Reloading 45 acp 200 gr. LSWC

[aerod1]

I am about to start loading 45 acp 200 gr. LSWC and want to know if there are any personal experiences I need to know about.
I am going by the manuals but I'm looking for tips that may not be in the books.

Jim

 

[rcmodel]

Tips?
Make sure your gun will feed them before you load a thousand or so.

Use only enough taper crimp to straighten out the case mouth bell.

Chamber check in your guns barrel to insure the bullet shoulder & the rifling leade can co-exist.

rcmodel

 

[VegasOPM]

I try to keep them about 900fps. Much less and the brass doesn't get a good seal (soot all over the chamber) and much more and leading gets bad. Waste a few bullets getting the headspace right, and allow for the fact that the bullet lube will collect on the end of the chamber- so I always seat just a little deeper than I need to. Some guns don't like to cycle semi wads.

 

[Galil5.56]

Jim,

That bullet in several forms is my bread and butter for my 45's, and has been very good to me. If possible, go with the biggest sizing that your chamber will allow, and in my experience Bullseye and WW231/HP38 are very hard to beat.

I have driven them to 1000 fps w/o leading when sizing/hardness and lube were well balanced, but find around 850 fps to be the sweet spot

Good luck!

 

[larryw]

Speaking of bullet lube build up: make sure to clean your seating die on a regular basis as the accumulated goop will affect seating depth.

Or buy a good bullet puller...

 

[Walkalong]

Headspace has nothing to do with bullet seating.

 

[Roper1952]

Revolver or auto...?

 

[aerod1]

[Revolver or auto...?/QUOTE]

Both, I have several 1911's and also a Ruger Blackhawk convertible 45Colt/ 45acp. I just bought 500 of these bullets. I have shot LSWC out of my 1911's before with no problems.

 

[1911user]

200 LSWC is about all that I shoot from a 1911 45. Just seat the bullets with the shoulder barely (1/32") beyond the case mouth. My loads have been very reliable in 15K+ rounds. I use 5.3gr of W231/HP38 powder and mixed brass. Primers are standard CCI, Win, or Rem depending on what's handy when it's time to load ammo. It's a nice load that makes USPSA major power factor in a full size pistol (5" barrel).

 

[PCJim]

I'll second 1911user's load recipe and comments. Mine have performed well out of several manufacturers' 45s.

 

[jr_roosa]

If you gun will cycle with it, 3.6gr of bullseye makes for a really gentle practice round. My old M1911 shoots it all day, and my new Springfield Mil-Spec is learning to like it. Slowly.

-J.

 

[MrGreenMachine]

Make sure you check and re check your crimp. I was having problems with cycling, failing to go into battery, and failure to feeds until I crimped just a wee bit more. Funny thing was hand cycling these through the magazine was fine , but once I started to shoot them was when the failures started popping up. I used a Wilson cartridge gauge to verify the fit for multiple guns

 

[lee n. field]

Make sure your gun will feed them before you load a thousand or so.

Yeah, really. Voice of experience there, eh? I haven't done quite that many, but I've had to work my way through boxes of ammo that had problems during the feed cycle (but would shoot fine if you managed to get them in the chamber and the gun fully into battery). Seating depth issues.

200 LSWC is about all that I shoot from a 1911 45. Just seat the bullets with the shoulder barely (1/32") beyond the case mouth.

That's the key, right there. Seat high enough for the bullet to bite the rifling, and the gun might not go into battery. Seat too low, and the case mouth scrapes the chamber while feeding, and may hang. Am troubleshooting issues like this with my .40 handloads right now.

 

[Baldy]

Use a dial caliper to check your OAL. That's over all lenght and the case mouth after the bullet is seated. I use nothing but 200gr lswc anymore.
I use Bullseye @ 3.6grs. Its a good target load and Win-231 5.3grs if I want a little more power. My OAL is 1.250". Set your crimp die till you get .470" at the case mouth after the bullet is seated. A Lee full length sizing die does a fine job and will not break the bank. Good luck.

 

[Remo-99]

Make sure you check and re check your crimp.

Yep for sure, 1911's are a little fussy about the crimp, not quite enough and they don't like it. Mine didn't like SWC until i polished up the feed ramp on the frame and barrel chamber lip, but after was done polishing it would even feed empty cases with no problem. My favorite target loads were 155gr LSWC pushed along by 5gr of bullseye, they like a quick burning powder to function the action, and I was running a softer recoil spring as well.

 

[lazyeye]

My Springfield GI likes them only if I crimp.
I seat the bullet so the shoulder is just above the rim (I can't remember my OAL number).
200gr Oregon Trail LSWC on top of 5.5gr of Titegroup.

 

[Pilot]

Another 200 gr LSWC user here. As a light target load I use 3.8 grains of Hodgdon Clays. My Springfield Milspec feeds 100% reliably with these.

 

[Maelstrom]

Finally! Someone else who uses Clays!

I used to use 231 but went to Clays about two years ago. Great powder for it.

 

[Baldy]

I haven't had a FTF or FTE in years and it's because of these tools. They are Case Gauges and a Dial Caliper in the front. The dial caliper measures OAL and crimp. The gauges are the same as your gun chamber. If the cartridge falls in free and don't stick out the other end it is a shooter.

.223 cal on the left, .45 cal in the center, 9mm on the right. Dail Caliber in the front.

 

[schmeky]

Pilot and Maelstrom,

About all I use is 231 in 9/40/45 with excellent results . . . but I have considered Clays since it is more economical (yea, I'm a cheap b_stard!!). I used Bullseye and Unique for nearly 22 years but like 231 better overall.

So how does Clays measure, is it a ball powder? How clean is it compared to 231?

About the 200 LSWC, all my favorite 45's eat these like candy, namely my Kimber, Norinco, S&W 4506, and my CZ-97B. Only problem is the chambers get gummed up after about 100 rounds and makes cleaning more of a chore, so I have gone mostly to jacketed bullets. But I love the way the LSWC's chamber and shoot.

 

[solvability]

I use 200 gr SWC and 4.0 Clays or W231 (5.2 I think) - it took me while to find a load that both my 1911 and my Sig 220 liked but both feed just fine with the Clays - they want the bullet seated just a hair above the case and a light crimp - Lee crimp die.

 

[stork]

45 Load

Aerod1,
There have been several excellent loads already given for the 200 SWC. 3.6-4.0 Clays, 3.5-4.2 Bullseye, 3.8-4.0 WST. There are others, but if your gun won't shoot with any of these combinations, it probably won't shoot.

I would recommend experimenting with the amount of crimp. The first kart barrel I had installed shot like crazy with a very hard crimp .463-.465. The one currently installed likes .468-.469.

Over all length:
Don't get hung up on measuring. Make sure the bullet is seated so that the shoulder of the bullet extends out of the case about 1-2 thickness' of your thumbnail. Make sure they chamber in your barrel (just in case it was throated too short) and make sure you can load the magazine full with out any of the rounds bridging and jamming the mag (this could be a problem if you are using a bullet with an extremely long forward section). Then just go out and practice.

FWIW

Stork

 

[wkuban]

200 gr swc in 45 acp

I shoot 4.2 Bullseye. Seems to work in all 3 of my guns.

 

[Hanzerik]

200gr LSWC over 4gr Bullseye at 1.25 OAL here.

 

[earplug]

What do you want to do with the bullets?

Bullseye, Target, shooting game, plink? field gun. Do you need power, accuracy or just a cheap load that cycles the gun?
I have found that many 180.200 grain SWC work just fine with no need to change my seating die thats adjusted for 230 RN.
The bullets were designed to have the same OAL and contact the feed ramp the same as ball.