What OAL for Lyman 452374 boolit in .45 ACP?

[Russel Nash]

Hi all,

I have finally gotten back around to tinkering with my Star lubesizer.

I also started working on converting everything from when I had a Dillon 550 to the 650 I have now.

So I tried making up some ammo using boolits cast from this Lyman 452374 mould.

Compared to FMJ type of bullets, these cast ones seem to have funny shape.

I kept dialing my seating die down and down some more. The OAL is right around the 1.255" mark.

The ammo at that length case gauges just fine. And it hand cycles just fine through my one 1911.

so if you are using the same mould/boolit in .45 ACP, WHAT OAL are you getting?

Thanks!

[41magfan]

Lyman says oal should be 1.272.

[35remington]

I've noticed the recent iterations of the 452374 have been looking kinda "pointy."

Is this a new mould or an older one?

[mike in co]

what fits the gun....

i had this issue...two guns two very different throats.....
load the longest that the short throat will cycle.....

mike in co

[CJR]

I have the older Lyman 452374 mould and use an OAL of 1.265" which works well in all my 1911s. An OAL of about 1.272" is , I believe, a max length for the 1911.

Best regards,

CJR

[RobS]

When I used this boolit design I loaded at 1.26" if memory serves me right as that is what fit the drop in chamber test of my pistol. Seems that many guns run anywhere from 1.24 to 1.26.

[ChuckS1]

You have to see what fits your gun. Take out the barrel, hold it muzzle down, and drop a loaded round into the chamber. The OAL length should be whatever is flush with the chamber. Then check to make sure it's not too long for your magazine. Or, better yet, sell that 452374 and get in on the H&G #34 group buy. That boolit will duplicate the profile of the Govt FMJ round.

[Russel Nash]

okay....I better hurry over to the group buy thread then.

last time I was interested in a group buy, it went too quickly.

bummer.

I am not so worried about how it fits in the chamber or barrel ....yeah...yeah....I know that's the main thing....

since I shoot a lot of IDPA, USPSPA/IPSC and steel plate matches, I was more concerned about a round that would clear the ejection port.

when my dummy rounds were closer to 1.300 they would get hung up in the ejection port.

after you get done shooting a stage, you have to unload and show clear....it would be kinda embarassing to get a round stuck with a range officer standing over my shoulder.

even more embarassing would be to have a jam on the clock, try to tap, rack, and bag my way out of it only to make it worse.

thanks for the advice and the head's up on the group buy....when I first saw those boolits drop from that mould I thought they looked funny.

[LabGuy]

I run the Lyman specs of 1.272 in my 1980s ventage Springfield Government model 1911 with the 452374.

[casterofboolits]

I am lucky to have an old Lyman four cavity 452374 and the boolit from this mould sizes as much above the lube groove as below (about .125) and drops at exactly 225 grains with my alloy. This is an accurate boolit in all five of my 1911's. The mould is over fourty years old.

A few years back I purchased another four cavity 452374 mould with the intention of increasing my casting production of this boolit. Unfortunatly, the new mould dropped at 220 grains and barely sized the land below the grease groove.

I load the OAL to 1.260.

[Russel Nash]

thanks for confirming what I suspected.

the plastic box I got my mould in (NIB) just a couple of years ago is labeled with the "452374" number. bu the mould is actually stamped "452374 DV" ....I have only used lyman moulds so far, I have four total and I will have to look at the others to see if they are actually stamped with letters too.

[Russel Nash]

pardon me resurrecting this thread, but what would be another mould or mould maker that puts out something close to an FMJ/ball profile (outside of the Mi-hec group buy)?

just curious?

thanks!

[35remington]

Lee 230-2R. Pretty close.

[captaint]

Russell - NOE is running a group buy now on the clone of H&G 34, 230gr round nose. Not due to ship till July. Very nice molds, if you're interested. enjoy Mike

[Russel Nash]

thanks Captaint.

I went ahead and posted in that particular group buy thread.

I'm not all that interested in the Lee mold because it looks to be a tumble lube mold.

I splurged and spent all that jack on a Star lubesizer with just about all the doo-dads. I might as well use it on boolits that have a typical lube groove in them.

[Doby45]

Your best bet for a very soonish 452 230gr ball round would be from Tom at accurate molds. The one that Geargnasher designed appears to be very good and he designed it to feed in a finicky Kimber. I will see if I can find a pic of it. But, Tom could have it done in no time.

Accurate Molds # 45-230L

http://i53.tinypic.com/28we9oh.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2jbpdae.jpg