Keith in autos?

[Blacktail 8541]

Has any one tried a Keith style bullet in a 45ACP, Will they feed or not. In my veiw it is just another form of semi wad cutter. If you seat the bullet to the top of the front driving band you have a semi wadcutter nose profile and the nose is shortand substantially. What am I missing on this concept, I think the nose profile looks good and will be prosueing this concept further with your recomendations.

[fecmech]

I'm not sure what "Keith " bullet you have in mind but I would be concerned about how much of the bullet ended up in the case decreasing case capacity and therefore increasing pressure. Nick

[Blacktail 8541]

Not talking about a production mould, a custom in 220 grain weight. about .285 to .300 inside the case, so no worry about case capacity. Nose would be about .310 in length. My question was more towards the feeding aspect.

[StarMetal]

What you do is work up a load. I use to shoot the RCBS 255 gr SWC for the 45 Long Colt out of my 45acp. I worked up a safe load. Being my 1911 are highly tuned the feed anything even empty cases. As far as the statement about being concerned about these Keith type bullets being loaded in semi auto cases and taking up room thus raising pressures is true....IF you use 45acp loads (or 9mm) for the same weight Keith type bullets meant normally for revolvers. You have to work up loads. Compare the 45acp bullets bearing surface and how much is seated into the case as opposed the Keith bullet you want to shoot. A chrono helps working up loads.

Don't forget that with an auto loader you have to have the OAL of the cartridge fit the magazine.

[Blacktail 8541]

StarMetal, I'm very familiar with working up loads for combinations that either have not been tried or were there is no data available. I do a lot of wildcating.
my only real concern is reliable feeding. Your info about you being able to get your autos to feed is good news to me. Even if I have to do more tuneing of my carry gun it is no big deal to me. Just Knowing that is possible is good enough for me to try it. I have a CED millinium chronograph that is indespincible to me when doing load work ups. I would not like the prospect of working with out it. It makes it a lot easier.

[Urny]

I loaded the Lyman plain base 255 grain SWC over 5.2 grains Unique and they worked fine in my Commander. Recoil was a little stiffer than normal, if I'm remembering right, but funtion was the same as most every other load in that fine auto loader. I'm not much of a handgun marksman, so can't quote groups, but it fed and went bang every time until the ammo supply was gone.

[Pepe Ray]

Lyman 452424. I've fed it in a stock Colt ,stock Springfield and Pre owned Auto Ord. Worked good. Will be doing more in future. Pepe Ray

[StarMetal]

Tell ya the truth I think that big ole SWC nose feeds better then some of the SWC's for the 45acp.

Joe

[Blacktail 8541]

I'm playing around with the design on Dans' webb site. Got two or three variations in the works, will be decideing pretty soon, although there is no hurry because Dan will not be makeing any moulds till around August.

[S.R.Custom]

Years ago, before anyone made a heavy lead bullet for the 10mm auto, I sized 215 gr SWC boolits for the 41 mag down to .401" (It's a long story, but I'll share if anyone's interested.) Those SWCs worked in every auto I shot them in; S&W 1006, Springfield Omega, Delta GoldCup...

The only problem I had was when I seated the top driving band flush with the casemouth; the casemouth would sometimes hang on the feedramp of the Delta. After that, I seated them so the top driving band was out about .015" above the case mouth. Slick as butter after that...

How that applies to .45s and Keith bullets is for you to find out and report back. :-D

[35 Whelen]

Has any one tried a Keith style bullet in a 45ACP, Will they feed or not. In my veiw it is just another form of semi wad cutter. If you seat the bullet to the top of the front driving band you have a semi wadcutter nose profile and the nose is shortand substantially. What am I missing on this concept, I think the nose profile looks good and will be prosueing this concept further with your recomendations.

Been there, done that, it works. I used a commercially cast 255 gr. Keith SWC in my old Series 70 45ACP. I'll not disclose the exact load, but it was a stiff charge of Blue Dot and the bullet chrono'ed at over 900 fps. The load was also very accurate although recoil was something to be reckoned with... barrel flip was something else!

I'd certainly not feed my .45 a steady diet of this load, but if a fella wanted to hunt deer this load pretty much equals the standard 45 Colt load.
35W

[Blacktail 8541]

Thanks for all the input. I will be going ahead with this project and try to develope a general duty load. My target weight will be 22o grains pushed to about 850 to 900fps with 100% reliability in feeding. I know that 100% is a little unrealistick , but that will be the goal. The wide meplate will make a good wound channel and the wad cutter shoulders will do good on paper. As a plus the wide nose will be good for bolwing pins up close.