Reloading 1911 45acp for the first time

Basically you are checking to make sure that there is enough crimp to allow the round to enter the chamber, and checking that your OAL is not so long that the round is protruding. In straight walled cases like this the round should easily fall out when you turn it upside down.
Ill find the pic and post it.

This isnt the one i was thinking of but it will work.

That photo and confirmation that your rounds pass the plunk test should be all you need. Do they easily fall into the barrel making a plunk sound? Are they flush or very slightly below flush with the barrel hood? Do they easily fall out of the barrel when you turn it over? If the answer to all 3 questions is yes, they pass the test.

And Walkalong to the rescue again. that was the exact set of pictures i was looking for originally. you rock as usual man.

Don't forget to check for bullet set-back by pressing the bullet nose into the bench top with thumb pressure and verifying the COL hasn't changed.
This will usually happen with thin-walled R.P. brass.

I finally broke down and bought a Dillon .45ACP case gauge so I didn't have to mess with my barrel. The case gauge does not take into account peculiarities of different chambers, throats, and rifling, but it does find the 1/10 rounds that are a little bulged or crooked so I can set them aside. This helped reliability in my 1911 a great deal since every other mag or so I would get one that wouldn't return to battery.

One thing to keep in mind with case gauges is that they will hang up on any burrs in the rim whereas the barrel generally won't. If I get one that doesn't quite go flush, I turn it around and stuff it into the gauge backwards to smooth out the rim and then try again. Probably bad for the gauge, but they're made of steel and they're cheap.

-J.

"...crimped (removed the bell)..." A taper crimp? No roll crimping for a .45. You'll have no headspace if you roll crimp. Otherwise, if they cycled with no fuss(not that doing that with live ammo is a great idea) you'll be fine.

I function checked a few in my 1911 (cycled them) and they cycled fine.

Is there anything more I should check?

Click to expand...

Yeah, you should check that all of the primers are seated flush or below.
Improper seating of the primer is the #1 cause of mis-fires.
Plunk tests, case gages or cycling the round will not tell you if the primer is installed correctly.

As part of my Quality Control steps for the initial several finished rounds, I push as hard as I can on the bullet nose with my thumb against the bench. If you can push the bullet deeper, you do not have enough neck tension and should recheck your resizing/flare/taper crimp steps.

You can also measure the OAL before and after function test to see if there is any decrease in the OAL.