What size for lead

.452"

Yep, lead is usually 1 or 2 thou over jacketed.

Have shot many thousands of lead bullets through various 45's, sizing at .452" is the correct size as others have stated. Using an undersized bullet in .451" will cause a fair amount of leading because of gas blowback and bullet lateral movement in the bore.

Depends. My.452" sized bullets will not chamber in my Gold Cup. Went to a .451" sizing die and all is well. Lead bullets for the .45ACP are typically not hard cast, so obturation is part of the scene.

Don

USSR said:

Depends. My.452" sized bullets will not chamber in my Gold Cup. Went to a .451" sizing die and all is well. Lead bullets for the .45ACP are typically not hard cast, so obturation is part of the scene.

Don

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Once had the same experience with .357. Turns out the brass was too thick and the gun (Dan Wesson) had fairly tight chambers. I've read Amerc brass sometimes won't fit match grade chambers.

Hi Hat,

The proper size cast bullet for your firearm should be 0.001" in addition to the bore diameter. Slug your bore with a soft lead ball. Use a nylon mallet (or some other nonmetallic tool to start the soft lead ball into the crown of the barrel. Use a hardwood dowel to drive the ball through the barrel until it exits the chamber end. Mic the ball to obtain the diameter of the bore. You will then know the diameter that your cast bullets should be.

dardascastbullets is right with one teeny correction. Groove diameter. If you use the above method you will determine the diameter of the barrel at the groove bottoms, which is what you want.

However, as has also been pointed out, your gun may not properly chamber bullets that are properly sized for the barrel in your gun. In that case, size to the largest that will properly chamber, but use an allow soft enough to 'bump up' and fill the bore. This also dictates staying up on the pressure curve on your loads. Slower velocities then come from faster powders, which will still maintain pressure while delivering lower velocities.

I've never had any luck with Lead bullets bumping up in size on firing, except with Black Powder and dead soft Lead. I hope you have better luck.

If your shooting bullseye try both.

My Gold Cup series 70 favored .451.

Hi Hat
I load a 200 grain SWC also and thought I'd mention a few other points. I shoot Lyman's 452460 and found that I couldn't get proper feeding at the recommended OAL which was 1.160". Found that I had to lengthen the rounds to 1.175" to prevent stovepipes.

I also size my bullets to .452" and what I find can happen is that the case mouth of loaded rounds is slightly larger than SAAMI specs, which caused problems with chambering. When you have a finished round with your cast bullet, drop it into the chamber and see if the round hits headspace with a faint metallic "click".

If it does not, you might have a problem with the slide going into battery. With my 1911, the rounds would smoothly go into the chamber, but the slide would stop just an 1/8" before lockup. I could raise my thumb and push the slide the rest of the way till the slide locked. You can correct this with a real taper crimping die, from either Lyman, Hornady, or Speer. The "modified taper crimp" die in my Lee set would not do it. You want to just taper crimp enough so the rounds will chamber. Too much taper crimp and you start resizing the bullets to a smaller diameter.

With my 1911, the rounds would smoothly go into the chamber, but the slide would stop just an 1/8" before lockup. I could raise my thumb and push the slide the rest of the way till the slide locked.

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Mine did the very same thing with a .452" sized Lyman 452460 bullet, and it didn't matter what the OAL was. Having a "thumb activated" 1911 doesn't exactly trip my trigger, so sized them to .451" and no more problem.

Don