I need help with a .45 1911 load

[sammy]

Hello all, I am new to reloading and am having some growing pains.
I have 2 guns that I am reloading for:
A 3 year old Kimber Stainless Target II 5"that has seen 3-4000 rounds. Recoil spring was replaced about 1500 rounds ago.
I have a new Wilson CQB 5"

The Kimber will eat and eject everything I give it.
The Wilson has a much stronger recoil spring and is having trouble with some rounds.

I can get it to work well with 230g Zeros and 5.75g of Unique.
I would like to shoot 200g. FMJ flat nose bullets but all my reloads don't seem too have enough power to cycle and eject them. I am trying:
5.7 and 5.9g of 231 under a jacketed 200g flat nose bullet and they simply do not eject the spent casing. I am near max with the 5.9 (Lyman max 6.2, Speer max 6.3) I am going to try 6.1 and 6.3g on my next trip out but the pistol does not even eject the casing with a 5.9g so I highly doubt if the .4g of powder is going to make a difference. HELP!!
Thanks in advance, Sammy

 

[The Bushmaster]

Call Wilson or check with your local gun shop and buy a lighter recoil spring...I have three. A 10#, 16# and an 18#...

 

[shooter762]

I imagine your wilson has the factory 16lb spring like my springfield 1911 mil-spec. You could try reversing the springs?

Shooter762.

eta- Be sure & verify your powder amounts across a few sources also, I'm a new reloader so just my .02.

 

[rcmodel]

Wilson guns come with an 18 1/2 pound spring.

A standard weight spring for a 5" 1911 is 16 pound.

You will either have to shoot full power hardball loads, or get a 16 pound spring.

Even better, shoot full power loads and get a 16 pound spring!

rcmodel

 

[robctwo]

Get lighter springs. One of the great things about reloading is that we can shoot lighter than factory loads. Less recoil, more fun.

 

[Wilburt]

Wilson guns come with an 18 1/2 pound spring

All Wilson CQB's with exception to the compact actually come with a 17# spring. However the Compact comes with a 20#. I don't have any experiance with unique, however, some of my lighter loads will cycle my Kimber TLE but my Wilson CQB won't lock the slide open after the last round. I just bought the spring caddy from wilson to start experimenting.

 

[Master Blaster]

16 lb spring

 

[sammy]

I switched the recoil springs with my Kimber which is a tired 16# Wolf and still no luck. I let a few regulars at the range take a look and a very nice fellow went to his bag and took out some CLP. We field stripped the pistol, removed the lube I applied and used the CLP. WOW, it ate and spit out everything we threw at it. I was getting hit in the head with empties( when it would eject them) and now they were throwing them down 3 benches.
SORRY, my bad. Had nothing to do with my loads all along, just improper lube. :banghead:

 

[Wildfire]

Sam

hey there:
I shoot 6.9 grains of Unique with the 200 grain cast SWC. 20 or 22 lbs springs work fine. Your load is low. Maybe that is where you want it but my manual shows 6.5 grs as a starting load. 7.3 as a max load. At 5.75 you are not getting enough blow back. 16 lb springs will not be the answer. That will end up hammering the insides of that pistol. I have been there and done that. My loads make major for IPSC shooting and are accurate. 5" Colt....
I would stay with the 20 lb spring and up the load some. At 6.9 with the 200 SWC mine runs just over 900 fps.
I really blew a State shoot one time by running a 16 lb spring . I had nothing but failure thrugh most of the shoot. Finally a guy loaned me a 20 lb spring and That gun went on to take first place in the final shoot of the day.
Up the laod and she will toss em out and feed right.

 

[buenhec]

I shoot 5.1 of Unique with 200g LSWC. Shoots at 725 fps and ejects about 3 feet. Great for steel and IDPA with minimal recoil out of my STI Spartan 1911.

 

[Snapping Twig]

I shoot 230g cast TC and 230g ball over 5.3g W231 in my Kimber Custom CDP II - eats 'em up!

Glad to hear you found the problem and that it was minor.

 

[darwin-t]

Sammy,

What's CLP?

 

[Wilburt]

What's CLP?

An acronym highly used in the military meaning cleaner, lubricant, and preservative.

 

[345 DeSoto]

Brand name = "Breakfree CLP"...contains PTFE (teflon)...