What are you getting for case life on you 45?

[MMCSRET]

I don't remember having a case fail, I loose them first.

 

[Walkalong]

Can anyone tell me why Hodgdon lists the seating depth as 1.200"? That just seems incredibly short.

It certainly is. I have absolutely no idea why Hodgdon would show 1.200 as an O.A.L. to load 230 Gr ball to. You are right around where you need to be with it. From what I understand, GI spec is actually a tad longer than you are loading. I shoot for in between 1.260 & 1.265 O.A.L. for RN plated or jacketed bullets in .45.

 

[EddieNFL]

Can anyone tell me why Hodgdon lists the seating depth as 1.200"?

Could be the OAL that gave best accuracy. If they used an actual firearm for testing, it may be what functioned best. Maybe the loader seated the first bullet and that's what it measured, so...

 

[EddieNFL]

...or it could be a misprint.

 

[Grey Morel]

i suppose, but ALL of their OAL's are very short. the longest listed is 1.230"... and thats for a 155gr.

The OALS listed for the common bullet weights are 1.140" - 1.225"

I supose ill load 5 rounds to hodgdons spec, and If I don't like it, I will return to my previous seating depth.

 

[Walkalong]

Load your auto ronds to an O.A.L. that feeds 100%, and go from there.

Unless you are a very capable shooter, with a gun up to the task, and are shooting Bullseye, I doubt you could tell the difference in accuracy between O.A.L.s.

 

[evan price]

I have .45 cases which are former military cases that predate WWII; stuff with 1930's headstamps- God knows how many times they were reloaded before I got them, I've never kept track of how many times I reloaded them- and the only ones I've actually worn out were junk to begin with (A-MERC)- they had loose primers or split after a couple loadings.

I take that back, I have had a couple REM-UMC headstamps that split on second firing.

 

[Grey Morel]

Thanks Even.

I have a few A-Merc cases as well, and even those have lasted few firings. I have also noticed the Remington cases tend to be quite soft: they give significantly less resistance to the auto-primer and the expander than other head stamps.

Thanks every one. I'm convinced as the the longevity of 45 brass.

 

[jfh]

I did what Walkalong recommended when setting up my 1911 rounds--I found what LOA ran smoothly, and loaded to that. That's with the caveat that a) I have not typically loaded balls-to-the wall loads in .45ACP, and b) I did some measuring while building these rounds to verify I was running with "typical" bullet seating depths for (H&G 69) LSWC I standardized on.

Your S&W 45xx is a tough pistol; I had a 1006. Your max load queries, etc., that spawned this thread probably will run just fine in it--but I'd be real curious to see the velocities. Got a chrono?

Jim H.

 

[agd1953]

Ok, ww have all agreed that .45 cases will last a very long time. The Other thing we have agreed on is that you will not get any overpressure signs from this cartrige. I want to know is how do you develop a safe load for the .45 acp if all that we have learned about excess pressure signs are out of the window. Please advise as I have no wish to loose my hand.

 

[RandyP]

"I want to know is how do you develop a safe load for the .45 acp "

For me the answer is easy, I load my plated bullets to the low-mid range of jacketed and the higher end of bare lead for the weight and shape bullet I'm using. The loads are accurate, reliable and kill all the paper zombies I put up against them just fine.

 

[Walkalong]

I want to know is how do you develop a safe load for the .45 acp if all that we have learned about excess pressure signs are out of the window

Simply follow your load books.

 

[FROGO207]

For the record I have some plated Speer 45 brass that has been loaded and cleaned enough to remove most of the plating without any case failures to date. Est 100+ loadings. None of my good loads are over max in any of my manuals with 230 GR jacketed/plated.