45 acp measurments

[randyrat]

I have, which seems to be a tight chambered 45 1911 para GI expert. So far i had to change everything to get it to feed properly. I put a new 7 3/4" barrel on it(for fun) and it seems tight.
Here are my measurments so far;
Web of the loaded round = .468" to .469
middle of the round= .467-.469
Mouth of the case 2-3/32s from the edge= .468-.469
Do these numbers seem right to you?
Overall length with a 230 gr RN 1.250 to 1.255 ( not loaded to the hilt)

I haven't tried these out yet so i'm asking before i waste good range time and get a bunch of FTFs

Other rounds, the last time on the range i had FTFs everyother round. They worked just great in my other 45 (knicknamed loose as a goose)

I have a 200 gr mold SWC or a 230 gr Lee mold on hand right now.

Do i need to go to a .451 sizer die, right now i'm using a .452?

Bullet fit is just fine- no leading, thats why i'm real hesitent to go any smaller.

I had to screw down the body of the die a bit to apply a bit of a crimp to get the above measurments. I seem confused, because i am with this barrel. Geeeeeesss there is nothing worse than going to the range with a Jam O matic.

[lead4me]

Seems a little small to me, mine check at the mouth of the case with a loaded round at .4715/.472 they feed real good in my Dan Wesson CBOB. I guess you have to look at the case your using what are the wall thickness's, does it all add up right or are you sizing down the boolit? To work out right your cases would have to be about .009 wall's.
As far as the COL of you boolits I find that a tad shorter works better for me. I have the .200 Hp Miltec group buy mold and they are 1.190 and my lee .230 TC works well at 1.220. My DW will feed a empty case though.
As long as they aren't leading up your gun shoot away. As far as the FTF, FWIW I have found that most feed issues in the 1911 are mag related. I've had to tweet a few to get them to feed right. I'd take all the spare mag's you have and see if you new 1911 likes one over the other.

[Dale53]

Use the barrel of your 1911 as a gauge to properly set seating depth. With the barrel out of the gun and held vertically, your loaded round should drop into the chamber and come to rest with the base of the case even with the barrel hood. If it stands "proud" of the hood, then seat the bullet until it is flush.

I use a taper crimp die (seat and crimp as separate operations) that leaves the outside diameter of the case at the mouth of .470". I do NOT use Remington cases (they tend to be too thin and you can get deep seating when the bullet strikes the barrel ramp).

FWIW
Dale53

[ANeat]

Randy I wonder if your barrel was short chambered. Many aftermarket barrels leave a little material for final chamber reaming after they are fitted.

If you want your barrel opened up to "factory" specs PM me. I have the reamer and gauges and throater to do 45acp and can fix your barrel

[jsizemore]

Randy, Get your measurements from one of your fired cases. Remove the barrel from the gun and use it to set up your dies. I shoot a 200 gr swc in a Kart NM barrel and use a COL of 1.245-1.250. I also had to use all one lot of brass. Also, stick a boolit in the throat till it's snug and take a measurement from the muzzle. Then try a loaded round with the case flush with the hood. That will tell you if your COL is correct. I used to use a case gage, but this Kart barrel made that go away. Good luck.

[MtGun44]

If you are not TC ing, this can be the issue in failure to fully chamber the last bit, OR the
boolit is a tad too far out. Try shortening your seating depth while checking exactly like
Dale says.

[randyrat]

Randy I wonder if your barrel was short chambered. Many aftermarket barrels leave a little material for final chamber reaming after they are fitted.

If you want your barrel opened up to "factory" specs PM me. I have the reamer and gauges and throater to do 45acp and can fix your barrel I may have to have you do that if i can't seem to fix it with a couple reloading changes.

[randyrat]

I'll try this new batch of reloads seated a little shorter and see if they feed better.

[Bkid]

I had to seat mine deeper to get them to feed. I have them seated OAL 1.20 . I had the same issues with my Valtro it has a tight chamber. My Sig P220 is more so. I had to seat them at 1.198 to get them to fee.

[CJR]

Years ago, the best investment I ever made was to buy a Mansen final precision 45ACP chamber reamer. Using it on 1911 chambers has been an education. There are lots of stories out there about chambers that have been manufactured undersized to improve accuracy, but I haven't found one yet. What I did find, in nearly 100% of times, were slightly warped chambers.

I typically machinist blue the inside of the chamber and then re-ream it. The chambers never clean up symmetrically/uniformilly, indicating a purposely made undersize chamber. Instead, they clean-up ASYMMETRICALLY; i.e. a small area near the rifling and then another area near the hood that is located about 180degrees from the forward area. To me this indicates a slightly warped/oval chamber, i.e. 1/4 to 1/2 thousand inch. The only thing that could cause this is a heat-treat after machining. Once I re-ream a barrel, I make sure that 1911 is warmed-up with lot's of quickly fired rounds to see if the slight heat build-up will stress-relieve the barrel and rewarp the chamber. I then re-check the chamber again with the Mansen reamer. If the reamer doesn't recut the chamber again, I find the chamber is stable and good.

Anyway, that's what I've found in working with a bunch of different brands of 1911 barrels.

Best regards,

CJR

[870TC]

I taper crimp mine to .469-.470 at the mouth, Solved alot of problems. Guess I must own the only guns in the world that like a long seating depth. I get constant jams if I seat shorter than 1.240. Usually aim for 1.250-1.255 with a H&G 68 copy 200SWC. When I used 230 RDNL, I seated as long as the magazine would allow, 1.270 in most of mine.