45 acp bullets too big?

[moooose102]

i have started having trouble shooting my reloads in my pistol. initially, i thought it might just be a cleaning issue (dirty gun), so i cleaned everything really well. no change. so i started paying very close attention to what was going on. upon digging deeper, i found that the cast bullets measure .453" instead of .452". what is happening is the slide goes almost all the way shut, but not quite. i have to either push it all the way closed (which works most of the time) with 2 fingers, and if that doesnt work, i have to hit it with with the side of my hand pretty hard. it does shoot once the slide gets all the way closed, and ejects the spent case just fine. even with using the lee factory crimp die (which by the way seems to hang up on some of these) it still does it. so, i am thinking i am going to have to buy a bullet sizer to shoot these. does this sound right?

 

[rcmodel]

No.

.453 lead bullets should chamber unless they are hitting the rifling.

Smoke one with a candle flame and chamber it, then see what is tight where.

More then likely, you just need to seat them a little deeper.

rcmodel

 

[bowhnter]

that's my thought .... check finished OAL
max OAL for a .45ACP round is 1.275

 

[THe Dove]

Moooose

I have the same issue. Let me know what you find out. I bought the Lee FC die as well and it seamed to help, but I still have 1 out of every 15 or so jam. I shoot a Sig P220.

PM me with your findings if you want.

Thanks

The Dove

 

[Walkalong]

Better to resize those bullets, if it is even needed, than to squash them after being loaded with the LCFCD, and the sizer is a buck cheaper.

Anyway, try seating them deeper first. .453 is not that oversized.

 

[rcmodel]

No mention of what bullet type you have problems with.
Unless it is a RN very similiar to the GI ball bullet, it is getting jammed into the rifling.

1911 match barrels, and I believe SIG's have rifling leades matched to GI hardball RN profile.

If you are loading SWC or TC shape bullets, they will hit the rifling at normal RN seating depth.

The Lee 230 grain TC bullet is especially problematic in my experiance.
It has to be seated clear to the TC shoulder break-over, and then it is too short to feed right.

rcmodel

 

[moooose102]

i have been seating them @ 1.265" from the start, it is what i measured factory ball ammo at. and it functions perfectly. these are cast ball style bullets (like fmj military rounds). the first ones i bought just came in a generic box from my local gunsmith, the second batch are dardas. i am running them in a taurus 24/7 pro. i have been shooting them all summer with only a very few hickups on a very occasional basis. i am no expert reloader, so i do ocasionaly make mistakes. so if i have one now and then, no big deal. now if this was personal defense ammo, it would be a different deal. but this has started getting much worse. i did notice that the dardas bullets have a slightly different shape to them. i will seat a couple of dozen of them another .020" deeper (i do not load these all that hot, so pressure should not be a problem) and see what happens. thanks for the idea's. i will post again to let you know, WHEN EVER IT QUITS RAINING!

 

[calaverasslim]

WHENEVER IT QUITS RAINING??????

Send us some of that rain. We have been in a sever drought for the last 3 years

 

[sturmgewehr]

As already mentioned, the size (.453) isn't likely the cause of your problems. But I did want to share that I have checked my Dardas bullets and they all mic to .452. Have you calibrated your micrometer?



I would check a few things.

1) make sure there's no lead build up in the chamber of your barrel.
2) make sure your OAL is around 1.250 (I use that for all of my 230gr ball rounds and have no problems with feeding)
3) make sure you're applying enough taper crimp to remove any bell you've placed on the mouth of the case

If this doesn't work, you can check the length of your brass, but in 10+ years of reloading I've never seen .45 ACP brass stretch and require trimming.

Let us know how things pan out.

 

[moooose102]

Send us some of that rain. We have been in a sever drought for the last 3 years

you can have it, it has been raining on and off for the majority of a week and a half here.

Have you calibrated your micrometer?

that was the first thing i did when it said .453. there is no lead build up, i have just cleaned the entire gun. there is no taler left as i am using the lee factory cripm die, and i am crimping the bullets in place. and i did check, i am not crimping so much that i am not distorting the case below the crimp.

 

[Cloudpeak]

Remove your barrel and put a factory round in the chamber. Note it's position in relation to the barrel hood. Then, put your reloads in the chamber and see how they compare. Perhaps your reload bullets are contacting the rifling and need to be set deeper?

Cloudpeak

 

[moooose102]

well, i hit a snag. i had to send parts of my pistol back to be replaced. i was just going to buy new parts, but what i wanted to buy only comes as an assembly. so instead of me buying (springs), they are going to replace the parts for free. the biggest concern for me, is it is pretty close to hunting season. and i usually take it for a sidearm. if all else fails, i can take my wifes 40 S&W, but i would rather have my 45.

 

[Mal H]

Not to continue beating a horse on its deathbed, but are you positive the bullets are .453"? That is a relatively unusual size for lead bullets designated for .45 ACP. I would check a known bullet, e.g., a .45 230 gr FMJ to see if it is .451". If it turns out to be .452", then your caliper needs calibrating.

 

[rbwillnj]

Two more things to check. Your brass isn't Amerc is it??? Amerc is thicker, and can cause a problem even with bullets that are .452, but with .453 it would be even worse.

Secondly, how's your crimp. I've seen a lot of folks have jam problems of the type you describ because of a bad crimp. Are you using a seperate taper crimp die?? With a seperate taper crimp die, the mouth of the case after crimping should be .469 -.470 for trouble free feeding.

You can also get jam problems if you over crimp to the point of creating a buldge in the case.

With the barrel out of the gun, a loaded round should drop freely into the chamber till the back of the case is flush or slightly below the end of the barrel hood. If you turn over the barrel, it should drop out freely as well.

 

[Slamfire]

2) make sure your OAL is around 1.250 (I use that for all of my 230gr ball rounds and have no problems with feeding)

That's what I use for 230 LRN. Works fine.

I hope you are not using a recoil guide rod in your pistol. I was. And my ammunition was too long for my 45 ACP. Darn pistol jammed as it was chambering the round. Jammed hard. I could not push the slide closed, (and shoot it out) and I could not pull the slide open.

With a standard M1911, you can clear the chamber by putting the recoil spring plug on the edge of a table. Barrel overhangs the table edge. Then you can push on the grip, and either the round comes out, or the extractor breaks. Either way, the pistol is out of battery.

However, if you have a recoil guide rod, you can't do this.

Makes clearing the weapon a lot more fun.

I got rid of all guide rods in my M1911's. Stupid things.

 

[Remo-99]

how's your crimp. I've seen a lot of folks have jam problems of the type you describ because of a bad crimp.

If the gun's a 1911 type, I also had similar issues. Putting just enough crimp to remove the case mouth bell needed to seat lead bullets and my gun wouldn't go into full lockup.

After some research on the issue, I decided to try slightly more crimp, until rounds chambered flawlessly.

Try messing around with the crimp, but don't over do it, as 45acp needs to headspace on the case mouth.
And if swc's are used try different seating depths, mine liked them with the edge of the bearing surface just below the casemouth also.

 

[moooose102]

not amerc, although i do have one box of thse that are still factory loaded so thanks for the warning. i use the lee factory crimp die. not a taper crimp that is on the standard seat / crimp die. and the calipers have been checked against a micrometer. they appear to read about 1/10th of a thousandths off (0.0001" large) . imo, that is close enough for government work. i have made up a small batch that is shorter ( 1.245" oal), when i get my pistol parts back, i will run them through and see what happens. if that does not work, i will try another .020" shorter. if that does not help, i will just have to buy a sizer and see if that helps. i have 500 of these dardas bullets (well, minus the ones i have alreadt shot, probably 440 left), so i would like to find a way to use them. then i think i will start casting my own.