45 acp relaoding

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mmcintyre1220

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I am new to pistol reloading and am going to be getting a set up to start reloading 45acp. I have been looking at components and have seen that it is a lot easier to find 230 grain copper plated bullets than anything else. I have been looking in some reloading manuals and have found nothing about loading plated rounds. I have only found info on lead or jacketed. I have a gun shop near me that sells cam pro projectiles? and Aim Projectiles which are hard cast plated projectiles.

First off which is a better brand to go with? Second were do I find loading data for plated rounds? Any information or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
As far as load data it is best to stick to lead data with plated bullets, but with .45 ACP most loads are not being pushed all that fast anyways, and you would be fine with any. the important thing is to always start with the lowest or even 10% below that and work your way up.

I would recommend Bullseye for cheap target loads, using between 4 and 4.5 grains.

Have fun.
 
powder wise I was thinking about using universal, Or anything alliant only because I use alliant for all shotshell loading I do with noting but perfect results. I took a loot at bullseye on alliant's website and it only shows 230 speer tmj rn and at 5.7 grain, 1.26 OAL. Is 5.7 grains the max ? or min ? It does not clearly state.

thanks again for all your help

your local pistol reloading nube.
 
I use the same amount of powder (5.5 grains of W231) behind a 200 grain bullet be it lead, jacketed or plated.
.
I use 5.1 grains of W231 behind any 230 grain bullet. Be it plated, jacketed or lead.
Reload data taken from Lee loading manual.
 
mmcintyre1220 said:
I took a loot at bullseye on alliant's website and it only shows 230 speer tmj rn and at 5.7 grain, 1.26 OAL. Is 5.7 grains the max ? or min ? It does not clearly state.
Click to expand...

That is probably near max, but regardless, you are loading for accuracy and 4.5 grains of Bullseye is the classic .45 acp load.

Google 4.5 grains of Bullseye.

You will find it is a pretty common starting point for any bullet in .45 acp.
 
You will likely notice the plated bullets are not exactly the same shape as a lead or jacketed 230gr and with AIM I find you need to seat them shorter than the data in your manual shows for jacketed 230gr. 1.20" instead of 1.25" if I recall, to make them feed and chamber reliably in a lot of .45 pistols.

I would start somewhere in the lead data and work up into jacketed data if needed for plated pistol bullets.
 
tigrr said:
I use the same amount of powder (5.5 grains of W231) behind a 200 grain bullet be it lead, jacketed or plated.
.
I use 5.1 grains of W231 behind any 230 grain bullet. Be it plated, jacketed or lead.
Reload data taken from Lee loading manual.
Click to expand...

As stated above it is very hard to beat W231 in my humble option for the 45 ACP

Graydog
 
Other good powders for the round are WSF and WST, along with Universal.
W231/HP-38 will meter more consistently thou and is very good powder for 9mm, .40s&w and .45ACP.

Plated bullets usually require 0.1gr to 0.2gr more powder than lead to achive same velocity. But one needs to test them anyway.
 
mmcintyre1220 said:
powder wise I was thinking about using universal, Or anything alliant only because I use alliant for all shotshell loading I do with noting but perfect results. I took a loot at bullseye on alliant's website and it only shows 230 speer tmj rn and at 5.7 grain, 1.26 OAL. Is 5.7 grains the max ? or min ? It does not clearly state.
Click to expand...

Universal works well in my 45s. Accurate enough and surprisingly clean when loading 5 to 5.4 grains under 230 grain homecast Lee Tumble Lube truncated cone (actual weight average 236-238).

Bullseye is cheap and accurate but dirty even with full loads. 5.7 should be max on that bullet. I only loaded commercial hard cast RN 230 grainers over 5.4 grains BE.
 
thebaron said:
Also beware, some .45 brass uses small primer and some large. Keep an eye out.

Winclean is one brass that uses the SP primer.
Click to expand...

federal is another- no big deal- just change your primer feed, remove the crimp and you're gtg- saves time if you're also reloading 9- they can share the same primer- you still have to change your shellholder, though- so that means you can use the same primer feed for 9, 357sig. 40 in all flavours, and 45acp
 
i use the old bowling pin load- 200 grain lwsc, 6.0-6.2 of ww231, and now a small pistol primer- gives roughly about 900 fps - load about 1/8 with jacketed to clean out the bore
 
thanks for all the info I cant wait to start rolling some 45. I will probably play around with different loads and projectiles. To me the lead fowling aspect does not matter. When I shoot my beretta 92A1 in 9mm I always get copper fowling so what is the difference lol. I always take time to clean my guns after every use.
 
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