I need advice on Lee TL-452-200-SCW

[Rusty Shackleford]

This A.M. here in KS. it is raining and around 72 degrees, so I'm thinking it might be a good day to plug in the pot and melt some lead.
I have a few questions, if you folks would be so kind to help a brother out? What should OAL be with Lee TL-452-200-SWC? Should I have any problems with GI style mags, and 1911's I own are pretty much stock (feed ramps). Does anyone have any pet loads to share for this boolit, using Bullseye or Unique? 700-800 fps. range.
All I've ever cast for my 45ACP's have been Lee TL-452-230-2R's, those molds have seen better days and I have these 200 gr molds and never seen the need to change till now. Thanks in advance
Rusty

[Cloudpeak]

I had a little problem with both the Lee TL and regular Lee non-TL 200 gr. SWC bullets feeding in my 1911's. After some extractor tweaks and breech face polishing, they worked better, around 98% but by that time, I'd ordered a Lyman 4 cavity mold for the 200 SWC and sold the two Lee molds I had. I shot up several hundred of Lee loads I had on hand and they did work much better after working over the Springfields.

I would suggest loading up some dummy rounds and see how they feed from slide lock. Try to load to a length that mirrors the profile of a 230 gr RN. I think this will be hard to do with the Lee 200 TL design as it will set the bullet out too far due to the smaller nose diameter and the shoulder of the bullet will impact the rifling. The non-tumble lube bullet was a bit better in this respect. The Lyman bullets have been 100% as were the Penns 200 SWC bullets I bought.

So, the simple answer is---you're gonna have to try various COAL's and find out what's best for your pistol.

The most accurate loads with my full size 1911 with this bullet were 6.5 grains of Power Pistol and 4.2 and 5.0 grains of W231. Sorry, I don't have the COAL for these in my records.

Cloudpeak

[hotwheelz]

I had that bullet mold and it fed great in all my guns from colt's, para's, and even the kimber. My case oal was 1.225 I didnt have to do any work to any of my guns to get them to work. If your open to trying diff. powder's it seemed to my very untechnical test that titegroup with the lla lube was the least smoky. Will

[DLCTEX]

I would start by removing the barrels and using them to determine max OAL, seating the boolit until it just seats fully in the shortest chamber. Then I would seat the boolit at least .005 deeper to allow for fouling clearence. That establishes max OAL. That gives you a starting place to try feeding the rounds to find the OAL that will feed. Some guns want a long round and some want the top band seated flush with the case mouth, with luck you may, and probably will, find a length that works in all of them. I'd bet on a length that leaves .020 to .050 of the top band exposed. DALE

[kamikaze1a]

Try starting with 4.3 grains of BE and seat almost to the top edge of the first "driving band". In other words, seated as deep as possible with just a little of the bearing surface exposed. That would be a good starting point and adjust as needed. With a 200gr lswc, the 4.3gr should give you about 700 fps with a 4.4" barrel and again adjust as needed... Every handgun is different so optimum OAL and powder charge will vary.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I loaded 100 rds. last night. 4.6 gr. Bullseye and with about 1/2 of top band showing. Fired out of 2 pistols, and 4 different mags. No failures, and mild mannered and very accurate at 25 yds.
Boolits were cast from WW's, lubed with LLA and not sized. Thanks for replies.

[jonk]

I had to seat BELOW the driving band so there is a lip of brass above the shank of the bullet. Looks odd but if you can get past that it will work fine- I had jam issues you see.

[UweJ]

hi
like Kamikaze1a stated 4.3 gr. Bullseye makes a great target load at 25 meters. I use it in competition shooting in a Springfield Trophy Match. Great results with this mold.
Uwe