Okay!...Okay!... so I am lazy and didn't slug my barrels...

[Russel Nash]

and I went ahead and bought a .451" sizing die for my Star.

I have two 1911's that are chambered in .45 ACP.

Did I screw myself by buying a .451" die instead of a .452" ?

I guess the proof will be in the pudding when I finally actually do load up some rounds with my own cast and sized boolits and then fire them off at some paper to see how they group.

I guess worst case scenario is that one 1911 ends up printing better with .451" boolits and the other 1911 prints better with .452" boolits.

What say you?

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

Well, did you slug your barrels first?

I have no clue what size your barrels are. If yours are all factory spec, you might be good to go.

I have three M1911-types.

One was made in 1917 for the Army, and it still has it's original barrel. It gets fed from the larger .453 sizer. (It's the oldy moldy on the bottom)
One was made in 1938. It gets fed from the medium .452 sizer. (It's the shiny one on top)
One was made just a few years ago. It gets fed from the small .451 sizer. (Not shown, I'm sure you're bored with looking at M1911's already.)

[Russel Nash]

okay, thanks SierraWhiskey. :drinks:

The one 1911 is a Colt 80 Series with the original factory barrel that I bought in 94, 95, or 96.

The other 1911 is an STI Trojan I bought maybe a year ago.

Both are in stainless.

I think at one point probably about 6 months ago I sent a private message to lathesmith about either opening up the Star .451 die I have now and/or just making me one of his .452 or heck, I guess now even a .453 sizing die.

I'm still kinda dabbling in other projects right now. I was putzing around with trying to make my own boolit lube.

Luckily, I bought a whole bunch of Berry's plated bullets a few years back, so that's what I have been using up for all the USPSA and Steel matches I go to.

Nice looking pistolas ya got there!

[beagle]

I've had a couple of Gold Cups, a slew of M1911A1s and a Combat Target model and they all liked .451s......for what it's worth.

You're may be different but you went the route I'd have taken not having slugged a barrel.

Got to figure, the drawings and specs on .45 barrels are pretty cut and dried these days as the government has had time to chisel them in stone over the last 100 years./beagle

[2ndAmendmentNut]

I have used boolits sized to .451 in a 45ACPs and 45Colts. From what I have found if a gun shoots .451 diameter boolits well it will also shoot .452 diameter boolits well. I have also found that some guns hate .451 diameter boolits and a .452 diameter boolit makes all the difference in the world. Based on my experiences I will always shoot .452s from my 45s unless I need an even bigger diameter, never would I go smaller. Hope that helps.

[MtGun44]

+1 on 2ndAmendmentNut's experience. Not that the .451 were horrible, but
I could tell the difference on some guns for sure in accy.

Bill

[fredj338]

I have too many diff 45s to worry about slugging them all. I use 0.452" sizer for all my bullets & they all shoot. IMO, 0.451" is too small, you'll likely get leading.

[KCSO]

Here's my take you can always lap a 451 bigger but it's darn hard to shrink one down.

[jonk]

I shoot mine as cast. Whatever will chamber reliably should do well for you unless you have the unfortunate instance of a tight throat and large bore.

[wallenba]

Honestly, never slugged my Guvmint model, got lucky. Mine swallows everything I feed it, and puts it where I want it.:p

[Russel Nash]

UPDATE!!! :

Well, actually, it turns out that my sizing die is a .452" .

Ooopss..

So I ran about 50 LSWC's and about 50 LRN's through the Star, without lube.

Then I loaded them up, and shot them.

A'yup, I am hard headed.

The Colt shot about 40 of them unlubed boolits and then the group started spreading out. A walk out to the target (I had forgot my binoculars at home) revealed that the bullets were keyhole-ing.

Before that I had taken the pistolas into a shed (less daylight in there) and shined a bore light down the barrel, after each 8 round magazine.

So once the Colt started keyhole-ing, that's when I stopped, and I actually field stripped the guns and ran a chore-boy wrapped bore brush down the barrels. It got most of the leading out.

I will have to run to the store today and pick up another chore-boy (a copper brillo pad).

I might actually try chucking the bore brush with chore-boy wrapped around it, and the cleaning rod into a drill run at slow speed to see if that will remove the leading.... and hopefully not the rifling...Eeeek!!!

I am still working on a good lube recipe. I think I had started a thread about it. It was a tube of molybendum/lithium automotive grease, a pound of beeswax, and a tablespoon of Johnson's paste wax.

Anywhooo.... that lube was too runny. I think that's why I had started that other thread. I was looking for a way to thicken it up.

I might try another lube recipe with some Lucas Red N Tacky grease and some paraffin and some beeswax. I am hoping that will give me something that will be close to the commercially available lubes...like Rooster Red.

One thing that I noticed while shooting my unlubed boolits with Clays powder was that they still smoked. Since I shoot a lot of steel and USPSA matches, I always hear some guys griping about how another shooter's gun smokes so bad, and then they'll say, "It's the lube on the bullets that causes all the smoke."

Hmmn...WRONG! In my opinion....

[anachronism]

Check your sizing die for leading. They lead without lubrication too.

[runfiverun]

at least you can answer the next guy that asks do i need lube?

[jhrosier]

Russel,
I wouldn't waste a dollar or a minute making lube.
You can get enough lube for twenty bucks to last a couple of years or more.
Glenn Larsen's 2500+ lube is very good stuff and only $1.65 a stick.

Jack

[Dale53]

I made LOTS of lube "back in the day" (got the ingredients for NRA 50/50 and made my own 50/50 for years).

When Lars White Label lube came to my attention, I ordered out a bunch (at that price I am NOT going to dick around with mixing lube, no sirree!). I have been using Lars Carnauba Red Label for all of my lube needs. It works GREAT in the .45 ACP. I buy a rather large quantity at a time to save on "shipping per stick" and get it in the zip lock bags (easier to handle and less expensive - absolutely see no need for the hard to get the lube out plastic tubes).

FWIW

Dale53

[Patrick L]

I guess the proof will be in the pudding when I finally actually do load up some rounds with my own cast and sized boolits and then fire them off at some paper to see how they group.

That about says it all.

When I started casting .45 many years ago, I bought a .452 sizer because "that's the size you're supposed to use." Both my 1911s and my 1955 S&W shot just the nuts, so I left well enough alone. It was only about a year ago I bought a set of Enco pin gauges and found that my 1955 Smith had throats that ran about .455. Now we all know that revolvers will not shoot bullets that are too loose in the throat, right?

Here's how that gun shot those undersize bullets at 25 yards

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Bullets/GunStuff053.jpg

I called the high flyer.

I followed the opposite path with .30 cal rifles. I started at .309 because that's what some book said. An older acquaintance suggested .310 might shoot better. It did, or at least no worse. A troublesome rifle needed .311 bullets, but then I started sizing all of my .30s .311. They shoot great, but I've still never slugged a bore. I've even started shooting plainbase boolits unsized lubed with LLA. Some of those boolits are probably dropping close to .312.

I think you should size and shoot some, and then see what the target says.

[cajun shooter]

I've always started out with the idea on bullet size is to be too large, not the other way. If you shoot 45Colt and size all your boolits at 454 then you will have a boolit that shoots well in most guns. But if you size at 452 or less you could have problems.

[Russel Nash]

jhrosier wrote:


Russel,
I wouldn't waste a dollar or a minute making lube.
You can get enough lube for twenty bucks to last a couple of years or more.
Glenn Larsen's 2500+ lube is very good stuff and only $1.65 a stick.

Jack

I shot 7,200 pistol rounds in steel plate and USPSA matches last year, 2008.

That's just matches.

Not practice....not sighting in...just matches.

So will 20 bucks still get me enough lube to last a couple of years or more?

Did I mention I was hard headed?

Did I mention I like to figure out things for myself?

I like to experiment, on my own. I want to be as self-reliant as possible. This past year has been a real eye opener as far as shortages on guns, parts, and reloading components goes. :holysheep

If I could make my own primers and powder, I sure would give it a try.