45 ACP boolits

[canoetrpr]

I'm just getting started and doing some research first.

Curious to know what alloy you folks use for pistol cast boolits such as 45ACP. I do not (yet) have access to WW and I seem to be getting started at a time where WW sources seem to be drying up or ending up with a lot of junk (zinc, steel etc.) so I will probably be starting with pure lead from a scrap yard and adding things like antimony and tin in appropriate quantities. Of course I have to figure out where I will find them ;-)


One youtube video I saw the guy recommended buying the linotype alloy of 12% antimony, 4% tin and the rest lead from Rotometals and mixing with range lead in a 1 in 6 ratio. Rotometals does ship to Canada but the stuff ain't cheap particularly after shipping.

Are there particular moulds you have been successful with for 45 ACP? Do you use a gas check?

Appreciate any words of wisdom.

[MtGun44]

No gas checks necessary for .45 ACP. Get a 200 SWC, with the H&G 68 clones leading
the pack. The Lyman 452460 is a bit shorter in the nose, so instead of 100% reliable
feeding, it is more like 99.999% - with all that problem feeding existing in a small minority
of pistols - most guns will feed it very well. Both are quite accurate in a good gun, and
save 15% of your lead compared to the 230 RN that are often recommended.

Also - please remember that taper crimping as a separate operation is required to make
reliable ammo. Many suggest just removing the belling of the case mouth, but I prefer
to go about .004 - .005" tighter than just straightening the case out.

Set LOA to clear your throat and TC to make the round fully chamber when dropped
into the dismounted barrel (used as a gauge).

Good luck, the .45 ACP is relatively easy to load for - I have helped make it even
easier, I hope.

Bill

[knifemaker]

You do not need a gas check boolit for 45 ACP. If you want to get started without paying the price for a custom mold, but be able to crank out some boolits at a setting. I would look at the Lee 6 cavity alum. mold for their 230 gr. truncated cone boolit. I have that mold and it drops great boolits that feed very reliable and with very good accuracy. I even used it for my IDPA matches before I switched to X-Treme plated bullets. Lee seems to do a better job on making their 6 cavities molds then they do on their 2 cavities from my experience with both. Later you might want to look at a custom from NOE or Accurate Molds when you have the experience to pick a particular style of boolit for your favorite gun.
Also I used 5.3 gr. of W-231 powder behind that bullet for a velocity of 835-850 FPS to equal hardball factory loads. My alloy was 50% pure lead mixed with 50% clip on wheel weights and 2% tin. Had very good fill out in the mold and no leading in several 1911 pistols I used it in.

[bobthenailer]

If alloying ? I would get Superhard from Rotometals instead of linotype.
My self i use water dropped from the mould WW metal , size @.452 this dia has worked in about ten 45 acp pistols over the years with factory & match barrels. No GC required for velocties the 45 acp generates.

I have 4 bullet moulds for the 45 acp , Saeco #062-170gr , #068-200gr , #058-215gr , and the RCBS-230gr .
I use the 068-200 gr the most, 062-170gr next , 058-215gr for mostley bowling pins and the 230gr rn for full moon reloading in my S&W 625 revolver.

The #068- 200gr swc which is Saeco's version of the H&G 68 feeds excellent and is very accurate from every gun tried in.

[mdi]

I'd say start with a tried-and-true bullet shape/weight; 225/230 gr. RN. Easy to cast, and they feed in every gun that's chambered for the 45 ACP. As far as alloy, for a 45 ACP, you certainly don't need hard, I shoot a lot of "mystery metal" which checks out at around 9-11 BHM (I smelted a bunch of mixed wheel weight alloy, some range lead, some scrap from work, some stick on wheel weight alloy (Thanks Captain), and some ??? alloy together. Consolidating supplies). Check some of the Vendor Sponsors for shootin' lead...

[EMC45]

The H&G 68 clone is good. Lee has a close replica I like and shoots well over 4.5gr Bullseye. I also like the Lee 230gr. Truncated bullet. Runs in every ACP handgun and carbine I have. I use all air cooled clip on wheel weights too. No water dropping or special alloying here.

[canoetrpr]

Thanks for your thoughts so far folks. I feel like I struck gold. After a few calls I talked to my own mechanic, an independent shop and he said he has scrap WW and will collect them for me for free! I will pick up when I go in for service. Yahoo!

Now to find a source or two for cheap scrap lead, linotype etc....

Rotometals SuperHard would be VERY convenient but shipping here to Canada adds some 50% to the price! May still be worthwhile if I can't find any other source.

[RobS]

How are you planning on lubing these boolits? I will agree on the Lee 452-230 TC being a good all around design that feeds well in many firearms. You never mentioned what 45 Auto(s) you plan on casting for as this can make a difference in the boolit design i.e. many Glocks and older Springfield XD's do not and will not reliably cycle SWC designs end of story. A round nose of sorts will almost always cycle and do well in a semi-auto but the Lee 452-228-1R is an exception. Give us a bit more information

[Blackwater]

What bullets work in any individual gun is dependent on exactly what gun it is that's being tested. There are no shortcuts to this. My own pair of Colt Combat Commanders don't like bullets with very long noses, but feed shorter ones just fine. These are things you just have to find out by trial and error. Most of the new guns seem to digest just about any reasonable bullet commonly encountered. My old Colts are more finicky. They'll feed the Lee 230 gr. TC for instance, only if seated to crimp on the last vestige of shank for a shorter OACL. If your gun is newer, be thankful, because from what I've noted personally, they seem to be a lot more forgiving than the older Colts often are. FWIW.

[DougGuy]

Also, much of it depends on your own barrel's throat diameter and how much freebore is in the throat before the rifling starts. A lot of barrels are too tight for a .452" to chamber fully unless seated really deep in the case, in which case a fella that knows which end of a throating reamer to use can fix that in short order. Several threads about throating a 1911 on this forum can shed light on the subject.

[trixter]

How are you planning on lubing these boolits? I will agree on the Lee 452-230 TC being a good all around design that feeds well in many firearms. You never mentioned what 45 Auto(s) you plan on casting for as this can make a difference in the boolit design i.e. many Glocks and older Springfield XD's do not and will not reliably cycle SWC designs end of story. A round nose of sorts will almost always cycle and do well in a semi-auto but the Lee 452-228-1R is an exception. Give us a bit more information

I beg to differ with you about XD's, My XDM has been shooting and cycling several different types of SWC's (H&G 68 clone, and my favorite the Lee 452-200 SWC), since day one. I also got the Lee 452-228-1R to function very well after I seated it a little deeper than book specs., but I like the 200gr Lee SWC better, and it makes such pretty holes in the paper.

[Shiloh]

Do you have a rifle range berm you can mine for lead?? t's work, but it is free lead. Free other than some gas money and sweat equity. You don't need a hard alloy for the velocities you will be shooting at.

SHiloh

[Boyscout]

My Desert Eagle 1911G will not feed the Lee 452-200-SWC at all. The Lee 452-230-TC works well. The Lee 452-230 RN does not feed reliably. Go figure. I am experimenting with seating depths before taking it back to a gunsmith.

[Bill in Ky]

The Lee 452-200-SWC shoots very good in my XDs but would not feed well in my M&P, it failed 20% of the time. I went with Lee's 452-230-TC for my M&P and it functions great and is very accurate over 4.5gr of RedDot.

[bangerjim]

45's like all other semi's such as 9 and 40 are tricky. Each gun is different. I have 2 1911's and I had to go to a Lee factory crimp die and size to .451 to get them to throat chamber. You will not know until you load some dummies.

If I remember right, I use a length of 1.41 for all the 45 slugs I load in the 45ACP. And I use exclusive Lee molds in ALL the 45 cal sizes in my 45ACP. Lee aluminum molds cast excellent boolits and are very inexpensive. You can get more molds for the price!!!! I suggest starting with a Lee mold and get the feel of things then expand out.

I powder coat everything which makes the need for "which grease lube do I need" a thing of the past. Check out PC'ing in the stickies. Very easy and inexpensive. And ......NO LEADING......!!!! Thousands of us are doing it with excellent success.

And by using PC, you do not to have to worry as much about the hardness. I shoot 9-12Bhn in all my pistols and 14 in rifles.....all with PC. Saves you money on your expensive alloys.

As stated you do NOT need GC's on 45ACP's.

Welcome to the madness and fun. Good luck!

bangerjim

[DougGuy]

My Desert Eagle 1911G will not feed the Lee 452-200-SWC at all. The Lee 452-230-TC works well. The Lee 452-230 RN does not feed reliably. Go figure. I am experimenting with seating depths before taking it back to a gunsmith.

That tells me yours might be tight in the throat area, that small band between the end of the chamber and the beginning of the rifling. If a barrel is .451" or .4515" there, it won't chamber a .452" boolit -unless- it is seated really short. The TC boolit doesn't have much of a shoulder at all in front of the case mouth so it would chamber easier than any of the other boolits you mentioned.

Seat one of the boolits that won't feed and mark the shoulder of the boolit in front of the case mouth with a sharpie marker. Try and chamber it and see where the sharpie is rubbed off, that's where it is hitting.

This ^^^^ is if it won't pass the "plunk" test with those rounds that don't want to feed.

[RobS]

I said the older XD's.........before there was the XDm


I beg to differ with you about XD's, My XDM has been shooting and cycling several different types of SWC's (H&G 68 clone, and my favorite the Lee 452-200 SWC), since day one. I also got the Lee 452-228-1R to function very well after I seated it a little deeper than book specs., but I like the 200gr Lee SWC better, and it makes such pretty holes in the paper.

[1911cherry]

I run a 230 gr lrn and a 200 gr lswc both from Lee, That's where I started casting- volume for pistol. I use wheel weights , water dropped, no check necessary. I either pan lube or tumble with thinned alox and go shoot.

[Shiloh]

Fortunately the LEE 200 gr. SWC, H&G 68 clone works very well. I had the gosh awful BB fly-cut off of it.
After sizing at .452+, there is a nice sharp egde in the flat base.

Shil;oh

[ShooterAZ]

All my 45's love the NOE H&G 68 clone, sized to .452 and lubed with BAC. I have the five cavity NOE 68 that just rains the boolits out. I love it. Previous to this I was using the RCBS 201 SWC, which casts a fine boolit (similar to H&G 68), but is only a 2 cavity and is just slow to cast. As to alloys, I use regular range lead, wheel weights, and an alloy I mixed using roofing lead (nearly pure) 4/1 with Linotype. This mix closely resembles WW if I recall. All work just fine in my 45's. No need for anything harder in the 45 in my opinion.

[roharmon]

I shoot the Lee 230 RN in a Colt series 70. I shoot or am shooting: straight linotype, straight WW and 50/50 mix of these with pure lead. I powder coat instead of lube and size to .452 with no GC. It works extremely well and is very accurate for me.

[bones37]

113555This is the Accurate 45-230 LL, it is somewhat of a clone of a Lee boolit that Char-gar suggested a while back. I prefer it very much, and it performs well.

[oldfart1956]

I'd say start with a tried-and-true bullet shape/weight; 225/230 gr. RN. Easy to cast, and they feed in every gun that's chambered for the 45 ACP. As far as alloy, for a 45 ACP, you certainly don't need hard, I shoot a lot of "mystery metal" which checks out at around 9-11 BHM (I smelted a bunch of mixed wheel weight alloy, some range lead, some scrap from work, some stick on wheel weight alloy (Thanks Captain), and some ??? alloy together. Consolidating supplies). Check some of the Vendor Sponsors for shootin' lead... What he said. I like the Lyman 452374. It has the right (for me) shape/ogive. It runs in any of my 3 1911's with any magazine. No fuss, no muss. I've used whatever lead was laying around the berms, lead pipe, wheelweights and even straight lino once. Any lube from Lee alox to whatever super-lube I just cooked up. I've loaded it from 1.200 to 1.272 and it still worked! :) It's that shape that makes it possible. If saving lead is a concern consider this; if you shoot 100 pounds of boolits and find 15 pounds of boolits in the berm (about a heaping coffee cup full) you just recouped the 15% mentioned as savings and didn't have to diddle with magazines or over-all-length. Slug the bore, get a Lee sizing die and check the leade/throat. Read the throating sticky in the handguns section. Audie....the Oldfart..

[prs]

Oldfart, math is not your strong subject, is it. lol

prs

[fredj338]

I shoot several diff bullets in my 45acp guns over the years. LRN, ltcfp, LSWC, flat base, bevel base, no gc needed. All shoot well cast of range scrap & sized 0.452".

[Bloodman14]

Man, if you can't do it with a Lee 230 gr. round nose and 4.5 grs. of Red Dot or TightGroup, you can't do it.

[Bello]

Imho if you have to buy the lead and antimony and tin no point in casting. I just buy castes bullets! If I had the source I would start to cast but I live in commie jersey

[John Boy]

Get a 200 SWC, with the H&G 68 clones leading the pack.
Agree 100%.
Be sure to maintain the correct COL for your handgun & and crimp the case hard. After several 1000 round using a Ruger SR 1911 - no failure to feed - extract and hiccups

[bangerjim]

Imho if you have to buy the lead and antimony and tin no point in casting. I just buy castes bullets! If I had the source I would start to cast but I live in commie jersey

Man, you ARE in the wrong group!

We all live to scrounge, smelt, mix custom alloys, and cast our own in our own molds. Buying commercial cast is very expensive and you have absolutely NO control of the alloy or the design of the boolit. Every com-cast I have bought I do not like due to alloy mix and design. And they are all covered with that horrible greasy commercial lube! I powder coat everything to get rid of grease and to eliminate leading 100%.

I, like many thousands on here, love mixing soup and casting!

Try it............you too will get hooked!

banger

[trixter]

Ok no problem.

[oldfart1956]

Oldfart, math is not your strong subject, is it. lol

prs
GAAH! Fixed it! :) I knew something didn't look right there but had to head to work. Note to self: proof read posts! Audie....the Oldfart..

[triggerhappy243]

shiloh, please explain to me the benefit to taking off the bevel base from the 200 swc. I have the lee 452-200 swc and started casting bout a month ago.

[OuchHot!]

In my experience, the bevel base has not had the accuracy of plain base. It could be an artifact of limited testing.