Reloading 45acp

[baih777]

I have been reloading 308 and 223 for 5 years now. I want to start 45acp this year. do I need to measure bullet seating depth, and measure the Ogive on the bullets.
I want to start buying the gauges now. I don't see anything like that in pistol calibers.
or do you just load 45acp to OAL ?
thanks in advance

[Boris_LA]

FMJ and JHP you load to OAL and confirm the OAL by plunk test, seating them on the ogive. Use your barrel removed from the gun as a gauge.
SWC (Semi Wad Cutters) bullets load so the shoulder sticks from the brass ~1/16"-1/32" and it feeds reliable in your gun. OAL will be what ever it will be, depends on the bullet. Die must seat SWC on the shoulder, to push it straight. Taper crimp, no (Factory Crimp Die) FCD for lead bullets.
There are many tips on the http://www.bullseyeforum.net/

[kalapa]

Just go with the OAL.

[baih777]

Is there a special die for wadcutters ?

[BigBronco]

Is there a special die for wadcutters ?

Not so much as a different seating stem that goes in to the die. RCBS DIES come with both I believe / remember. One stem for Round nose and one for flat top bullets.

Loading semi wad-cutters you may have to play around with the seating depth/OAL to get them to feed reliably from the mag. I have a 1911 that hates them.

[AandO]

Not so much as a different seating stem that goes in to the die. RCBS DIES come with both I believe / remember. One stem for Round nose and one for flat top bullets.

Loading semi wad-cutters you may have to play around with the seating depth/OAL to get them to feed reliably from the mag. I have a 1911 that hates them.

The issue you are experiencing is with the shape of your feed ramps. Check this first . . .

Look at your various 1911's and you will find some are V shaped and others are U shaped.

200gr SWC's will catch on the V shaped feed ramps. As will some HP's. Ball should work great.

If you have a U shaped feed ramp with SWC feed issues look for pitting or scour marks. They can be remedied by polishing the ramp. By polishing I do not mean CUTTING out any Metal from the ramp. The angle here is critical to proper feeding. Never ever cut out any metal on a 1911 feed ramp, you will destroy it, especially true on Government Models.

If in doubt contact a "Qualified" Gunsmith.

[jimmythebrain]

if you have an aluminum framed 1911 be careful not to run ammo that lets the case mouth edge ram into the frame ramp.
For a non aluminum 1911 don't worry about it.

Just measure from tip of bullet to case head. We do not use comparators to check seating depth on pistol ammo.

Load up your plated bullets using lead bullet data.

[Boris_LA]

Is there a special die for wadcutters ?

Many anvils can be modified to seat SWC on the shoulder, or custom anvil ordered. Pushing soft lead SWC on the nose with flat anvil is not a good idea.

[stilly]

I have been reloading 308 and 223 for 5 years now. I want to start 45acp this year. do I need to measure bullet seating depth, and measure the Ogive on the bullets.
I want to start buying the gauges now. I don't see anything like that in pistol calibers.
or do you just load 45acp to OAL ?
thanks in advance

Load to OAL or what not. Average length will be around 1.249 or so for 1911s.

Clearly some rounds will be shorter.


Dardas .45 SWC in the weight of 155gr with a Lee die that you can send to Lee and let them modify the seating stem is a good way to shoot .45 SWC that look cool...

These are around 155gr but hit like .357 mag with little to no recoil. They are pushing faster than 1200FPS in some loads. I can prolly get them to 1400+ if I changed powders.

[NorCalFocus]

I just did my first batch of 45ACP a few weeks ago. I went with Xtreme bullets 200g round nose. 7 grains of power pistol and remington primers. Without trying to hard I put 10 in a 4-5" group at 10 yards. Very soft shooting rounds as well.

I used the Lee 4 die set and just seated to the books COL.

[bigbossman]

I've never had a problem seating SWC bullets with the the standard LEE 45 dies I bought way back in 1996 or so. I've never loaded anything else but SWC, and I've probably loaded close to 100k of those.

[Che762x39]

I have been reloading 308 and 223 for 5 years now. I want to start 45acp this year ...

Read the section in the RCBS Manual regarding loading handgun calibers. It is really different from rifle calibers. Handgun calibers have three or four die sets and rifle calibers only two dies. You ever wonder why? Read the Manual.

[stilly]

I've never had a problem seating SWC bullets with the the standard LEE 45 dies I bought way back in 1996 or so. I've never loaded anything else but SWC, and I've probably loaded close to 100k of those.

On the lighter SWC you WILL notice a difference.

The difference will be that the seater will push the tip to one side and you will have lopsided bullets.

That is why you must send in your die for the Dardas .45 in 150gr. Else you will have deformed bullets.

[bigbossman]

On the lighter SWC you WILL notice a difference.

The difference will be that the seater will push the tip to one side and you will have lopsided bullets.

That is why you must send in your die for the Dardas .45 in 155gr. Else you will have deformed bullets.

Interesting. I've only ever loaded 200gr SWC's so maybe that's the reason.

[stilly]

Interesting. I've only ever loaded 200gr SWC's so maybe that's the reason.

Yeah. 200gr NOT an issue. The special light .45 that you do not see very much, like my Dardas .45. I screwed up about 7 of those before I decided that the problem was getting worse and I ordered a new seater from Lee for about $6.00

I think there was documentation that stated you needed to either drill out your center on your seater or you needed to have the die maker do it or just order a custom one, so I sent a sample of the bullets to Lee and asked them to modify the seater stem. Now it can do most all things.

I noticed that when seating the Lee 105gr SWC on top of the 9mm cases, that the dillon die liked to mushroom the tops a bit. I lived with it, but noted it and am not thrilled...

Also, at $35/500 I will do it again next paycheck. He also seems to have some .44 RNFP at 180gr. I think I might want to give those a try.