.45 ACP reloading advice

Cocked&Locked

Cocked&Locked

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OK, I've been reloading for a bit, but an issue has come up latley, and it seems to mostly keep coming back to my loads, (though the extractor has not been found "not guilty" either). I'm trying to narrow it down and my problems begin with the fact that there is little information on cast bullets.

I had been loading wolf 200 gr swc, with 5 gr bullseye. I get failure to eject last round in the mag. Pulls the rim into the feed lips. Springfield armories tells me "we don't recomend reloads anyways, just shoot factory". Not helpfull. So I have been loading up 230 gr plated ball and cast ball. Whats the max load that I can within reason push them with using bullseye or unique? I don't need a rip snorttin' red line load, just something good and brisk.

On a related note, would that same load be safe in my 625?

Thanks all !!
 
Use a loading manual for guidance on your pistol. Your revolver can take higher loads because of pressure loss through the cylinder gap. A good manual will have loads for both pistol and revolver.
 
I have several loading manuals, they confict to certian degrees. My question comes in regard to cast and plated bullets. I've been told to load plated stuff like it was cast, but lyman is the only manual with much cast information and it dosen't have 230 gr. ball. Some show 200gr SWC with one lube groove, some two. That begins to make a difference as the engraving area changes. Does anyone make a manuel for cast bullets only?
:confused:
 
A heavy load to try= 230grain round nose, lead bullet, 4 grains Bullseye- its not an insane load, but makes good power factor
Does the last round load into the chamber, or just stays in the mag, and the action locks open>??
 
Last round fires, extracts, rim jams in mag lips tipping the mouth up, and blocks the slide travel to lock. Since it can't lock, it runs forward jamming the mouth against the edge of the ejection window or barrel hood. Now you can't eject the mag or pull the slide back fully and are stuck trying to hold the slide back and pick the case out at the same time. This really requires three hands, though I am getting better at it since it ussually happens in front of 10 witnesses when I'm practicing for IDPA on tuesdays. Best offer for the pistol so far is 20$.:rolleyes: I keep figuring it has to be the extractor, but it works somewhat better with factory ammo. Still does it though.:mad:
 
yep. Only have about 2000 rounds in the gun. most of it 200 gr swc with 4 gr bullseye. Swaped out the factory 16 lb spring for a 20 last week when a friend offered me some hot ball loads. Same problem, got better as the night went on..... Have a new wolf 16 lb spring I may try too.
 
Your spring is way to heavy for your gun. What is happening is the 20# spring is returning the slide back to quick. The standard spring for the 1911 is 16# and is ample for any .45acp loads. The back of of the frame is designed to handle the battering of the slide the front portion isn't. With such a heavy spring, yes the slide may come back slower and with out as much force even to the point of short stroking but it will return mcuh faster.

Replace your spring with a 16# one and I suspect your problems will disapear.

Stay Safe
 
I only swaped out to the 20 last tuesday. A friend has a bucket of reloads but he warned me they where all max loads (and he does like hot) so I put it in to cushion the pistol. My problems started with the 16 pounder in place.
:confused: They didn't really change with the 20 pounder.
 
well, i will give you 30 bucks for it then, makes a 50% increase in your last "best offer"
Hope you can figure this out- it does sound like the spring- maybe its binding somewhere?? Look on your rod where the spring rides- see if its gouged up on one side?
Other than that-
 
well, thats up 50% from my previous best:D On the other hand its down quite a lot from what i payed for it. :rolleyes: I can't see it being the spring myself since it only happens on the last round. I'm going to go out and try a few rounds with no mag in place and see how it extracts\ejects. If its fine like that maybe it is the chip mags. I still suspect the extractor. How can you judge what the correct tension should be?:confused:
 
Tension on the extractor is 3.5 to 4.5 pounds on the cartridge rim. The last round feeding problem you exprerience is most likely mag related. The shape of the follower can be an issue. The McComick follower, Wilson and the like are modified to help feed SWC. Another possiblity is the mag spring tension that became too weak to feed that last round in a timely manner- specially that you use a fast burning powder and a strong recoil spring (20 pounds). There is no need to go to 20 pounds even with 5.0 grains of bullseye and 200 lead SWC.Try 4.5 grains of bullseye behind your Wolf 200 SWC. This is one of my favorite target load, OAL 1.250
 
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Put more tension on my extractor today, seems better. I'd been trying to increase this before but was chickening out at the amount of force required. I really didn't want to break it in half as the nearest replacement will be at least an hour and a bit each way. My project of the week at work is going to be a nice little fixture for bending the extractor like the one brownells sells. Swaped the wolf 20lb for the wolf 16 lb. It's better, need more of a work out to see if it's cured.

Ask me Wed. morning.....;)
 
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