.451 or .452??

[Madmax]

Hi all, another question from the new guy. I am looking for bullets to get for reloading my .45apc. The local Gander Mt. sells the Meister hard cast .452 diameter 230 grain round nose. But the Lyman handbook tells me to only use .451 cast bullets. But Gander only sells the .452. Am I reading the handbook wrong or is .451 the only option? Thanks

 

[Delmar]

Madmax,
Unless you have a badly worn barrel, you will want to use .452 diameter bullets when loading cast bullets, and .451 when loading jacketed bullets.

 

[g56]

Unless you have a badly worn barrel, you will want to use .452 diameter bullets when loading cast bullets, and .451 when loading jacketed bullets.

That's always been my understanding, and a quick check of Speer #12 backs that up.

 

[The Tourist]

If you read some boxes of jacketed bullets, you'll find that the diameter is .4515 usually on Hornady.

I think my casting blocks drop a bullet at least .454 and I never worry.

If you mike out an older Colt Python, you'll find that their bore narrowed towards the muzzle. I've seen some at .354 and shot jacketed rounds without over-pressure signs.

For lead or lino, I like to be a tad over myself, like shooting .430 or .431 in an SW .44 Rem Mag. Of course, that being said, I size mine to .429 and shoot just fine.

I think this is more of a problem with older revolvers, usually old .45 Colts where the chamber diameters were wildly different than the barrel specs. If a tad larger, it swaged into the forcing cone. If smaller, it just slid on the rifling.

 

[labgrade]

& FWIW, I was sizing a .308 cast bullet to a nominal .309" - at least that's what the die said.

Shot about a ton of these bullets & finally, after several years, miked 'em to see - for some reason or another.

Turned out that they're all right at .314"

Never made any difference & can still get the occassional 1/2" 3Xer at 100 yards.

Nifty thing about cast bullets is that they'll swish into the bore. I'm sure there's some technical term therabouts.

 

[stans]

Generally speaking, you want a lead bullet to be 0.001-0.002" larger than the groove diameter of the barrel. This gives the lead bullet a tight seal in the barrel and limits flame cutting on the sides of the bullet. In 45 ACP, the accepted standards are 0.451" for jacketed bullets and 0.452" diameter for lead. The only time the 0.452" lead bullet will cause problems is if the chamber is at minimum diameter, then the slightly oversize bullet may cause feeding problems.

 

[Quantrill]

"Generally speaking, you want a lead bullet to be 0.001-0.002" larger than the groove diameter of the barrel." Absolutely true with one exception (that I do not believe applies in this case, but I wish to call attention to it for other readers). And that is revolvers. Revolver lead bullets should fit the chamber (in the cylinder). It has been found that bullet diameters that push through the chamber of a cylinder from a revolver achieve the best accuracy regardless of bore diameter. Of course , if the chamber diameter and the bore dia. work out to the right numbers, so much the better. Quantrill

 

[stans]

That is quite true. Ideally, a revolvers chamber throats should be the same diameter or no more than 0.001" over the diameter of the grooves, they should not be less than the diameter of the grooves!

 

[WESHOOT2]

OH YEAH?

I use bullets in my 45 ACP Caspian (Bar-Sto) that run from .450" up to .454".

I assume nothing; I test (oddly, when testing different brands of 200g LSWC H&G68's I found MY gun preferred them sized to .451").