New Mold Lee 452-160RF

[John Van Gelder]

In an attempt to make my lead supply go a bit further, I wanted a lighter bullet for the .45ACP. I was a bit dubious about the Lee 160 gr. bullet because it is so short. Nothing ventured nothing gained. So far I have had good results, it feeds in my .45ACP guns and seems to be quite accurate. The last batch were tumble lubed and shot as cast. In my alloy they weigh 165gr.

I have a can of Hodgdon CFE that is not my favourite powder, the load that works the best for me is 8 grains of CFE, that produces and average of 1000 fps in my Remington RP45 with a 4.5" barrel.

My next batch will go into .45 Colt cases, those should be some fun shooting in my Redhawk .45 Colt.

[Harter66]

Any pictures ?
I bought the 452-200 RF for this .
I'm envisioning a collar button sort of bullet .

[John Van Gelder]

I also have the Lee 452-200, in my alloy they average 215 gr. A good all purpose bullet. I will try to post some pictures.

[turtlezx]

the 160gr lee is all i shoot in the 45acp love them
less lead less recoil and 200fps faster than a 230 grainer

[joebaja]

The 160RF is my PPQ 45's favourite boolit. I load it over 5.5gr of Bullseye. It is short enough to look funny, but it feeds, and the Walther can be a picky eater. Just wish Lee made a 6 cavity version of that mold.

[RU shooter]

Can anyone tell me what dia the nose is just above of the crimp groove my Kahr has zero throat so I can't have any thing full dia outa the case

[Sig556r]

Recently bought a Mihec GB .45 SWC mold in 155-grainer (more like 160ish for NLG)...surely stretches you lead pot quite a bit vs. 230-grainer & a lot gentler on your wrist with moderate loads.

[fredj338]

I bought a mold to try to make ups some really soft 45s for speed plates. They are pretty accurate, just a pita to load, they want to tip during seating, they are so short. So I went Hornady seater & MBF funnel for my 650, works fine. They feed great in my XD & 1911s.

[John Van Gelder]

Finally did some pictures, still not very good at close shots with my phone camera..

The left is the 160 gr bullet (165 in my alloy) the right is the Lee 200 gr. (215 in my alloy).

The 160 bullet is pretty short, so it may or may not feed in most guns, I works very well in my Remington RP45.

[Walter Laich]

bet it would work in my Ruger Vaqueros

[John Van Gelder]

The Vaquero's fixed sights are regulated for 250-255 gr, bullets the 160 will probably shoot a bit low. But be fun to shoot, I have yet to try them in my Blackhawk, will try to do so and see how they work.

[fcvan]

Ok, I decide to share one of my silliest loads for a 1911. Round ball, circumference crimp, 6 grains Unique. I did not have a chrono at the time but they seemed to be going around 900 fps. They fed, cycled, printed low as expected. That was 30 something years ago, long before I began powder coating so the were coated in liquid alox.

Since then, I have loaded the 145 gr RB in 45 Colt for an Old Model Vaquero, and an H&R 1871 Classic Carbine. These were purposely loaded light attaining 900 fps from the carbine and I don't recall from the 4 5/8" Vaquero. I loved the performance from the carbine, quiet and hard hitting.

Timje to play with PC'd round ball in the 1911 again, this time with a chronograph. BTW, lightest 45 mold I have is several 22 gr molds, RN and SWC.

[John Van Gelder]

I started shooting ta round ball in my .45C/ACP guns back in the 60s. I used them for small game loads, I loaded then below the level that they would cycle the action in my 1911 guns, I did not want to have to hunt around in the leaves for the brass when hunting squirrels. Back in the early days I dipped the RBs in melted paraffin. These days I tumble lube them.

4 gr. of BE makes a nice small game load, and the brass is in the action, out of curiosity I worked up to 1100 fps with the RB, that was achieved with 7 gr. of BE. I dropped back to 6.5 those gave me around 950 functioned the action and the brass was going only about 3 feet from the gun.