Lucked out on my load

[steve in kc]

I had been getting leading in my PT 145 Pro C D/S .45 ACP with as 18BHN 230gr LRN boolits from Missouri Bullet Co. I switched to casting my own from a LEE 228 grn LRN 2 banger mould. Still got some leading from water dropped and aircooled, both.

My son wanted some hollow point key chains for his bday so I bought a box of 100. After I had made the 10 key chains, I figured I would just load up the other 90 to see how they did. They were hornady 185 grn JHP's. I loaded them over 4.5grains of red dot to an OAL of 1.185, per the Hornady book. My gun did NOT like them at all. I had a stove pipe or a jam one out of every 10 loads. After I switched back to my LEE boolit loads, I shot about 200 more rounds and checked the barrel...NO MORE LEADING. I suppose I had a rough barrel and the JHP's helped smooth it out some. I had to jamming issues from the cast loads (and never had before). I know this mold is fatter than a traditional GI profile, but my pistola loves 'em.

[Jack Stanley]

Ain't it just grand to see leading problems just go away :drinks: I always try to make my .45 ammo so it doesn't lead and sometimes I'm successful :)

Jack

[Shiloh]

What do your boolits drop at? What do you size them to and what does your bore slug at??

SHiloh

[randyrat]

More dang questions for ya.... Did you do something just a little different that helped the second time around?

You also said there were a couple of jams..What kind of jams were they FTF/FTC (fail to feed/chamber all the way) or stove pipes (FTE fail to eject)

FTF could tell you that the bullet is just slightly too fat... You may have had a couple (as cast) slightly too fat for chambering. Thats why i size most of my boolits.
FTE,stove pipe could be a mag problem or other human measurement error.

Jacketed bullets smoothing out the barrel-maybe

[mooman76]

Sometimes things just work out on their own. I had a new 40 cal Smith that was getting occasional jams on the feed ramp. I deturmined that I needed to use water droped bullets so they would slide up the ramp easier. It worked but later on I forgot an loaded reglar air cooled bullets and they worked too. I guess the gun wasn't broken in yet.

[mroliver77]

I have had handguns that just seemed to want shot for a while before the acted right. some claim to break in a gun with jacketed but I just cannot pay for bullets when boolits are so cheap.I get it done though. ;)
Jay