.45 cast bullet reload not working well

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laurencen

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been reloading for a couple years with great sucess, never had feeding or firing issues period, use FMJ projectiles, last week setup to pour my own projectiles, used a 6 cavuty mold, made nice bullets and after cooled sized .452 relubed and reloaded 50 rounds

went to range and loaded up the Norinco 1911, right off the first round no fire, the bullet does not fully seat causing the slide to be about 1/32 short its stroke, ejecting the round is just as painful, hard to pull the slide back, after 4 attempts gave up and loaded the JR, same issue out of 10 rounds it fired only once,

my gut feel is the case is expanded too much causing it to jamb in the chamber, it must be subtle because there is only 0.0015 difference between the lead and FMJ but one thing the front of a FMJ is smaller than the back it appears tapered where the lead when sized is paralell.

I took 10 of the cast reloads and pulled the lead, sent the cases back thro the press and loaded FMJs, in the 1911 all fired flawlesly.

the only other sizing die I can see is a .451 dia, does it sound possible the difference of 0.001" on the diameter would make the difference or is it in the setup of my dies?
 
or crimping to much causing a bulge at the case mouth that is not allowing the case to go all the way into the chamber
 
Did you do the plonk test ?

every time you change something you should be doing a plonk test !

plonk test will tell you if length is right

a close look will tell you if crimp is right / look and measure !
 
The bullets aren't the problem, likely to much or to little crimp. Do the "plunk" test, buy a case gauge or buy a factory crimp die, any one of those three should solve your problem.
 
OAL too long I bet

What bullet? LEE 230RN I'm guessing? (The JR feeds nothing but RN reliably).

I don't have a taper crimp die, so I roll on just a hint of a crimp - more by feel than by look, to smooth the case walls back.

I saw a 45ACP someone had lost at the range once. That bugger was roll crimped as hard as a magnum revolver round!
 
have to pick up a case gauge, the lentgh is correct, as for crimp, i am using a carbide die set, the crimp was part of the set, it works fine with factory FMJ projectiles, not on cast lead, used a micrometer to measure the diameter and the difference is less than 0.001"

will take the barrel out today and see the fut, should it go into chamber loose, tight, snug?
 
It should drop right in and bottom out where the case mouth hits the end of the chamber. If you can push it in deeper with your thumb, it's too long. Back of the case should be level with the tab on top of the bbl.

It does have a Plunk sort of characteristic..

And the length is only correct if it passes the test. The load data means nothing in that regard.
 
What everyone else said - then this: If you don't have the case flared enough, a bit of lead can get scraped off the bullet and pile up on the case mouth as you seat the bullet - and this lead can prevent a perfect plonk - what a fun word - plonk plunk plonk - anyways - just look closely at your bullets and if they have curled up lead in front, scrape it off and try the plonk test again.

Like Mark said, OAL might be a bit long - and if you are crimping hard into lead where there is no groove, the case mouth can squish the lead in front of it out - making it oversized so it won't fit into the bore.

So:

Flare until the lead bullet will go in without scraping.

Seat until the case can be crimped without squishing lead up.

Crimp just a little - make sure there is no flare left - and a little more so it will feed nice.

Plunk or plonk test it - (depending if you are working in Metric or English.)


There is a point when the cartridge is being fed in - when the bullet hits the top of the chamber and then needs to go horizontal as the case head is scraping up past the firing pin hole, that there is a lot of resistance to the slide going home - and a little bit of crimp really helps things move along slipperily - (nuther fun word.) The faster the slide goes home, the more likely it will lock up nice even if there is a bit of crud somewhere.

A Lee Factory Crimp die will fix a slightly out of round cast bullet, but it won't check for lead in front of the case mouth or excessive OAL.
 
figured the flare was enough but tell me, after the flare die has completed, obviously a FMJ bullet sits nice because it has a rounding to the edge but how far into the casing should it go? maybe the scraping is the issue because I noticed the lead is bearly going into the casing
 
flare just enough so the bullet can be seated without shaving any of the lead on the case mouth.

a suggestion that may help indicate where your rounds are being jammed is to make some dummy rounds and paint them with a sharpie or use a match to blacken them.
than try to load your gun like you were to do normally and than extract the round and inspect it to see where the black has scrapped off.
 
Last edited:
Mark-II said:
OAL too long I bet

What bullet? LEE 230RN I'm guessing? (The JR feeds nothing but RN reliably).

I don't have a taper crimp die, so I roll on just a hint of a crimp - more by feel than by look, to smooth the case walls back.

I saw a 45ACP someone had lost at the range once. That bugger was roll crimped as hard as a magnum revolver round!
Click to expand...

This. The bullet is engraving into the rifling which makes it harder to eject the cartridge.

Bob
 
I size all of our 45 acp bullets to .451
Believe it or not but some 1911's will not feed a .452 bullet. A thou can make the difference.
I used to size and offer the 45 acp in .452 but to many people had the same trouble as you are having. So now I size them all .451.
Probably sell close to 50 thousand 45 acp during the year and no complaints.
 
timberhunter said:
I size all of our 45 acp bullets to .451
Believe it or not but some 1911's will not feed a .452 bullet. A thou can make the difference.
I used to size and offer the 45 acp in .452 but to many people had the same trouble as you are having. So now I size them all .451.
Probably sell close to 50 thousand 45 acp during the year and no complaints.
Click to expand...

Glad this works for you. I doesn't for most. Using soft lead and in your barrel this may work but for most .452 is the standard recomended sizing for .45acp and 45 Colt. The latter caliber for guns made since WW11.

The OP's problem is his cartridges are just to long and the bullet is engraving on the rifling. To the OP you should be able to see small marks on the bullets olgive from the rifling.

Take Care

Bob
 
Mark-II said:
OAL too long I bet

What bullet? LEE 230RN I'm guessing? (The JR feeds nothing but RN reliably).

I don't have a taper crimp die, so I roll on just a hint of a crimp - more by feel than by look, to smooth the case walls back.

I saw a 45ACP someone had lost at the range once. That bugger was roll crimped as hard as a magnum revolver round!
Click to expand...

quite common for someone that uses moon clips for ACP in revolvers chambered for rimmed cartridges. Not sure about the relevance/benefit of doing it but have seen it before.
 
I'm also going to suggest OAL is to long. Try seating it deeper bit by bit until it freely drops in and out of your barrel.
 
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