interwebs.
Here in WA State, there seems to be a reasonable amount of choices available in the more populated areas, though I still don’t see much if any 22 LR or WMR and certainly not at reasonable pricing when there is. The 380 seems to somewhat hard to find again as well and it too is pretty pricey. There are some reasonable places on-line as long as they don’t rake you over the coals for delivery charges or add in state sales tax, some do. Some places will ship whole cases for free, but they usually seem to be out of case quantities lately (I wonder why?, just kidding). I’ve seen the same ammo ranging in price from $13.99 a box in store locally to $22.99 on-line; it was 9mm Blazer Brass 115gr FMJ. Last I heard, pricing isn’t going to change much, as the current administration is doing everything in their power to limit availability. In 2014 the story is the last LEAD smelter in the USA is closing down, so prices are predicted to head upward.
Interesting, I wonder what besides the Nickel plating makes it 1911 tailored? Does it have optimum pressure, is the taper of the JHP bullet nose redesigned to feed flawlessly even in short barreled 1911’s? Bass Pro carries a line of Winchester ammo labeled SXZ which also has identical ballistics from FMJ to JHP in 4 different calibers: 380, 9, 40 & 45, They however are not Nickel plated, but Lubalox coated for improved feeding (so they say). I bought it at the time because the price was very good, now it seems overpriced and to be totally honest; I did have some feeding issues with the JHP version but I don’t recall which caliber, I’ve tried all 4 of them. Personally I don’t think it is worth it , but maybe this 1911 stuff has been tweaked?