45 GAP dies

[Colt562]

Can 45 gap dies be used for 45 acp? Are they interchangeable?

[XDRoX]

I don't have GAP, so this is only what I've read.
If you have an RCBS die set, then yes. Same dies.
If Lee, then maybe not. There isn't enough variance in the expanding die for it to work. Same with the crimp. You may not be able to adjust the die far enough down to crimp the super short GAP case.

That being said, I've read a number of different people saying that they have the Lee dies and they work on both calibers, so go figure.

So if you already have RCBS dies I wouldn't worry about it, if you have Lee or another brand then I'd do some more research.

Good luck. GAP is a cool round. Let us know what you find out.

[Fjold]

You would have to resize, expand and crimp/seat bullets by feel. Stopping the ram manually at just the right position. You would not be able to load 45 ACP with any uniformity.

You could probably make a spacer the thickness of the difference between the two case lengths and slip it over each case as you reload it.

[Colt562]

It would be lee, I dont have them yet, I just found a good deal on gap and thought they might be interchangeable. I think Ill just stick with the 45acp and not try to go cheaply.

[FX-05 Xiuhcoatl]

or you can just buy a glock chamber in .45gap, it will be much cheaper

[Cowboy T]

If they're Lee dies, then it depends on how you adjust them. I routinely use .38 Special dies for .357M, and .44 Spl dies for .44M. The general rule with Lee dies is that you can use the die set for a shorter round to reload a longer round, but not vice-versa.

That said, I did get a set of .44 Magnum dies just so I'd have the turret set up. It's not hard to readjust the dies, and it only takes a couple of minutes. But given how reasonably priced Lee die sets are, I found it worth it to get the .44M die set for .44M.