45 carbine

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tacmedicp94

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A buddy of mine has a Mag Tech. 45 carbine conversion for his 1911. I believe it has an 18inch barrel. For reloading purposes, are loads made for say a 5inch barrel going to work with setup, or is the longer barrel going to cause issues with low/high pressure etc? He wants me to load him some hunting rounds with Barnes bullets and I need to know if standard reload recipes will work.

adam
 
My opinion........typical 45 loads will work fine in a longer barrel, but to obtain the potential performance of a longer barrel I'd try experimenting with a much slower powder.
2400 and Lil Gun come to mind but there are many choices out there.

On second thought, I doubt if the 45acp would have the case capacity to justify those powders I mentioned. You might have to go with Power Pistol, Unique or like powders.
 
1911 Data will work just fine.

Your standard M1911 reloading data should work fine for the conversion. You could, if you wanted to, start taking advantage of reloading data that uses somewhat slower burning powders that don't completely finish burning in a 5 inch barrel. You won't likely see much of an advantage though.

If you were using a bolt, pump, or lever action (I have a bolt carbine in 45) you'd have more room to play with it, but the conversion, as far as reloading is concerned, is just a 1911 with a longer barrel. You'll still need to deal with pressure, timing, and recoil required to cycle the action just like it was in its original form.

My bolt action is an Enfield - so I can load to +P levels, use bullets heavier than would work well with a 1911, and use quite slow powders - to a level you really can't do with the conversion.
 
Thanks guys that's exactly what I figured but wanted a little more input. My biggest concern was that a fast burning powder might not burn long enough and cause a bullet to become lodged in the barrel. I know hes been shootin factory loads through his carbine with no issues but since I'm still fairly new to reloading I thought I'd ask.

adam
 
Fast burning powders work fine as long as they are not real light loads. I have a Mech Tech unit and I have shot all my regular loads through it with no problems except for a couple of light loads. It is not set up for real light loads and they can cause ejection problems.

If you are looking for the most velocity, a "slow for .45 ACP" powder will work the best, but you may be surprised at how much velocity some fast powders can give you in it.
 
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