454423 ver#2 clone

[IcerUSA]

Well I got the pot hot and tried casting a few of these up :

Attachment 6803

Attachment 6804

going to do another cleaning on the mould as I had to cull about a third of them otherwise they dropped OK for the first run from this mould .
Will get a few loaded up for the Kimber and see how the 45 Auto likes these .

Keith

[Keith429421]

Nice!! I kick myself for not getting in on this one.
Let us know how they shoot.
By the way, if anyone has an extra, I'd take it.
Danny

[Wayne Dobbs]

What alloy did you use and what diameter did they drop at?

[GLL]

Keith:

I thought I would add the close-up photo over here as well !

Jerry

[IcerUSA]

Wayne, I grabbed 5 boolits out of that pile in the pic , they are straight WW alloy , here goes :
1 drive band is .464 and .457 at the part line , wt is 251 .
2 .455 , .455 , 244.2
3 .455 , .455 , 243.2
4 .456 , .455 , 244.6
5 .455 , .455 ,243.4
I all so was haveing pin problems as one did come out a little and had to reseat it so that could be the diameter problem .

Keith

[IcerUSA]

Yours look good there GLL .

Keith

[IcerUSA]

Well I went out in the garage to take some 44 brass out of the tumblers and load them up again . Looked at that little pile of boolits and said to self , why not , I pop the turret in the Lee press with the sizing dies in it and push them all thru a .452 die , only a few where tight so it must have been when the pin was working out in the mould . Then for grins I put the 45 Auto set-up int the Lee press and made 3 dummy rounds , OAL was 1.170" and they went into the mags like butter , not one hung up , just smooth , put the mag in the Kimber and let the slide go home , no problem , racked the other 2 in by hand and smooth. Now I figured the Kimber would feed them OK so I grab the old Hardballer , let the slide go home, hmm , not bad , racked the other 2 in and again smooth . Dangitalltoheck , now I'll have to load some up and hope it's nice out this comeing weekend and try them out with a load behind them to see how the cycle , like I don't have enough weapons to load develop for . hehe

Keith

[dmftoy1]

You need to publish your load data as well! I'm hoping to try some over AA#5 and Trailboss.

Have a good one,
Dave

[IcerUSA]

Was thinking of useing AA#7 or AA#2 to start with and who knows where it will end up at .

Keith

[wonderwolf]

I think I'm gonna go with a Unique load with this bullet at least in 45AR & 45ACP. Are you seating the shoulder flush with the case then with the 45ACP? I have some 45AR brass I'm gonna try to use the crimp groove with but was not sure on the ACP brass.

[IcerUSA]

Well I check for a load and the Lee book had AA#7 at 8.6gns for a start load , my OAL is 1.170 as the dummy rounds I made up cycled well by hand , boolits w/lube ran at 245gns , should be running close to 700 - 725fps . Hope to find out saturday as it should be a plesant day here .

Keith

[IcerUSA]

Made it to the range but didn't get the crony out , the 10 loads I had with this boolit all shot great , used 5 in the Kimber and it was smooth but it does have a little heavier spring in it than the Hardballer but it shot OK also but did slam abit , so I'm pleased with the way they shot in the 45 Auto's , load was AA#7 at 8.6 gns .

Keith

[35remington]

Seat the bullet out as far as your particular chamber will allow it in an automatic, as the .45 ACP is sensitive to deep seated, heavy bullets. A little greater seating depth raises pressures disproportionately. The shoulder of the bullet should be a little bit out of the case when seated properly - or, again, as far out as your chamber will allow. Check fit by removing the barrel. Start low with your loads and work up slowly. I wouldn't go with high velocities with this bullet in the automatic due to its greater weight.

This bullet in the Auto Rim/ACP should be seated to the crimp groove when used in a revolver.

[IcerUSA]

"The shoulder of the bullet should be a little bit out of the case when seated properly ".
Thats about where it is to work in my weapons , much longer and they won't go in the magazine.

Keith

[dmftoy1]

Ok, well I got a bunch sized up at .452 and loaded up to shoot today. They don't feed in my XD's reliably, but that's because of the pistol's design (barrel drops and extracted cartridge catches the shoulder of a wadcutter on extraction . . .not a good thing)

Anyway, the first 4 shots at 25 yards cut a single cloverleaf so I think the round has some serious accuracy potential. I'm going to load up my next batch and shoot them in the Kimber Gold Match and see how she does.

My reloading data:

7.4 Grains AA#5
1.195 COL
WLP
Win Case
243 gr. (WW) bullet.
LARS Carnuba Red Lube

First 10 shot string:

High Vel: 876.02
Low Vel: 830.70
Avg: 849.81
Std Dev: 14,24

Second 10 shot string:

High Vel: 882.09
Low Vel: 847.80
Avg: 858.07
Std Dev: 9.79

I didn't see any signs of overpressure, but I think I'll probably back down to 7.0 or 7.2 grains for the next batch and see where I'm at.

Overall, other than the fact that my stupid XD45's don't feed them well I'm pretty tickled.

Have a good one,
Dave

[dmftoy1]

Ok, got out with another batch today and I think I've found a keeper load with AA#5. My groups were vertically stringing but I attribute that to my poor skills more than anything else.

Load Data:

AA#5 - 7.2 Grains
COL 1.195
242 gr. WW Slug from 454423 sized to .452
WLP
Winchester case

String #1
High:858.99
Low: 843.84
Avg: 853.05
Spread: 15.15
Std Deviation 5.47

String #2
High: 867.67
Low: 847.98
Avg: 860.77
Spread: 19.69
Std. Deviation: 7.21

String #3
High: 875.52
Low: 853.30
Avg: 863.90
Spread: 22.22
Std. Deviation: 7.61

These definately have more "thump" than standard hardball as the 1/2 inch thick silhouettes that I have on a swinger frame are moving with authority when hit. I wouldn't say that they're overpower, but definately a nice powerful load.

Just my .02

Regards,
Dave

[35remington]

How's feed reliability? Still at 1.195" OAL?

[dmftoy1]

Yup, 1.195 OAL and feeds absolutely 100% . .not even a hiccup. I cleaned the gun last night and noticed the very very slightest bit of leading . .took 1 pass with chore boy to take it out. I think I'll try 7.0 or 7.1 next. (lube was LARS Carnuba Red and it really makes your bore shine after shooting it. )

Have a good one,
Dave

[truckjohn]

Glad to hear the good results on yours.

Mine wouldn't drop one single boolit from Lee.
Usually, most molds take a little tap or a light push on
the boolits. Not this one -- Hard beating with a lead hammer
finally freed the boolits from Lee's Death Grip.

Also got a bunch of funny flow marks-- even with Frosty boolits.
Close inspection looks like the fly cutter marks that serve as vents
might need a little help.

Measured -- about 0.003" out of round across the parting line.

Lee-menting round 1 is finished.
This was the hardest Lee-ment job I have ever done.
The mold fought back every step of the way.

Venting round 1 is finished,
Time to go 'a casting round II.

Thanks

John

[dmftoy1]

I don't know if it'll help you or not, but on mine I still have troubles getting them to drop with the sprue plate on top ...if I turn the mold upside down it seems like they drop out MUCH easier . ..not sure why that is or if that's normal??