Sizing my PC boolits for 45 ACP

[la5676]

Yeah, guys, been registered a while, first post. I feel like I've been here longer than the registration shows. Life happened, wife got transferred, and I was a weekend husband after living in abstentia at the farm each week every week for the last 17 years. I was (under this same username) on the shooterstalk board back in 01, with names I recall like felix, waksupi, et al. Dunno whatever happened to that board, but I lost track of it when I lost time to play with it for those 17 years. I finally retired from farming in late '17. Been shooting lots more now. As usual, always late in the tech, but am digging this PC thing. Have been bingeing on youtube, and reading the hell out of these pages.

All that said, I've already loaded some 9mm, and sized them to .358 (always used .356 on lubesized boolits. Loved it, no leading at all. The old LEE push thru sizer I have for the LEE 230 TL 2R mould is .451. My Llama Max 2 mics .452 groove OD with both a digital and a Starret. Barrel is morel like .443. I have ordered a .454 push thru die (they don't make a .453), that seems a bit excessive, but from what I read on here, .002 over groove would be a good fit. I avoided leading before with .451 because I drove them a little harder forcing obturation and trying to avoid blowby. It seems with the PC as a jacket, could perhaps get by with the .451, and also possibly avoid chambering problems with the bigger OD, although I doubt it makes THAT much difference in the headspace guage tool.

What say the hive?

And I'll try to stick around a while.

And PS - IMHO, HF powder sucks. I got some at the local store, wanting to try it out, had a woodie to get going. They only carry black and white now. It is requiring at least two coatings to get a good coat. I did finally get some Eastwood (before I realized smoke sold every color imaginable on here. Now, I can't find where I saw his sticky about his address to get more.

[RedlegEd]

Hi and welcome out of the shadows! Here's the link to Smoke. He sells great powder (as does Eastwood,) but I like supporting our own.
Ed

[Tonerboy]

I use 452 push through for my 45 auto, I saw that lee was making some custom 453 push through dies for their new style set up. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy one yet. I do use the 454 for my 450 BM rounds.

[Dragonheart]

la5676, what you have to remember here are there are no qualifications to make a post. I know there are lots of guys sizing several thousands over the barrel lands claiming they do this to get a good seal or better accuracy, yet this conjecture is not backed up with any test data. Honestly, I have not done any real testing using lubed bullets so I can't say one way or another whether this is a good practice. I personally think not.

I have done limited ransom Rest testing of identical loads with the only difference the PC bullet size. Oversized bullets posted larger group sizes. I size my 9mm .356" and my 45 acp .452".



.

[Conditor22]

I size my 45 acp to .452", this size has remained consistent for the 45 ACP. 9MM depend on the gun, I have guns that like .356 And European 9MM that need .359.

There are a few guns that are happiest when the boolit is sized to the lands.

There is no "BEST" for XXX, even if you have "identical guns" (the similarities will be much closer) each will still have its own preference for optimum performance.

[Dragonheart]

Guns may be identical, but that does not mean the barrels are. All my barrel measurements are taken from a bullet fired through the barrel and possibly a chamber casting also. I own numerous 9mm handguns from various manufactures and have none that the measure is greater than .3555" land to land, but that is not to say their may be some barrels that could shoot bullets for made for a 38 Special.

[fredj338]

I have maybe 7 diff 45acp, all shot 0.452" bullets, lubed or PC just fine.

[Conditor22]

Walther:P-38 9MM 0.3582 land to land
LLAMA CAL. 9MM 0.358 land to land

[Dragonheart]

.3582" interesting.

Since I was a teenager in the 60's, all the wonderful stuff from the War (WWII) could be easily had by ordering from a magazine Ad, so a P-38 was one of my purchases. I was still a neube in handloading and a kid at that with a lot of desire, but little knowledge on the subject. I never found a load that shot well in the P-38; maybe those handloaded commercial .355 bullets just rattled down the barrel?