.45 ACP whit TMJ Bullet question

fleury

fleury

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Noob at reloading here

this is what I have, I am mainly looking for confirmation so I don't go boom.

I will be using W231 whit winchester large primer, bullet are frontier 230 gr TMJ.

I was thinking of starting at 5gr of powder and might be go up to 5.5. If I have done my reasearch corectly this should be close to my optimal performance.

  1. I am having a hard time finding data on TMJ Bullet, should I use the same reloading data as FMJ?
  2. Any concern about those data?
 
For $40.00 you can get a reloading manual. Let the experts do the testing. If powder level is wrong you can have pressure issues and blow up your gun. Not really worth experimenting or being to cheap to buy a book.
 
"...up to 5.5...." You have a manual? 5.5 of 231 is over max. Work up the load from the starting load. Hodgdon gives 4.2 to 5.3 of 231 for a 230 grain jacketed bullet. You will find that shooting jacketed bullets gets expensive quickly too.
Use 230 grain jacketed data for a TMJ. Taper crimp only. You always load for the bullet weight. Who made it doesn't matter. Either cast or jacketed. Don't use jacketed data for a cast bullet though.
 
"...Manual does not state tmj..." Hi. It doesn't have to. It's whether or not the data is for a cast or jacketed bullet and the weight that's important. A jacket is a jacket. A TMJ's(aka a CMJ) jacket just completely encloses the lead core vs the open base on an FMJ.
 
yes tmj same as fmj for load data. but get a good manual. Or PM me your email, I will send you a few pages from my manuals
 
You will find discrepancies between different manuals. I have one that says 5.5 grains of W231 is max and an older one that states 6.2 grains is max. Which is it? I have no clue, but I work up my loads slowly and observe chrony results and primers, etc. to watch for signs of pressure. I use the same thing for my standard .45 load, W231 and a 230 grain TMJ. My load is a little over the 5.5 grain thing and I have never seen pressure signs. Shoots well too. You are right to start at about 5 grains and adjust from there as every gun is different.
 
I guess it depends on the book you have. My Speer book shows 230 gr TMJ 5.6(start) to 6.2(max) of 231. Horandy book says 5.0 to 5.7 gr of 231.

I use 5.0 HP-38 with no issues.
SF
 
5 grains would probably be no issues in just about any gun. It is a good place to start and then adjust for accuracy because it is all about accuracy.
 
Generally, you will be fine using load data for different types of jacketed bullets of the same weight; that's why you work up from the start charge.

Likewise, you can do the same thing with different lead bullets of the same weight with lead bullet data.
 
Speer TMJ bullets have a much thicker copper jacket than typical plated bullets and should be loaded using jacketed bullet data.
 
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