.454 boolits in 45ACP

[jonp]

After reading a thread on a different forum I am wondering how many here run .454 boolits in their 45ACP's and what the BHN might be if you do so.

[bhn22]

As far as my stuff goes, if they'll chamber without interference, I consider them safe. My Colt will camber them easily, and the tighter fit does help accuracy. My Springfield has a tight match barrel, and while they'll chamber, they need a touch of effort for the slide to go into battery. So they are tight if you simply drop them in the chamber, but they chamber fully when the slide cycles. They work, but I haven't tried a long term test to see if they'll still chamber after a couple of hundred rounds. My bullets commonly run around 14 bhn, but I'm not a slave to bullet hardness. Whatever my range scrap comes out to with tin added, it what I run, unless I have some sort of special need, like softer alloys for hollowpoints, etc.

[prs]

BHN is not as big a factor as is fit. My Lyman molds drop 452460 and 452374 at .453" diameter and I lube/size a .452 die for my .451+ barrel slug. I have a Lee mold that drops their 452-230-TC right at .454" and I have lube/sized in in my .454 die and it fit my chamber and shoots well, but my typical crimp of having the outer case diameter tapered to .469" seemed to pooch a little lip ahead of the crimp that would occasionally created a failure to go all the way into battery. So I use the .452 die for all of the different styles I use in my 45 ACP pistols. But, some 45s have bigger bores. Simply put, its gotta fit the particular gun; small enough to chamber and large enough to snugly fill the barrel. I reckon at typical 45ACP pressures and velocities, even near dead soft lead would OK so long as the lube is excellent. My alloy is about 12BHN (approx. 95pb:2sn:3sb) when aged; casts well and no leading with NRA 50:50. I would suspect a greater chance of error would be to use too hard of an alloy.

prs

[MtGun44]

I use .452 for semiautos and .455 for my two 1917 revolvers because they have big
throats. No need to go above .452 for most semiautos, since .45 ACPs seem to have
FAR less barrel groove diam variation than the crazy 9mms.

Bill

[fredj338]

I doubt I could get a 0.454" bullet to chamber in most of my guns, so it's 0.452" for everything, maybe 6-7 diff 45acp.

[ShooterAZ]

I once tried unsized .453+ boolits and they would not chamber in either my Kimber, S&W, or Para. 452 works in all.

[Tatume]

I often use 255 grain Keith bullets at 800 fps in my S&W 625 with good accuracy.

[Larry Gibson]

My Para P14 with match chamber requires a .451 sized bullet to chamber reliably or the .452 sized bullet loaded cartridges run through the Lee FCD. Colt series 70 and Wilson match barrels chamber .452 w/o problems but will occasionally fail to chamber with .453 or larger sized bullets. .452 is my standard sizing for 45 ACP.

Only way for OP to know is to try some .454 sized cast in his own pistol.

Larry Gibson

[jonp]

The thread I was reading referred to a semi-auto and made it sound like every 45ACP could use them. I thought it sounded a little odd but every gun is different.

[Old School Big Bore]

1911s do have a degree of sensitivity to hardness, but that degree depends on the throating/ramping. A ramp with a rough surface or exposed sharp edge needs a harder alloy so the boolit can skid up into the chamber, but a smithed-up gun with a mirror-polished big old funnel of a ramp will tolerate a lot softer alloy. As far as diameter, my match Kart barrel will gag on anything over .452, but at one point I was running a take-out 1991 barrel that would accept .454...and prior to that I had a GI barrel in there that would have worked with .458s as a blow-gun... As long as the boolit goezinta the leade, maybe with a little press fit but chambers in operation, you're good. Trying to shoot up .45 Colt boolits in a 1911, the main issues I've had have been more about the length of the boolit not being compatible with a seating depth that would run in the particular gun. I tried to make some buffalo stompers with some 255 Keiths, big time no-go...they were a drop fit in the detached barrel but would balk at running in the assembled gun.

[Fluxed]

If you look at a SAAMI print, you'll see that for LEAD bullets the industry standard calls for .04530 - .0030.
That means a range from .4500 to .4530.
Most folks shoot .452 LEAD with fine results.

[Tatume]

If you look at a SAAMI print, you'll see that for LEAD bullets the industry standard calls for 0.4530 - .0030.
That means a range from .4500 to .4530.
Most folks shoot .452 LEAD with fine results.

Slipped decimal.

[Springfield]

My 1917 Colt Government runs soft .454 just fine. It is one of the most accurate, easy to shoot guns I have. I can keep a tin can jumping without even trying hard out to 30 yards.

[MT Chambers]

From my experience, those bullets won't feed well and the loaded round may jam at just the wrong time, just takes a couple of minutes to run them through a Star at .452".

[gray wolf]

I am surprised no one has asked---Why would you want to ?

[Bullshop Junior]

I am surprised no one has asked---Why would you want to ?

I could see it being potentially more accurate if they fit. Same reason I shoot 454 in my 45 colt loads.

[gray wolf]

I could see it being potentially more accurate if they fit. Same reason I shoot 454 in my 45 colt loads.
I would like to agree with you but in this case I can't. I think over sized in a 45 Colt may help with over sized throats.

[Bullshop Junior]

I would like to agree with you but in this case I can't. I think over sized in a 45 Colt may help with over sized throats.

I shoot 45 colt in a lever rifle.

[jonp]

I was curious about this as at some point the boolit gets big enough that to keep an OAL that will fit the magazine you would start to compress the powder as well as the .454 being a little big for the majority of Semi-Auto's out there.