SWC bullets in the Ruger American .45ACP

[John Van Gelder]

I have a number of bullets that work well in my American .45, ranging from a .45 round ball that feeds and functions just fine, to a 230 gr., TC bullet that also works very well, however my favorite .45ACP bullet, the H&G 68 a 200 gr., SWC, just will not feed reliability. Anyone have experience with the American .45 and SWC bullets..thanks..j

[trixter]

Well I've been casting and loading that boolit for a long time for my Springfield Armory XDm. I have never had any trouble with it and I load it pretty light with powder and if i was near my records I would give you all of the dimensions. I will look them up tonight when I get off work. I have lubed them with Lee Liquid alox, run them through the Lee .452 sizer and they worked fine, then I got a Star Lube-sizer and that worked great too, now I powder coat them and that works even better. (very clean and no leading). Adjust seating depth until it feeds correctly.

[mdi]

My RIA 1911 eats them right up, but my Ruger P90 will misfeed one out of 5 consistently. I have only tried my SWC loads in my HP carbine once, and so far it feeds them.

[mattw]

A good friend of mine loaded for a good friend of his with that exact gun. The **** thing would never feed SWC bullets, went back to Ruger twice to have the barrel and ramps worked on. Finally he ended up parting ways with the gun because of the SWC issue. It would feed RN bullets as any 45 should and it would feed most TC bullets depending upon nose length but would never feed SWC bullets.

Needed to add this... it is likely a gunsmith with experience, a couple of dummy rounds and some time could have made it work. But in the long run he felt a higher quality Springfield was a better route.

[NoZombies]

I had a Reising that didn't like the #68 but loved the #130.

[John Van Gelder]

I have shot thousands of the #68 through my 1911 pattern guns and they feed just fine. The Lee 200 gr. RNFP and the 230 gr. TC bullets work well in the Ruger. I get a string of 5-7 rounds and then a jam with the #68. I can hand cycle those through the gun just fine, the jam occurs during recoil, the rim of the extracted case hits the SWC shoulder of the next round in the magazine.

I like the 200 gr. bullets, a few more to the pound, and a bit more velocity. Accurate has a mold in their catalogue that produces an nice looking 195 gr, TC bullet. They are a little pricey..

[gwpercle]

The Lyman #452460 , 200 grain SWC , has worked from day one in every 45 acp I've tried it in , these include a Colt Gold Cup, Colt 1911A1 , Colt Commander , Star Model PS , AMT Hardballer and Taurus 455.
This design has never failed in any of these guns with no modifications .
I even won a first place trophy in a 1911 match with this boolit over 5.2 grains Unique.
Gary

[John Van Gelder]

Gary

It looks like the ogive on that bullet tapers back to that first driving band, not as abrupt as the H&G bullet, that might just work.

thanks..j

[mattw]

I agree over all with the function of a SWC in 1911's in general, but in the Ruger there is something that is a tad different. I think it could be made to work, but not sure what would be required. Every Springfield, Kimber and Colt I have works great with the 200 SWC, with no modification. I am still working on 15k or so of the old Bull-X 200's that I have had for years. So, I am not casting 45 SWC's yet.

[marek313]

Its just one of those things where one gun will like something but not another. I noticed the same thing with my FNX45 it wont feed #68 but works fine with RN profile. My CZ97 has no issues with #68 which is a shame because i find it more accurate then Lee 452-230-2R. My Taurus PT111 G2 wont feed anything but RN as well but I've read many posts where other users dont have that problem. One of these days I might send that one back to Taurus though.

[Thin Man]

There is an old saying in the handloading circles. It goes something like "every firearm writes it's own rules about what it likes and what it doesn't like." Short translation, just because the H&G 68 works in one of your 1911 style pistols does not mean it will work in all of them. If this were my challenge I would look at other designs in a cast SWC boolit, like the Lyman 452460 that was mentioned earlier. What I like and want to use in a auto loading pistol may not be what the pistol likes, but so far I have found that several autos are "iffy" with the H&G pattern but reliable with the Ideal profile. If you are going to experiment further with the H&G boolit, try changing your magazines between early cartridge release and late release to see how this affects feeding, then also with altering the COL of the load. You may find happiness there. YMMV, and good luck with the project.

[John Van Gelder]

Lots of good answers but now quite what I was looking for, hoping for an American owner who had already solved the problem with a specific bullet. In the Lyman manuals I have, each calibre, has a bit of an into., the one for the .45ACP states that not all unaltered .45s will function with SWC bullets.

I have tried different seating lengths, my best guess is magazine design "early cartridge release" seems to be the best answer.. The majority of feeding issues in semi autos is magazine related.

[Rich/WIS]

Ditto on Thin Man's advice on mags, in the old days mags for SWC 1911's had a different lip shape than the mags for ball ammo. The mags for my SA Range Officer are the SWC type,which work equally well with ball ammo. In some guns it doesn't seem to matter but in some it does.

[gwpercle]

Its just one of those things where one gun will like something but not another. I noticed the same thing with my FNX45 it wont feed #68 but works fine with RN profile. My CZ97 has no issues with #68 which is a shame because i find it more accurate then Lee 452-230-2R. My Taurus PT111 G2 wont feed anything but RN as well but I've read many posts where other users dont have that problem. One of these days I might send that one back to Taurus though.

Try the Lyman design # 452460 in the Taurus , it feeds in my son's Taurus PT111 G2 with no modifications .
Gary

[John Van Gelder]

I suspect that a slightly more nose down configuration would cure the problem. At some point you realize just how good it feels to quit hitting yourself in the head with a hammer and just stay with the bullet shape that works. What surprises me is just how well my round ball loads function. The Lee 200 gr. RNFP bullet works well, it has a pretty big meplat, and cuts very nice clean holes in paper. There are pretty low pressure loads for that weight in the 900 fps+ range, so it is a good big predator defence bullet.

Experimenting with different stuff is why we got into reloading, I started "rolling" my own back when I was 14, 60 years ago.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I won't be much help here...but I'll comment anyway.
I have a Ruger American .45ACP and have only shot Lee's 228gr RN
I've loaded some lubed and some PC...the PC didn't pass the plunk test, but the Lubed 228gr RN cycled great.
I recall that I have several boxes of handloads 45acp SWC (#68 clone) that I loaded for another gun, that gun is now sold...I'll have to bring them to the range next time...and see if they cycle reliably.

[John Van Gelder]

JonB_in_Glenco

Thanks..j

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...

I get a string of 5-7 rounds and then a jam with the #68. I can hand cycle those through the gun just fine, the jam occurs during recoil, the rim of the extracted case hits the SWC shoulder of the next round in the magazine.

Just out of curiousity, this morning, I hand cycled...I mean I attempted to hand cycle some SWC ammo through my Ruger American, and not one round would eject, they get locked halfway out of the chamber, because the rim hits on the shoulder of the next round, just like you described above, except it was every single round. Some time in the future I may try to shoot these in this gun, sometimes actual shooting functions better or worse than hand cycling...but I am not expecting them not to eject.

[John Van Gelder]

JonB

I can hand cycle those through the gun just fine, and I can shoot a string of 5 or 6 and then they jam up. It seems to me that the angle of the round to the axis of the barrel, is just a bit too nose high, those bullets work just fine in my Colt 1911 and may AMT Hardballer.

Thanks again, I appreciate your efforts.

In my avatar, that is a small mule deer buck I shot with my AMT .45ACP, using a Hensley and Gibbs 240 gr. SWC and 6 grains of Unique, the deer walked about 20 feet and fell over dead.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

It seems to me that the angle of the round to the axis of the barrel, is just a bit too nose high,

Yep, I noticed that as well.
I'll just stick with the 228gr RN