45acp recipe help

[leadchucker]

I bought a batch of Berry's plated 200g flat nose 45acp bullets. As you know, Berry's advises using the low to midrange load data for jacketed bullets.

The Hodgdon data for W231 specifies 5.2g starting to 5.9g max for a 200g jacketed bullet. 5.2g has proven to be really anemic, to say the least. Very noticeable next to WWB factory ammo. My usually rock solid reliable Glock 36 wouldn't even reliably cycle with them.

According to what Berry's says, I'm guessing that a max load for this recipe is around 5.6g. I hate to guess tho... but I also hate creating loads that don't perform. But I would hate to create a load too hot too. I'm chicken.

So what's next? 5.4g??? Or should I just try a few at 5.6g?

 

[Blue68f100]

The reason you work up loads. Load 10 ea in 0.1 gr increments up to the 5.6 max. You will probably end up around the 5.5-5.6 range.

 

[918v]

I would go 5.4 then 5.6. Loading 10 in .1 grain increments is not necessary for the 45 ACP with this combo.

 

[beatledog7]

^^

± .1gr is the variance you can get from most scales. Use .2gr so you can actually tell a difference. I might even suggest .3gr increments.

 

[leadchucker]

The usual wisdom is to increase in .1g increments, but I was wondering if .2g increments might be more productive here.
I'm off tomorrow. Gonna load up a new batch to take to the range then. I'm thinking I'll load ten or twenty at 5.4g, and at 5.6g, and see what happens.

To be honest, I'm getting the idea that plated bullets are more trouble than they are worth. Jacketed bullets always seem to have clear, consistent, predictable load data, but not the plated bullets.

 

[LiveLife]

I use Lee Auto Disk to reload, but when I am conducting load development, I will use .2-.3 gr increments to get me in the ballpark for loads that will reliably cycle the slide and extract/eject the cases.

Then I will continue the work up in .1 gr increment powder charges weighed on my Ohaus 10-10 to map out accuracy trends.

If the resulting "most accurate" load cannot be produced by the Auto Disk holes, I will custom drill a hole in extra disks I have so it will drop the exact powder charge.

Personally, I would load 10 rounds of 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 gr charges and see which will produce the most accurate shot groups.

I'm chicken.

Better to be chicken than KaBoom! Seriously, you should be fine with 5.6 gr load with Berry's 200 gr plated bullet.

You can try 5.4 gr loads while looking for pressure signs, then 5.5 gr and then unto 5.6. You can stop anytime you see pressure signs or feel uncomfortable. It's your pistol/hands and I like them just the way I was born with, intact.

 

[4895]

It's not a bad idea to load one round in the mag, load the pistol, then drop the mag out of the mag well so if you have a bad round, the pressure can escape down through the grip instead of up into the slide. 231 is a great choice for .45 auto and you should be able to push to both the lead & fmj max without any problems, assuming you work the load accordingly. Personally, I keep plated bullets under 1100 fps or so and the .45 auto is a great place to use them at any published speed safely and save some hard earned dollars. Good luck.