Missouri Bullet 45 softball issues

[SamT1]

The Lee crimp die is worth its weight in gold. It basically insures you pass a plunk test every time you crimp.

But since your passing plunk. Load one round and see if the bolt catch works. They maybe underpowered for your spring and not cycling far enough back. Or load a few at max charge and see how they run.

 

[Blue68f100]

The Lee crimp die is worth its weight in gold. It basically insures you pass a plunk test every time you crimp.

But since your passing plunk. Load one round and see if the bolt catch works. They maybe underpowered for your spring and not cycling far enough back. Or load a few at max charge and see how they run.

I don't own a LFCD and probably never will. I started loading when there was no internet and learned how to set up my dies correctly so it's never needed. Even with my min spec chambers I have no problems.With that said be very careful when using it on lead bullets. The post sizing ring will sized the bullet down and you will loose most all neck tension. If you think you must need to use a LFCD for you loads remove the sizing ring from the base so your only using the crimp part of it.

The 45acp is one of the easiest rounds to load for. Most every thing works.

 

[Laphroaig]

I'd say if your ammo plunks its not the amount of crimp or anything else regarding the dimensions of your reloads. I've always been told that a new 1911 needs a break-in period of about 500 rounds with full power ball ammo. I've handled a few RIA's and while I think they are a great pistol for the money, they do seem a little rougher than others.

I wouldn't do anything until I put a few hundred more rounds through her. If the problem persists, I'd either bump up my powder charge a tenth or two, or drop my recoil spring weight a couple of pounds.

 

[SamT1]

I don't own a LFCD and probably never will. I started loading when there was no internet and learned how to set up my dies correctly so it's never needed. Even with my min spec chambers I have no problems.With that said be very careful when using it on lead bullets. The post sizing ring will sized the bullet down and you will loose most all neck tension. If you think you must need to use a LFCD for you loads remove the sizing ring from the base so your only using the crimp part of it.

The 45acp is one of the easiest rounds to load for. Most every thing works.

How do you set a crimp perfectly when loading brass that varies from once fired to 1940 vintage that’s been fired 30X? You have to set the bell so the .452 10-11bhn bullets feed into the shortest cases without scratching, but you don’t open the longest cases so much that they won’t go into the seating die.
So I set the seating die to barely close the bell on the short cases, that doesn’t over crimp the long ones. But you’ll have one that doesn’t feed here and there. The Lee die then uniforms everything so I get 100% feeding and never have setback issues. Works in 4 1911’s I own including a hard baller. A mectech and dad and brothers 45’s.

I know lots of guys don’t run the Lee die and just use 3 stations, but most of them aren’t running oversize soft lead and extremely mixed brass. I don’t use it on my 9mm cast loads, but the brass is a lot more uniform so I can set the bell and seat die correctly.

 

[SamT1]

Hi all. I am a new member here and a relatively new reloaded, so this may be a dumb question.

I got Missouri Bullet Company to send me 45 Hi Tek Softball 230 gr coated bullets. I loaded some used brass I had around with Unique in 5.4 and 5.8 gr and seated to OAL of 1.25.

I went to the range with a new-to-me RIA 1911 CS (it appears to have been barely fired, maybe a hundred rounds). It used Winchester factory stuff OK, with a few return to battery failures out of 50. It loved Sig HP. My handloads were EXTREMELY accurate and shot well, but failed to return to battery about half the time. The accuracy difference was night and day, so I want to figure the issue with it closing.

I measured the rounds at home and the handload length was right between the two factory lengths, so I doubt that was the issue. What did come up was the diameter around where the bullet was seated. The factory loads were .470" and mine were .475". Is this the issue and if so how do I fix it? Is my brass shot out, my pistol still getting broken in (likely part of it), or do I have bullets that I can't use?

Like I said, I am new to this, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

Another trick especially on a new gun your gonna shoot cast in:
Clean everything really well. Take a cleaning swab. Like the fluffy thing. Coat it in flitz and polish the barrel inside. Then chuck a short rod in a drill and polish the chamber. I take my dremel with a Polish wheel after that a polish the feed ramp and friction surfaces on the slide. The flitz isn’t aggressive so you won’t mess anything up with it. Relube it and you have fun.
I’m sure you can find some videos on YouTube of everything to polish. But you can make that RIA feel like a $1000+ gun with flitz and a dremel.

The barrel polish really helps with leading.

 

[Jim Watson]

I started loading when there was no internet and learned how to set up my dies correctly so it's never needed.

If I were loading same lot brass and jacketed or barely .452" cast, I wouldn't either. But I load mixed brass with bulk bullets. I have not needed the CFC die for my present load of a BBI coated lead RN in mixed brass. My Valiant SWCs will give me some gauge failures which I single stage CFC so I don't have the bumpity bump in the progressive. I run a U die and CFC die when loading jacketed bullets under 230 grains.

I leave the CFC die in the press for all 9mm. Most of its action is on the low end of the case where the sizing die mouth radius does not touch.

I've always been told that a new 1911 needs a break-in period of about 500 rounds with full power ball ammo.

You mean like the old Movietone newsreels of GIs breaking in new 1911s with cases of ammo? I have trouble remembering that.

most of them aren’t running oversize soft lead and extremely mixed brass

Yup. Target loading is not the same as plinking loading or action match loading.

 

[Walkalong]

So I set the seating die to barely close the bell on the short cases, that doesn’t over crimp the long ones. But you’ll have one that doesn’t feed here and there. The Lee die then uniforms everything so I get 100% feeding and never have setback issues.

That is how I adjust the crimp with mixed brass as well, but never have feeding issues nor use the FCD. It may be something else that was biting you on occasion.

 

[Walkalong]

Some folks who shoot pistol games use the FCD, and some gauge every round instead. I imagine some do both.

 

[Blue68f100]

How do you set a crimp perfectly when loading brass that varies from once fired to 1940 vintage that’s been fired 30X? You have to set the bell so the .452 10-11bhn bullets feed into the shortest cases without scratching, but you don’t open the longest cases so much that they won’t go into the seating die.
So I set the seating die to barely close the bell on the short cases, that doesn’t over crimp the long ones. But you’ll have one that doesn’t feed here and there. The Lee die then uniforms everything so I get 100% feeding and never have setback issues. Works in 4 1911’s I own including a hard baller. A mectech and dad and brothers 45’s.

I know lots of guys don’t run the Lee die and just use 3 stations, but most of them aren’t running oversize soft lead and extremely mixed brass. I don’t use it on my 9mm cast loads, but the brass is a lot more uniform so I can set the bell and seat die correctly.

I sort all my 45acp brass by head stamps. Which cuts back on the range in which you taper crimp. I load on a LNL-AP, set my dies up for the middle of the range which so far has covered short and long ones. Some of my brass you can't read the head stamps any more they've been reloads so many times. Most all of it is range pickup brass. I use to average close to 5k/year each with 9mm and 45acp. I've since cut back since I've retired, I seam to have less time to shoot. Go Figure.

What I've noticed over the years here on THR is that most having problems sizing are with Lee dies. There cheap the reason a lot use them. But there tolerance is wider than it should be with today's modern machinery. Kinda of like opening a box of Cracker-Jax, you never know what prize you have till you open it. Most are OK, but some are out of spec or on the far end of the spec.

 

[SamT1]

That is how I adjust the crimp with mixed brass as well, but never have feeding issues nor use the FCD. It may be something else that was biting you on occasion.

It’s my dang amt hardballer. If you want to test ammo for reliability it’s your man. Clean it every 150 rounds, flitz the slide every 300, use only chip McCormick or Springfield mags. Too many rules. It sure is pretty though. And the trigger is like breaking a paper thin glass. But it’s the (second, sold the most challenging) most challenging gun I’ve ever owned to make reliable.

 

[1MoreFord]

The correct dimensions are posted in post #12 along with a link to another useful thread.

 

[Charles Waterhouse]

So I got home and found a few things when I started investigating. First, .473 is consistent, but only around the base of the seated bullet. The rest of the case is .470. Second, I pulled the barrel and tried the plunk test again. I was shocked to see a HIGH percentage fail. Maybe my die slipped at some point or I switched something out? This is a batch of cases I prepared a while back...

I am thinking I should start over w new brass and try that...

 

[Jim Watson]

Cases expanded by bullet.
What is the MEASURED bullet diameter?

 

[reddog81]

First you need to figure out what is causing the round to hang up. Is the bullet hitting the rifling? Is the lip of the brass over expanded and not getting crimped appropriately? Is the base of the bullet bulge causing problems? Is the base of the case not being sized enough? Is too much crimp causing the case to buckle? With out knowing why the case is hanging up we can only guess at a cure.

Using a sharpie to draw a couple lines up and down the case you should be able to see where the brass is getting stuck and rubbing.

 

[Laphroaig]

So I got home and found a few things when I started investigating. First, .473 is consistent, but only around the base of the seated bullet. The rest of the case is .470. Second, I pulled the barrel and tried the plunk test again. I was shocked to see a HIGH percentage fail. Maybe my die slipped at some point or I switched something out? This is a batch of cases I prepared a while back...

Well that discovery changes everything. I had a similar problem when I started out with 45acp. I reached out to THR for advice a couple of years ago:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/45-acp-cast-rejects.739991/

The good news is I've finally solved my problem, which I determined to be seating bullets a little bit askew in some of the thicker varieties of brass, mostly PMC and some Federal. I was loading single stage with a RCBS 3 die set back then. Mixed brass with 185 or 200 LSWC's.

My first move was to get a Lyman M die thinking that if I expanded the inside of the mixed cases uniformly it would solve my problem. Great die but little change in the outcome.

Then I got a Lee FCD and crimped separately. AS others have said, that practically solved my problem. Probably 97 or 98 out of 100 plunked. Running the failures back through generally fixed them too. I was never completely happy with the FCD as it gets a lot of bad press for potentially swaging the lead bullets smaller.

Someone on this board, Walkalong if I remember correctly, recommended a Redding micrometer competition seater because the precision of that die almost perfectly aligns the bullet. I figured I'd give it a go. If nothing else I could quickly dial in my OAL when changing bullets. That die doesn't crimp, so I removed the seating plug from my RCBS seater and use it as a dedicated crimp die. Viola! I get better results than with the FCD, maybe 1 or 2 failures per 100. Same mixed brass, same bullets.

YMMV.

 

[Walkalong]

Walkalong if I remember correctly, recommended a Redding micrometer competition seater because the precision of that die almost perfectly aligns the bullet.

Sleeved seaters will help, but won't fix a bullet that is started crooked, as it will still not be as straight as we want. The straighter you start a bullet, the straighter it seats, no matter what seater.

 

[Charles Waterhouse]

Cases expanded by bullet.
What is the MEASURED bullet diameter?

.452 - exactly as the box stated (I went and checked to make sure they were right)

 

[Charles Waterhouse]

First you need to figure out what is causing the round to hang up. Is the bullet hitting the rifling? Is the lip of the brass over expanded and not getting crimped appropriately? Is the base of the bullet bulge causing problems? Is the base of the case not being sized enough? Is too much crimp causing the case to buckle? With out knowing why the case is hanging up we can only guess at a cure.

Using a sharpie to draw a couple lines up and down the case you should be able to see where the brass is getting stuck and rubbing.

After plunk testing about 250 rounds (yeah, I made a bunch) I can say it is definitely the bulge that is hanging them up. Some almost sat in, some fell only a little more than half way.

 

[Charles Waterhouse]

So I got a puller and am disassembling the rounds and starting at resizing them and will go from there.

 

[Charles Waterhouse]

I resized a batch, carefully setting the dies again. This time I got right on the money w the dimensions and the plunk test passed for the 50 I made. We will see next week at the range when I try them out.