RCBS 45 ACP mould?

[barnabus]

Im looking at getting an RCBS mould for my Springfield 1911 and am leaning towards a round nose bullet and was wondering yalls opinion on it and any experience.Thanks

[41 mag fan]

Check out NOE on here. Als got a 230gr RN for sale, H&G clone. I just got mine in last week.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Why roundnose? The most used,popular,trouble free design is the H&G #68 flat base! Also used by everyone from BE shooter's,IPSIC,IDPA,ect.ect. This is for a reason!

Right now we have access to some very good mold makers using the latest technology to make clone molds for this bullet in about 3 materials of your choice. You no longer have to wait and search for an original H&G mold! Just a thought!

[bobthenailer]

A+ on the HG 68 bullet profile i currently have 4 bullet moulds for the 45 acp and it is my most used style ! it has proven accurate and very reliable in over 10 different 45 acp handguns that ive owned.+ a few more that friends have owned. I also have the 230 gr rcbs but only use it for speed reloads in matches with my S&W 625 revolver.

[Jack Stanley]

I got the RCBS 230 grain round nose mold to use on some self-sealing targets I bought . It's used in a Springfield 1911 and it works very very well I had a Lyman mold that I had to lap to get to the size the gun like but the RCBS was right on out of the box . The mold came from Graf & Sons and arrived in two days .

I sent the Lyman to Erik for hollow pointing and now I got the best of both worlds .

Jack

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I have been using this mold for a long time in 45ACP. It is a clone of the H&G #34 and weighs around 225-230 grains. It has two wide bands that give good bearing support and an adequate lube groove. It casts easily and feeds well in the 1911's. Many powders will work well with it. I have been using 4.1 grains of Red Dot. It is one of the better RN designs around. LLS

[35remington]

I please beg a few pardons, for what follows.

While the 68 is an excellent design, and I of course recommend it as well, let's not forget that the 1911 was designed to run with a roundnosed bullet very closely approximating the shape the RCBS bullet has, with GI magazines.

So I won't be second guessing the OP's queries about the RCBS roundnose in terms of reliability. The HG 68 may approximate it, but the roundnose is the real deal. So arguing that the HG 68 is more "trouble free" than a roundnose is not the case.

The cast roundnose has been around a lot longer than HG's 68 (ref: Lyman's 452374) and all the iterations thereof. For a 1911 that absolutely has to go "bang" it's never a bad choice.

[MikeS]

35 Remington: I agree with you 100% about using a round nose boolit. I don't know what the RCBS round nose looks like, but I too like the NOE copy of the H&G #34 round nose. like the Lee TL230 round nose, it's nose is just a little bit smaller than the driving bands, leaving a clear demarkation where the driving band ends, and the round nose begins. I'm pretty sure when Lee designed their boolit, the designer was looking at the H&G #34. I don't know WHAT boolit the designer that made their 220gr standard lube round nose was looking at, or what he was smoking while designing it, as it's probably one of the worst 45 round nose designs, so not all Lee 45 round nose boolit moulds are the same!

[WHITETAIL]

barnabus, Welcome to the forum.
And to answer your question on the RCBS 230dg. rn.
I have used it and I like it.
I shoot a WW2 Remington rand.
And a Colt officers 45.
And a Gold Cup Trophy,
My daughters boy friend has a XD
and that boolit shoots great in all of them.
I load it with 4.5-5gr of Bullseye.

[35remington]

MikeS, I agree with what you said in every way. I'm not sure what the guy who designed Lee's 228-1R was thinking either, but it's not a design that mimics ball. The 230-2R TL bullet you mentioned is a lot closer to being "right."

[30yrcaster]

I have 4 of the RCBS 230 rn molds. Found I only need 3 to keep things going during a session (w/o sprue plate lube). RCBS had a previous design that was identical to the Lyman 230 RN. They changed it right in the middle of me having 2 and wanting 2 more. They exchanged them for me so I had 4 of the new style. The old style worked great and the new does as well. I casted over 10 thousand of them and they're more fun to shoot than the wadcutters. I also have some real H&G 68 molds. They're good too.
I load mine with 3.5gr bullseye and just shot 100 yesterday.

[Dale53]

I am a great one for desiring a bullet design to do as many things as possible. I have cast and shot way over 100,000 .45 ACP bullets in both 1911's and Smith and Ruger revolvers.

My favorite bullet for general use is a clone of the H&G #68 (but flat based). I can drive that from 650 fps or so for target use and 1000 fps for hunting and self defense. Due to it's shape, it is far more effective on most targets than the 230 gr hard ball.

If your are interested in a 230 gr bullet, then I can recommend the Lee 230 gr Truncated Cone flat nose with conventional lube groove. It has a much better shape than the round nose and should function in about any good 1911. It is quite similar to the Hornady TC jacketed bullet. I have a six cavity mould in this design and it shoots very well from my 625's (about 1 1/4" at 25 yards off a rest). It is very useful for rapid reloads in full moon clips in the revolvers.

FWIW
Dale53

[That'll Do]

I highly recommend the RCBS 45-230-RN. I use lots of them in my 1911s. I also have the NOE H&G 34 clone, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

Here's a pile of the RCBS bullets for those who are interested:

[bobthenailer]

another possible overlooked item is the hg 68 or it clones is 30 grains lighter than the 230 gr rn , and in these days of not so inexpensive or avalible bullet metal thats 5 more bullets per pound or 4 lbs less per thousand bullets or 140 more bullets,
a small amount to some alot to others.

[9.3X62AL]

Pistol shooters these days have things a lot better than 30-40 years ago. As mentioned above, the Colt/Browning 1911A1-series pistols were designed to run on FMJ round-nose bullets conforming closely to the form taken by Lyman #452374. Hollow-points or SWC shapes were "iffy" in a lot of pistols, for a lot of years.

THANKFULLY, many of the aftermarket mods given to the 1911A1 pistols became OEM features, and newer service pistols in all calibers were adapted to be far more reliable with hollow-point, SWC, and TC bullet shapes.

I cast and use RN, TC, and SWC boolits in my 45 ACPs. The primacy of point form has receded as above, but the caliber's bore form still uses fairly shallow grooves/not very tall lands. This calls for substantial drive bands in any cast boolit design, an attribute that the popular designs for this caliber all feature. With our modern pistols being so amenable to varying point forms, our emphasis might better focus on the "rear half" of the boolits. With the possible exception of the 32 ACP, the 45 ACP is the lead-friendliest autopistol caliber we have.

[MtGun44]

No doubt that RN was what John Browning intended, however I can vouch for the fact
that a H&G 68 design (and not all of the 'copies' are really copies) is absolutely reliable
as to feeding. Depth of seating must be set correctly, and a TC is mandatory, but it can
be absolutely reliable.

Bill

[MikeS]

I highly recommend the RCBS 45-230-RN. I use lots of them in my 1911s. I also have the NOE H&G 34 clone, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

Here's a pile of the RCBS bullets for those who are interested:

Hey! It looks like RCBS copied the NOE boolit!

[Kraschenbirn]

Just finished sizing/lubing 1000 (+/-) RCBS RNs about an hour ago. For practice and steel targets, I shoot these, loaded to duplicate G.I. Ball, in all my Gov't Models (except my Series 70 GC) and can't remember the last time I had a "failure to feed". For more serious applications, though, I admit to preferring a hollow-pointed TC, cast a bit on the soft side.

Bill

[Longone]

Kraschenbirn,

I am curios what diameter you size your RCBS to for the GC? I have an 80 series and it needs to be sized to .451" to chamber. Great boolit and feeds perfect just needs to be sized .001" smaller for a tighter chamber? in the GC.

Longone

[LAH]

I highly recommend the RCBS 45-230-RN. I use lots of them in my 1911s. I also have the NOE H&G 34 clone, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

Here's a pile of the RCBS bullets for those who are interested:

You did good.