Help with bullet choices for GI type 1911

[Smaug]

Yesterday night, I just finished loading 200 rounds of .45 ACP.

You may recall maybe a month ago, I was having a hell of a time getting them to chamber. I think I may have bulged the cases while trying to seat and crimp in the same operation.

I bought a Lee Factory Crimp Die (FCD) for .45 ACP and ran them all through it.

I'm using 200 gr. tapered flat point bullets.

The first finished round I tried to chamber in my Para GI Expert 1911 jammed, and pushed the bullet way back into the case. I cycled through a whole magazine, and several of them were pushed back, but the rest of them chambered, but kind of slowly. It wasn't a smooth snap forward of the slide, but kind of a notchy one. I did check several of the rounds in the chamber of the barrel when it was removed from the gun, so I know that they're sized right.

So I guess I have three questions for you 1911 hand loaders:

a) Have you had any luck with flat point bullets feeding reliably in a stock GI level 1911?

b) To those of you who use the FCD for auto pistol cartridges, how tight do you find you need the crimp? I followed the instructions, which said tighten it 1/2 to 1 full turn past where it just touches. I split the difference and did 3/4 turn tighter, which was not tight enough!

c) I'm tempted to just shoot those rounds from my revolver, since I know they're not crimped tightly enough to raise pressure, hehehe. (rather than pull and reload them) What do you think about that idea?

 

[rcmodel]

It's impossible to raise pressure with any amount of taper-crimp.
Too much just squishes the bullet down and makes it looser then it was.
It also undersizes the bullets and will cause gas cutting & bore leading.

The .45 ACP is correctly taper-crimped when the case mouth measures .469", to no more then .471".
How many ever "turns" that is?

Correct case neck tension is what holds the bullet in place, not so much the taper crimp, which is only used to straighten out the case mouth bell so the case mouth is just "kissing" the bullet.

As for a GI spec gun feeding flat point bullets?
Maybe it will, and maybe it won't.

Quite often they will need a good ramp polish, and maybe more, to get them to feed smooth like a FMJ-RN.

And some mag designs will allow earlier release of the round so it can pop up in line with the chamber sooner.

rc

 

[Smaug]

Thanks rc.

I went and re-crimped them all, and it seems to have solved all the problems. They chamber fine now, and they don't get pushed back. (I tightened the crimping action by another 1/2 turn)

By the way, what kinds of RC models are you into? Planes?

I do a bit of that myself.

 

[LiveLife]

If you don't mind me asking, what type of bullet are you using?

jacketed, plated or lead?

 

[hAkron]

A proper GI style 1911 should have the best results with round nose bullets for which it was designed. In my limited experience I would say that the Lee FCD is a great choice for reloading .45. My springer mil spec gets fussy with any of my hand loads not run through the FCD. Maybe an old school loose 1911 would be fine without it, but I have a hunch most mid range 1911's that don't have a match grade barrel have a tighter chamber tolerance than and older 1911