Performance and new questions

[crewchief]

Hello all,

First a quick background, I have been a handgun shooter for many years but not real competitive unlike my rimfire bench-rest shooting. I own a Ruger P90 & plan on getting a 1911 real soon hopefully. Now I am moving up to Ohio in the next month real close to a lot of my wifes family who I get along with great and they happen to have a private 100yrd. range. My father-in-law is also a reloader for rifle ammo for his classic M1's and such he often shoots. Well now that it seems that I have my own private range and access to loading equipment I am going to be reloading my .45 ammo to save money. Now I don't have questions on the savings as I have downloaded that Excel spreadsheet that someone here made with all of the cost calculations which I thank whoever made greatly. I am also stunned that it is only going to cost me about $3 per box of 50 to reload. Ok sorry for the long winded intro and on to the questions I have and please bare with me if some of this is repetitive, but I have used the search button and have done as much research as possible before asking.

O.k. the first thing on my mind has to do with this "pet" load that I found on the Internet. It calls for using 4.15 grains of bullseye powder with a 200 grain H&G 68 LSWC. Now I am wondering if it would be O.k. to use a 200 grain Speer SWC instead and how that would effect performance or if someone here has a better "pet" load for a Speer SWC. The reason I am set on the Speer is because I will be mainly punching paper and I want a SWC for that and at $56.98 a 1,000 it does not sound like such a bad deal.

On to the next question. Being totally new to this I don't know to much about powders but I noticed that their are some that are used more than others. The ones that I am looking at is the Accurate No. 5 Powder, Alliant Bullseye Powder, and I noticed that some of you High Roaders like the Ramshot True Blue Powder. They all seem to be pretty closely priced and I really only wanted one in 1lb. to start with for my first 1,000 so which one would you choose? Now mind you I am no competitor right now and I am just looking for something that will punch holes in paper fairly accurate and won't be to hard for a newbie to measure, pour and work with. I would eventually like to get more of a variety down the road, but I really would like to buy as little as possible for now unless you guys suggest that I get more.

Now question number three. Like I mentioned earlier my father-in-law has a bunch of reloading stuff, but I know for a fact that he does not have a .45acp die set. I think that this is the only thing that I will need as he has a ton of RCBS reloading stuff and reloads quite a bit. I just want to get your opinions on a good basic die set that I will need for .45acp as this is the only caliber that I plan or reloading. I figure something that will last maybe a couple of years until I can buy my own equipment and reload at my own house instead of his and then have them in good enough condition to leave them there with him in-case he wants to do the rare reloading of .45 ammo.

Alright one last question and I promise I am done. I have priced CCI large pistol primers at $21.05 per 1,000 and Federal large pistol primers at $17.05 per 1,000. Is it worth the extra $4 per 1,000 for the CCI or will the Federals do me just fine? The reason I ask is because I have noticed that most everybody uses CCI primers and I don't know if this is because of preference or if because the other brands are crap. If you could just let me know if their is a huge difference I would appreciate it as I would hate to buy a 1,000 crappy primers because I was to cheap to fork over the extra $4.

Well that is it those are my questions for now. I am sorry if these are beaten dead horses but like I said I already did a lot of reading and used the search feature to no avail (how do you think I found that Excel calculator). I appreciate any help that I can get from my fellow High Roaders and if any of you live up near Toledo I would love to get together to do some shooting. Like I said we have our own 100yrd. range with two clay throwers for shotguns. Any High Roader is welcome to come over and we'll BBQ up some steaks and throw some clays . Thank you all for bearing with me and hope to hear some good feedback.


Crewchief

 

[lycanthrope]

A. Is the Speer SWC lead or jacketed? I'm thinking you're talking the jacketed version. You will need to up the powder.1-.2+ (always start low) grains to get the same speed with jacketed over lead.

B. Bullseye is cheap and accurate and meters well. It's only downside is being dirty. I prefer Titegroup, but it's con is that it is dark colored and hard to see in the case.

C. RCBS dies are just fine despite what the internet elite may say. I've loaded 10,000+ (at least) on my last set. I recommend seating and crimping in different steps though. The seat/crimp die can be a pain to set up as one station.

D. Federal primers are fine. I use CCI on my high pressure rounds (.40) because they are HARD. On a .45 the Federals should offe ryou no troubles.

 

[ocabj]

Federal primers are perfectly fine. The only thing to note is that they appear to be softer than CCI. I think Lee hand primer tool comes with a special note about Federal primers.

Check the gun shows in your area for primers (and powder). I get Winchester 1000ct primers for $12.50 or $13.50, small or large respectively, at the show in my area.

 

[crewchief]

Thanks for the replies guys. The Speers are the jacketed ones by the way, sorry if I forgot to mention that. One more question that probably gets asked all the time if you don't mind. What do you recommend for the cheapest yet reliable .45acp bullet you can buy, and how much?

 

[lycanthrope]

Cheapest and most reliable? The local dealer of lead 230rn. Less than $40/1000.

For jacketed try Zero bullets. Shooters connection has them for $66/1000.

 

[JPM70535]

I've been reloading 45s with 200 gr lswc for many years and truthfully, I never found a nickles worth of difference in any of them. I currently cast my own using an HG pattern mold. I use Federal or Winchester primers that can be had at any gunshow for under $15 a thousand. Bullseye is a good powder,also you might try WW 231. I use 5 gr for plinking loads and they are accurate in all my 45s regardless of bbl.length. My alltime favorite load for the 200 SWC was 5.3 gr ow WW452. It made major for IPSC matches and was super clean. Like everything else that worked realy well, it has been discontinued I believe

 

[Jim Watson]

Pet loads are like pet pit bulldogs.
They are SOMEBODY ELSE'S pet.
A load that shoots well in my gun might be a flop in yours on accuracy, reliability, or both. Our loads are no more than starting points for you to start loading and shooting.

RCBS dies are pretty good, Federal primers are superior. There are lots of suitable powders. I would pick one that calls for about a five to six grain charge to give standard velocity for .45 ACP 200 or 230 grain bullets. Faster burning (lower charge weight) powders are touchy on pressure, slower burning (higher charge weight) powders will give more velocity variation and fouling if loaded much below maximum.

Ball powders meter more uniformly. I have shot a lot of Win. 231 and am now using some AA #2 which has the advantage of giving plenty of velocity at below maximum loads and generating less muzzle flash than most.

I would start out with a roundnose bullet; semiwadcutters cut a clean hole in the target and average more accurate, but may require that the gun be "throated" to feed them reliably. You don't need that hassle starting out.

Get the books.

 

[g56]

As mentioned above, ball powders meter the best, I have used Winchester 231 for many years as my all around regular pistol powder, it's great for medium loads for regular paper punching, I load it in 9mm, 38 special, and 45 acp. Bullseye is a good powder, I started out with Bullseye but switched to 231, it's a better all around powder.

I prefer Federal primers over CCI's.

RCBS are good dies, no problems with them.