problem with 45 colt cast

[justing]

is it a common problem to have with 45 colt to not like shallower boolits?
i was using the boolits i cast for my 45 acp in my 45 colt and the rounds were varing among the rounds some would almost squib others fired light others wound fire fine any suggestions, just got a new mold that i think might help its a deeper boolit .

[.22-10-45]

Hello, justing..By "shallower"..do you mean shorter...lighter bullets? I am assuming you are using bullet designed for .45ACP in .45 long-colt case? How are you crimping if at all..and how firm? You also left out alot of details..like what firearm you are using these in, what powder, etc.

[MT Gianni]

You need to slug your bores. If a typical bbl for a 45 runs .452-453 then it would not like .451 bullets.

[geargnasher]

Try weighing each powder charge and use a powder of appropriate burn rate for lighter boolits in that caliber.

Gear

[Doby45]

I don't use .451 cast even in my ACPs. So cast and sized to .452 or even as cast 45ACP boolits should work fine as far as size goes.

[RobS]

More info.......bullet/powder combo (bullet weight and powder used/charge weight), bore diameter to bullet size/diameter would also give us more information to help you out.

[justing]

sorry i am using a lee mold it .452 240 gr over win 231 with a roll crinp

[Doby45]

Still not much to go on. So far we know it is a 45cal boolit in the 240gr range. And you are using some Win231. What size are you actually sizing the boolit to? Or are you sizing? If you are loading as cast, what size is the boolit as cast? How much of that boom stuff are you using? 1gr? 49gr? What is your OAL?

[justing]

6518165182

[justing]

on the left the mold that's been giving me trouble, on the right the new mold i hope will fix it

[justing]

new mold is 265 gr

[justing]

65183

[Doby45]

65184

[justing]

tumble lubed not sized all come out at .452 using large magnum primers with 6.5 gr of 231 OAL is 1.59

[40Super]

HMmmmmm, so you were using a 240gr tl bullet in the 45acp?? The shallow(tumble lube grooves) have nothing to do with how good or if your powder goes off. You need to have the correct powder charge for that bullet when used in 45lc, not 45 acp, Are you using a reloading manual or just "wing'in it" ? Are you lubing those bullets? if so, with what?
Going by your posts, we don't really know whats going on and it has nothing to do with the bullets.:brokenima

[geargnasher]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?110213-From-Ingot-to-Target-A-Cast-Bullet-Guide-for-Handgunners

Gear

[justing]

using the lee modern reloading manual for my data, and the powder charge is different between the acp and the colt lubing with lee liquid alox

[40Super]

If your rounds are going from squibs to full power something isn't right with the amount of powder being put into each case. The bullet has nothing to do with it unless they are being pushed in or out from recoil, your roll crimp should stop that though.
Sooooo, are you making sure each charge is the same? is your seating debth of the bullet the same on each round? If those two are ok , we'll go from there. Are you getting a good primer strike(even debth dimple in fired primer)?

[justing]

i am using a lee turret mold so the seat depth is all set i check every 5th for length all powder charges are the same using the lee auto disk and a scale, firing in a new judge all good primer strikes, after i fire them i place the spent round in a box primer up and all strikes seem the same.

[RobS]

Now I know................ however assuming your reloading practices are consistent i.e. COAL, crimp and primer seating, I would venture to say that the Lee TL 452-230-TC needed a harder crimp or about .5 grains more to ignite consistently. I would also try a standard primer with 231 especially if you have a light crimp because magnum primers can move the bullet out of crimp before there is sufficient powder burn. The larger Lee 452-255-SWC design is a longer/heavier design that may help in a revolver with powder burn or ignition consistency especially when using a magnum primer with quicker powder.

[justing]

i would prefer to use the standard primer but with the shortage of primers all i am finding are magnum the new mold is a lot deeper than the acp mold i will get more loader up and give them a try thanks all for your help will update tomorrow once i put some down range.

[RobS]

Sounds good and if you haven't here is hodgon's link to double up or cross reference the Lee manual:
http://www.hodgdon.com/basic-manual-inquiry.html

[justing]

i will look into other loads thanks

[40Super]

Ahhh, yup if the mag primer is causing the bullet to jump before the powder ignites it can cause the erratic pressures also. Didn't think of that route.

[justing]

i will load some with the crimp i have been using, and the rest with a harder crimp.

[justing]

ok well went to the range and put 50 rounds of the new load and all 50 worked great not one problem so hopefully that fixed the problem and it felt good to get the gun working like it should, so once i got home i cleaned all the guns and went to casting.

[justing]

65424

[geargnasher]

Did you say "Judge"? The .410/.45 Colt thingy?

Gear

[RobS]

ok well went to the range and put 50 rounds of the new load and all 50 worked great not one problem so hopefully that fixed the problem and it felt good to get the gun working like it should, so once i got home i cleaned all the guns and went to casting.

Excellent..........glad things are now on an upswing.

[justing]

Did you say "Judge"? The .410/.45 Colt thingy?

Gear i did say judge, and i happen to love that little gun. thanks you very much;)

[geargnasher]

Shooting a cast boolit through the cylinder of the Judge revolvers is like throwing a hotdog down a hallway.....until it finds the forcing cone and gets crammed through there at whatever angle it happens to strike. Then the boolit is yanked into a spin by the rifling after having reached near full velocity. None of this does much good for accuracy or mitigating gas cutting/leading from rifling skid, but they will sling lead just fine if you work within the set of handicaps the dual-function cylinder has.

Gear

[justing]

mine is fairly on point its not a tack driver but at 15 yards hits just high of point of aim either way i still love my judge.

[David2011]

tumble lubed not sized all come out at .452 using large magnum primers with 6.5 gr of 231 OAL is 1.59

That is not a charge that requires magnum primers. You might be unseating the boolits with excessive primer pressure before the powder has a chance to ignite. If you only have magnum primers and can't get standard large pistol primers, at least make sure you have a firm roll crimp for the .45 Colt and don't load max level loads without a chronograph.

David

[BeeMan]

It's a bit difficult to tease out just what is being done and what is happening. However, if the problem is poor uniformity this is likely an ignition problem. Magnum primers aren't the answer as they are more likely than a standard primer to push the projectile out before the powder burn raises pressure. Crimping more likely won't help either and may actually make things worse by buckling the case below the crimp.

Increase bullet pull with more case neck tension. Some ways to do this are size the casting less, change alloys or temperatures to cast a larger diameter, beagle the mold to increase the diameter, or use a smaller expander.

Also make sure the powder your using is appropriate to light loads in the roomy 45 Colt case. Easy ignition comes from the likes of Bullseye, 231, TiteGroup, and other 'target' load powders

All this is more important given the long 'throat' of the dual purpose chamber on the Judge. No criticism of your firearm is intended. It is just a fact that you need to understand and for which adjustments need to be made in your load.

BeeMan

[justing]

i don't mind criticism of the judge its not for everyone some people like em and some don't i happen to like mine i am using 231 and the new load worked great for 50 rounds i just cast over 100 more and will see how they go. thanks

[Walter Laich]

how old is the powder??

[40Super]

I kind of like those little things, neat idea and work good enough for fun :guntootsmiley:
A buddy bought one , he has tons of fun with it, keeps it in his truck for a critter gun. Be interesting with a pile of casted discs(around five to seven ) instead of three and some buckshot like the boughten ones.

[justing]

how old is the powder??
newer powder 5 months or so before the shortage.

[justing]

I kind of like those little things, neat idea and work good enough for fun :guntootsmiley:
A buddy bought one , he has tons of fun with it, keeps it in his truck for a critter gun. Be interesting with a pile of casted discs(around five to seven ) instead of three and some buckshot like the boughten ones.
mine handles the hi brass 410 so the pdx1's in 3 inch are awesome 4 disks and 12 bb