First time loading .45 SWC

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If you have some fine metal polish(flitz,mothers,metal wizard,ect..) take a bore mop,or cotton patch(tight) and saturate it. Run it up and down the bore in a kind of scrubbing motion. Get the bore bright and mirror.It will help quite a bit,probably not all but it will help now and down the road. Use a fine or ultra fine only. Get the copper chore boy before the Lewis lead remover, I had boughten the Lewis when I first started,it works, but not as good as Chore Boy over a nylon brush.

I have a 4c H&G mold, it is the best .45acp mold you can get, all 1911 owners should own one(it should come standard with the gun;))
 
Alright, I will do that with the metal polish this weekend. I've also been looking into getting another barrel for the 45 ( I wanted to upgrade the 1911 with a bunch of parts anyway..)

Also -have any of you guys had problems with Missouri bullets? I dumped out my box and measured some lead from the bottom of the box, and I was getting .452 - .453, with a majority of them being at .4525.. compared to my measurements of .4515 from the top of the box....
 
Missouri bullets come generously lubed. Wipe off the lube and measure the bullets again ... you'll probably find that they are .452" ;)
 
Ya if your getting some that truly are .453, set them in another box a load a batch of them up. If your getting a new barrel, get Kart nm preferably,it will run smaller, so your bullets should work in it. Storm Lake is another one that would be tight, I haven't done any work with some of the others in 1911 to know how tight they tend run.

Missouri is normally a great company,I'd say if there is two sizes it was a mistake or some are older ones that grew a bit,but they would have to be quite old(a year or so).
 
It also could be his caliper jaws are dirty from the lube and are causing him to read in error. Or the jaws are not perfectly perpendicular to the bullet shank when he is taking the measurement. Or his caliper sucks. Or someone snuck in and sabotaged his reloads ;)
 
Well, I went out today and shot 50 rounds of 1.235 rounds. Leading was significantly less than previous batches... Next I will gauge all boolits and see if I can find 50 of the "fattest" ones, and see what they do for me.
 
^^ SABOTAGE I TELL YOU!!! ^^

Where at? I'm in the Fox Valley area. Maybe you can teach me some crap about loading if you're local :D



And it is only showing up in the first 1/4" to 1/2" of the rifling.. Maybe I will try a different powder too see if that makes any kind of difference..
 
About three hour north/northwest of the Fox Valley. West of Wausau.

I'd say that first bit of leading is from the initial pressure spike getting by the bullet, but barely and then the bullet seals up. It's real close. Probably just as the bullet enters the rifling. Maybe cram the bullet up to the rifling .
 
jjjitters - Cram bullet up to rifling? As in extend the OAL? In an earlier post, I stated 1.277 dropped into my barrel, with the end of the round being flush with the barrel hood. I did try some different loads from 1.270 down to 1.240, and the leading was way worse than when I shot the longer OAL loads. I figured shortening the oal up to 1.235 would increase pressure, and maybe expand the round a little more. Like I said, after 50 rounds, the leading was significantly less with the 1.235 than it was with just 10 rounds of the 1.250+ rounds.
 
Also note - this last batch of 50 that I loaded up had a different primer in them. Used CCI primers instead of WLP Winchester primers. Don't know if that can make any kind of difference or not?
 
I will just interject this in here. Your set up looks a whole lot like mine when I 1st started loading 45ACP.

How are you crimping those loads?
If your using the LEE factory crimp die on those .452 hard cast bullets. Have you felt and heard the pop when you try to lower the ram?
What you are feeling and hearing is the carbide sizer ring in the Factory crimp die sizing those nice .452 swc's down to .451

I quit using any LEE factory crimp dies for cast bullet pistol loads.
I crimp with the seating die, this does not resize you bullets.
 
I used the FCD for the first rounds I loaded up. Horrible leading. After some advice in this thread, I used the seating die, with better results. As stated by others, I think the bullets are just too small for my barrel...
 
Also note - this last batch of 50 that I loaded up had a different primer in them. Used CCI primers instead of WLP Winchester primers. Don't know if that can make any kind of difference or not?
Click to expand...

Not.

What if you take your smallest bullets, givem a tap on the nose just to get them to .454" and try it again? I know it sounds crazy but I am 918v. You will have the honor of doing something I haven't even done.
 
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