First .45's loaded up

Well, I loaded my first .45's yesterday. Man, it is alot more complicated than loading rifle rounds! I bought some 230 gr LRN's off a guy at work along with a set of Lee carbide dies. We had trouble getting the case expansion right, but SGMJody ended up expanding them with his die and everything worked perfectly. I'll probably end up upgrading my dies. The dies were made for a Lee progressive and the powder through expander was giving us the trouble. Of course, my complete lack of knowledge and SGMJody's lack of familiarity with the system did not help either. I used Red Dot powder also, and it did not meter very well. I loaded up two batches of 50. One ranged from 4.2 - 4.5 grains and the other was 4.4 - 4.7 grains. Max is either 5.0 or 5.1 depending on where you look, so I have plenty of room for error! I did double charge the last case, on purpose. It would be difficult to seat the bullet with a double charge of the Red Dot, but I could see how some finer powders could be double charged very easily, scary stuff! I'll get a picture up later of my loaded ammo. I hope to get some more loaded up this morning. I found out yesterday that my kids have Vacation Bible School next Saturday and there is an IDPA practice match in Saltillo. Hopefully, I will get to go shoot!

jbpmidas wrote:I did double charge the last case, on purpose. It would be difficult to seat the bullet with a double charge of the Red Dot, but I could see how some finer powders could be double charged very easily, scary stuff!

Yep...using some powders one really needs to have no distractions whatsoever.
Be looking forward to a shooting report.

Should get to shoot some next week!

jbpmidas wrote:Should get to shoot some next week!

Not sad! Happy! Only had 1 day off the last three weeks! Next week = HAPPY!

Cool let us know how they shoot.

jbpmidas wrote:Not sad! Happy! Only had 1 day off the last three weeks! Next week = HAPPY!

only sad for me

.45 ACP isn't too complicated. It's a very forgiving round, especially with some powders and medium pressure loads.

I always thought rifle reloading was way more complicated.

You'll get used to it quick. What kind of press are you using?

Lyman Crusher and T-Mag.

Well, congratulations are in order ... I, too, have had problems with the new style Lee dies .. Do not like the expander function or the crimp function. Have a couple sets of the standard old sytle Lee's and they work like a charm .. I do use a separate taper crimp die for my .45, .40, and 9mm. With a slight taper, they seem to feed well in any gun I own.

DOUBLE CHARGES! Yep - they can be hazardous to your health. I use Bullseye for most of my pistol/revolver rounds -- more shots per pound powder .. BUT, you can double charge quickly if you are not careful.

Again, congrats on your first .45 production. Now you just need to start casting your own boolits!

I've got the lead for my bullets, just not the time. I loaded up 300 more today. SGMJody had me use his RCBS taper crimp die and it was much better! I will end up upgrading my dies. Looking forward to trying them out next week and using them in IDPA next weekend (fingers crossed)!

I should get a good many charges out of the Red Dot. If I went max, which is 5.0, I would get about 1400.

Yeap.... CONGRATS on your first 45acp reloads.

OH YES, a taper crimp is a must for semi-auto ammo.

I would shoot 50+ rounds to test the ammo before I entered a match..................

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What jbpmidas failed to mention was that my seating die is set to crimp only enough to return the expanded part of the brass back to resizing specs, in effect, no crimp. I always load for the most accurate round that I can produce and never crimp. Crimping pistol rounds will destroy accuracy TO A CERTAIN DEGREE. This is not to say that it will totally destroy the accuracy of the round. but will affect the accuracy to a certain degree. I wanted jbpmidas to load some rounds this way so he can see how much difference in accuracy there will be between these rounds and the other rounds he loaded with a taper crimp, if there is any difference. I loaded 45 cal rounds for three-gun pistol competetion for 25 years and never had any problems with the "jarring effect" causing the bullet to move any significant amount. Anyway, the 185 SWC rounds that I used to load for my Wad gun would not get outside the X ring, from a Ransom rest, at fifty yds, no matter how many rounds you wanted to shoot. My 45 is not a factory 45 but was custom built to shoot SWC rounds in competetion with a guaranteed 1.250" group at 50 yards. When jbpmidas loads for competetion, I will suggest a "slight" taper crimp to hold the 230 grain bullets a little tighter, thus still retaining most of the accuracy of the round.

Hopefully, when I run out of the 230's, I will be using 200 swc,s that we cast!!!

Taper crimping can be tricky. I have seen many other people's ammo that was taper crimped too much (IMHO). The case was actually squeezed into the bullet. When I taper crimp I do similiar to what you do.... remove the bell and return the case to straight-walled with a slight step (thickness of the brass) between the outside of the case and the surface of the bullet.

Hey, show us some close-up pictures of your 1st 45acp ammo......

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I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow. I'll be sure to take some of the ammo loaded with my lee dies and some with SGMJody's RCBS dies. They were all expanded with his expanded though.

Here they are. That's 100 and I have 300 more ready to go!

LOOKS GOOD ! ! !

Nice shiney brass is always a PLUS.....

Now we are waiting on the "range report".... (function, accuracy, velocities, ES, etc.).

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Going to the range Friday and IDPA Saturday. Don't know if I'll get velocities or not, just depends on if SGMJody wants to set up his chrony.

Probably! You won't shoot it, will you????