Thinking of loading up some 45 in lead

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tcanthonyii

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And I'm nervous. No I haven't bought anything yet and yes I have reloaded 45. Not a TON, maybe 1500 -2000 or so. I've done a few thousand 9mm and maybe 1000 of 40 and have been reloading for 2 years.

Why am I nervous? I don't know the fear of the unknown. I load lead for 44 mag and have lead for my 38/357 loading that hasn't started yet. Should I be nervous or just shut up, buy some and try it out? It's a fairly significant costs savings.

I think what scares me is not knowing when a barrel is "leaded".

Thoughts? HelP!!

Thank you!!
 
Just do it.

Not rocket science to load lead in .45 ACP.

I would suggest you start with 230 LRN to avoid feeding problems you might run into with lighter shorter, or SWC bullets to get started.

rc
 
45ACP is likely to run beautiful with cast. I dunno why. Fat bullet and thin brass? Low pressures? W/e the reason, go for it.

Clean the bore really well, first. Use Hoppe's 9 bore cleaner and a bore brush. Or some other copper solvent. If you don't clean it thoroughly, you have a much greater chance of accumulating bad fouling from the lead.

Take a cleaning rod with you. Check your bore after the first couple of rounds. If you have powder residue, wipe it out and look again.

If the bore is leaded, and you're not blind, you will see it.

If you get leading, try using a bore brush with some copper chore boy or bronze wool wrapped around it. And regular oil, not Hoppe's. Hoppe's dissolves copper (the brush and the chore boy), not lead.
 
I have shot a lot of lead in 9mm and .45. Nothing to fear IMO.
I have had really good results with MBC bullets and they are great to do business with. THey offer THR members a 5% discount with the code. There is a MBC thread if you need the code post there (or PM me) and someone will send it to you.

I have had no leading issues that don't clean up with 4 or 5 strokes with a bronze brush and Hoppes and this is shooting 200-300 round before cleaning.

Hope it works out well for you. I think you will like lead and it will save you some money.
 
I have shot about 8,000 cast lead bullets through the same 45ACP. Most of them from MBC. Some cast lead bullets can lead a bore but it isn't common. You can see leading by shining a flashlight in the bore. It will look like a shiny smear inside the bore. I keep an old .22 caliber brass bore brush wrapped with Chore Boy. If I see leading I run the Chore Boy through about 6-8 times and the leading is gone. Shooting lead does save me some money.
 
I've run a couple dozen Oregon Trail Laser Cast 230gr RN through my Tanfoglio Witness at ~850fps with no leading at all. Seems like #2 alloy hadn't ought to lead barrels in a .45 anyway; they're moving pretty slow.
 
.45 ACP is a pretty low velocity round. Keep it to standard pressures, clean your barrels, and you'll be fine. Most of my .45 ACP is hard cast lead semi wadcutters, 200 grain.
 
Personally I find them easier and they shoot better. Take off the flip flops. Lace up your boots and go for it.
 
Buy some and load them up. It is actually very hard to lead up a .45 ACP. And as posted, if it does, it will be obvious.
 
I only shoot lead through my 45. I recently tried poly-coated bullets, but didnt notice any less professed smoke, so back to normal lubed lead for me.
 
I only shoot lead. 230 RN is a good place to jump in due to them generally feeding well. However, I prefer 185 gr LSWC for the lesser recoil.
 
Have never shot anything else in my 45s. Get it done. I started with Lyman's 200 grain SWC. Was a chore to get it feed just right, but now it's flawless.
 
Thanks guys! a I was planning on going with a 230 grn rn. I shoot an xd and a 1911. The XD hates wad cutters, fairly well known issue. I could see myself going down to a 200grn, maybe but nothing less than that. Maybe I'll pick me up 500 or so next pay day and test the waters a little. I wouldn't mind getting into casting either. A friend owes me a set of pots if he can ever find them and my father in law can get me a decent supply of wheel weights.
 
Tony,

I don't know what you will be shooting your new lead loads in, so I would say...
As repeated above, many times, go for it.
If your weapon/s will reliability feed JHPs, it/they will feed, most likely, SWC. Hedge your bets at first with 225/230 RN, try 200 SWC after you get your feet wet.
As for me, well, I only load 200 SWC with 231 powder. It does every thing a 45 ACP could ever be expected to do and for the cheap.
Normal .45 ACP loads are not going to lead. Even when running soft swaged lead, velocities aren't all that high the leading is a big problem, go with cast bullets, say 12 B, and you can run as fast as is safe with no leading at all.
 
I've got 100 rounds of 230 grain Oregon trail lead round nose bullets just begging to go shooting. They're loaded with 6.5 grains of 800X if my memory is correct.

Too many bullets, not enough time......
 
I would pick out a popular one like the 200gr SWC or similar, load them up over some Unique or AA-5, or maybe even Bullseye, and go try them out. Just keep in mind you can get leading for several reasons. Usually the biggest with commercial bullets is the alloy is too hard for the loads being used. With the 45 ACP you shouldn't need anything harder than around a 12 BHN, but could probably get by with something around a 14 BHN. Softer in this caliber works well due to the low pressure and velocity loads used. The other issue would be the lube quality. That said though most commercial lubes are OK to say the least but are usually hard to enable them to stay put on the bullets during shipping. This is sometimes a good thing but can be their downfall. The folks form Missouri Bullets seem to have a great following, even though I DO have some of their products I haven't had the chance to try them out yet. Been too busy with my own for the time being.

As to what leading looks like, well if your barrel looks like this after 5, 10, or even 100+ rounds like this one has through it, your good to go,
attachment.php


On the other hand if after 5, 10, or more rounds it looks like this, you should reconsider your alloy choice or your load,
attachment.php


This was after only 4 rounds, but I was testing out a soft alloy at a pressure level I knew would probably result in this. However you have to test things out with cast or you might not find something that really works well. Turns out after further testing this was mainly due to two things, first the lube simply wasn't right for this project, and secondly the powder used was not quite right either, too much pressure too fast. I changed the lube and powder coated some just for kicks, and changed to AA-9 for the powder. I worked both the coated and conventional lubed bullets up to the max listed charge weight for this weight bullet with no issues what so ever. After firing a total of 50 rounds, the barrel looked as good or actually better than the top pic. However that one had well over a hundred rounds through it when that pic was taken, and quite a few more before I actually scrubbed it out.
 
I've loaded and shot thousands of lead through both 45 and 9mm. The only problem I encountered was my SR45 will not properly chamber swc. My XDS45 loves them. Both love 230 gr RN. I only shoot plain lead in my semiautos. My SR9 loves 124gr RN (plain lead). I shoot coated (hi-tek from MBC) lead in my revolvers. I'm lazy and get tired of cleaning cylinders. I'll probably never buy a copper jacketed or plated bullet again.
 
For your XD get a box of MBC's IDP #4, they are a RoundNoseFlatPoint, RNFP, and our XDs love them. I just loaded 500 using 5.4gn of Bullseye (max of 5.6) per Lyman cast bullet handbook. COAL of 1.230

They work well in my Glock with a Wolf bbl and in my Marlin camp-45.
 
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