.45 ACP SWC - Plated?

I have been working up some .45 ACP SWC loads this week, and I find that I absolutely *LOVE* the accuracy compared to the standard 230 gr. RN FMJ's that I have been shooting!!!

I have been working up loads with the 200 gr. coated lead SWC bullets from Bayou Bullets:

http://www.bayoubullets.net/45-acp-200-gr-swc-1000-ct/

I love them, but I am still working out a reliable COAL for my 5" 1911. Much more accurate in my hands than the my 230 gr. FMJ RN bullets.

I noticed however that Xtreme makes some *plated* 200 gr SWC bullets that might have some promise. Has anyone every used any of these and have any opinions on them?

https://www.xtremebullets.com/45-200-SWC-p/xc45-200swc-b0500.htm

I am wondering how the plated would shoot compared to the coated lead, and if they would be any easier to bring into battery (smoother feeding into the barrel?). I had a few of the coated bullets hang up when feeding, so I was planning on work up a load with a slightly shorter COAL until I saw these plated SWCs and though I would see what is up.

I am also thinking less lead exposure with the plated vs. the coated lead.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

drband said:

As far as COAL w/ coated lswc 200gr, have you tried about .030” of the bullet shoulder showing above the case mouth? That’s about the thickness of a thumbnail— it’s very reliable for feeding in my .45s. There’s a thread somewhere about this!

Here: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/recommend-wt-lswc-45acp.809048/#post-10341054

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Thanks for the link, interesting read.

I was loading to a COAL of 1.250, or just slightly longer. I had quite a few jams on my latest batch. I will look to measure the shoulder and see what I get. This latest batch might be slightly longer than my first batch, so I must be right on the ragged edge of what will cycle reliably in my gun as my first batch cycled perfectly without any issues.

I am working with Bullseye and W231 by the way. I am trying to get a hold of some WST to try as well.

Thanks again.

cfullgraf said:

I’ve shot both Berry 45 200 gr plated SWC and home powder coated SWC bullets in my Gold Cup and see little difference in accuracy or function between them.

But, I have only shot a couple hundred or less of each in the gun. I’ve just about settled on a load but other projects have taken precedence recently.

A note, if you are loading target loads with the SWC bullets, you may want to change the main recoil spring. My Gold Cup came with two main springs, one for ball ammunition (16 lb or so) and one for target (12 lb or so if I remember correctly).

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Thanks for the information. Curious as to the lighter spring comments. Why would the lighter spring help here? How can I tell if I am having an issue that needs the lighter spring? Thanks.

Captaingyro said:

I load those exact bullets. My OAL is 1.230, which is very close to drband's recommendation. At that OAL I get reliable feeding and good accuracy.

You don't mention your load, but 5.2 grains of Universal gives me about 850 fps and cycles everything I've tried it in.

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I am going to try loading to 1.230" and see what I get. As I mentioned, the first batch I loaded about a week ago were slightly shorter and they fed perfectly, so I am thinking I was not careful enough to make sure they were at 1.250" or shorter.

My loads are still being finalized, but so far my favs are:

5.4 gr W231 - nice accuracy, and coming in at about 870 fps, which is cutting it pretty close to Major Power Factor at 171.
6.0 gr. W231 - very, very accurate but a bit hot I think. They averaged at slightly north of 900 fps with a PF of 208+. Single hole though...

5.0 gr. Bullseye - Once again, Great accuracy, velocity at about 894 fps which is just a bit hotter than I would like, but they were pretty nice.
4.8 gr Bullseye - Velocity avg of 872, and great shooters.

I am focusing on the lighter two loads from each, and then as soon as I pick up my WST, I will work up a favorite load for that, and then make a larger batch of all 3 loads, and spend some time with the chrony and finalize things.

But now that I am thinking about trying the plated SWC's, I might have to start all over again! Ugh.

Walkalong said:

Bottom left is the Precision 200 Gr SWC Bottom right is the Berrys 185 Gr SWC.

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Interesting, thanks for posting that comparison. The 185's look shorter for sure, which could be an advantage with my gun, although I love the way the 200 gr coated SWC's shoot now so much, I think I might try some of those in plated first and see how that goes. It is nice to know that there is a 185 gr alternative available in plated if the 200's don't work out. I see them in cast and coated cast, but those are the first 185's I have seen in plated.

Demi-human said:

I think the lighter springs are for the very light loads. But you said you were trying for major.
With lighter loads the slide may not make it all the way back to strip another cartridge from the magazine.

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cfullgraf said:

The bullseye crowd runs lower velocities with the 185-200 grain semi-wadcutters, 770-800 fps or so. The lighter bullet weight and lower velocities need a lighter recoil spring. If your recoil spring is too stiff, you will have function failures.

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OK, this makes sense for sure. I was confused as to why I would need lighter springs with SWC's and actually you are referring to the lighter loads. I want to make Major PF just to be safe in case I decide to shoot in a SS USPSA match (I currently shoot limited, but you never know).

Thanks for the explanation, I wondered what I was missing.

Captaingyro said:

I think it's important to remind new reloaders that with semi-wadcutters the portion of the bullet forward of the shoulder is just hanging there in empty space once the round is chamberd. The pistol really doesn't care about that portion of the bullet since it will never touch the rifling. Therefore, OAL is really only a reference measurement we use to set the seating die. The really critical dimension is how that shoulder interacts with the feed ramp and chamber. Semi-wadcutters from different manufacturers and molds will have a different amount of material in the truncated cone forward of the shoulder. So, to get reliable feeding, different OAL's will be required with different bullets. The really critical thing is to get that shoulder just peeking out of the case mouth.

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Great post, and this makes perfect sense once I hear you say it, it of course almost seems obvious now.

The gun I have been using for testing is my Dan Wesson Silverback, and I definitely had some issues feeding the SWC's that I loaded at 1.250" (they were probably slightly longer unfortunately). These bullets were getting jammed during feeding, and a couple of times, I had a hard time racking the slide to get the stuck round out. (Felt like too long COAL issues I have seen in the past with other guns/loads).

Most of these rounds would feed fine when I reloaded them and fired them.

Here are some pictures of one of the rounds that would not feed that I saved for further analysis:



When measured, it comes in a bit long for sure:



Here is an image of the edge where you can see the shoulder of the cartridge, You can see where the coating has been scrapped off, and also can see how deep these are seated. I measured that shoulder at about .030, but it is hard to get an accurate measurement.



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