Goal-driven CB pistol-revolver loads.

[EVR]

So as grizzly expand into our area Woods Workers are thinking more and more about the 9mm's and .22's and .22 mags and such they are carrying. I've killed truckloads of butcher stock with service pistol loads but only one bear ( a small one) of the many I've shot, with a revolver. It was an interesting situation.

We have 2 .44 Mags (Ruger redhawk, S&W 29-9 Heritage), a .45 Colt (Ruger Blackhawk) and a .45 ACP (SIG 320 FS). The .44's & .45 Colt are taken care of but the SIG 320 is not quite yet. So since the Lee cast boolit mold throws a lousy bullet for the Ruger I decided to try to see if it would hand cycle in the SIG. I made up 4 dummies and yes it does.

They did not drop clean in the barrel drop test but after I hand cycled the rounds thru the action they fed well. On my Dillon "Semi-Progressive" loader setup I have a Lee H2 die so I think this will solve that issue. Now on to powder choice and to see if this bullet will feed thru the SIG at 850 fps (goal).

[lar45]

Looks interesting for sure. I seem to not have good luck with a swc bullet in my 45acp loads.
I have had great luck with the 45-275 from hunter's supply. I run them a little warm out of my 7" longslide and get around 950fps with Bluedot. I do have a heavier recoil spring and the brass just falls at my feet.

Which Lee bullet are you using

[EVR]

Thanks. That's a good recommendation. Lee .452-255-SWC. This was a last ditch for that mold as it throws a .452 bullet which will not shoot accurately from my Ruger.

Hand cycling isn't any guarantee but at least it's one step toward a load that works. I'll report as I have time to work on loads.

[Bigslug]

EVR, you might find the discussion and some of my links to older posts in this thread helpful: https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...th-SWC-in-1911

But the gist is that (1.) YES, you can feed aggressive meplat SWC's in autoloaders, but (2.) NO, it's not what they're happiest running on. Given that you're planning on an unwanted dance invitation from a grizzly bear, I'd cut to the chase and head for something that will feed without question. Reprising Leonardo DeCaprio's role in The Revenant is not worth chancing an extra 0.03" of meplat. The wine barrel shaped bullets are best left for the revolvers, IMO.

You also don't need to run a .45ACP to +P and +P+ levels to do this job, and a 255 at 850 is assuredly getting up there. One of the anticipated tasks of GI hardball (230gr at 830 fps) was to deal with horses and as such it penetrates PLENTY if you avoid bullets that expand. I've gotten 9 water-filled milk jugs of penetration out of that load spec with a .31" meplat LFN, which I guesstimate equates to about 40" inches of FBI gel. Have had a 135gr 9mm at 1030 with a .25" meplat deliver the same result. Backing your big bullet off to 800 would likely keep you close to GI operating ranges.

I refer to a number of .45 molds in those links that would be closer to my preference, but if the Lee molds are how you roll, either of their 230 grain TC's with a regulation charge of Bullseye should do ya.

[EVR]

Thanks very much for the link.

I've shot truckloads of butcher stock ranging from 40 lb goats to 1200 lb steers with many different service pistol calibers. Most numerically in the 80-250 lb class as they are sheep. I've never been overly impressed with the .45 ACP. I agree with your historical note there by the way tho generally they failed as I've had multiple .45 230 FMJ's fail to exit a ~100 pound sheep on a broadside shot which was not much for penetration. They would have done better with a bullet form like the Lyman 454190 (which they had right in front of them in the form of '73 & '09 ammo). Maybe a similar shape w/ a reduction down to 230 grains for some more speed might have been just the ticket. I've got lots of experience w/ horses here on the ranch and I'd not want to place a lot of trust in the 230 RN FMJ if the idea was to stop it fast. BUT...it was way better than the 150 powder puff load in the .38 Colt. Anyway, for penetration as you note I have loaded Lyman 454190 sized to .452 in .45 ACP for 1911 and 1917 guns and it does penetrate. I cast them as well. So I've got them for the SIG.

I bought the Lee mold on a lark as it was cheap and I was curious if it would shoot from my Ruger. It won't. Chamber mouths are .454+ (like .4545) and the things leads like crazy with lousy accuracy. So I'm looking for suing it in the .45 SIG and just driving it as fast as I can safely. I'll play around with it and maybe do some penetration tests on steer heads or something like that later in the year. If it feeds well in the SIG it might become a companion on ski treks in the winter or shooting ground squirrels in the summer.

[lar45]

You might need to size to .451" instead of. 452"
One of my 45acps will feed anything I throw at it, another one balks at .452", but feeds .451" very well.
Another thing to look at is, are you seating and crimping in the same step? If so you could be pushing up a little ridge of lead as the crimp is applied. This can prevent the round from chambering easily. You might try seating, then apply a taper crimp and see if it will fall easily into the chamber all the way.

[EVR]

+1

I wondered, but w/ the initial trials I think I will be OK w/ .452 in the SIG (I haven't had a 1911 in many years). I do have a factory crimp die on my setup and it has solved some prior problems with slight oversize finished handloads. At this point I *think* that's all I'll need. The real challenge will be to see if the SWC's will feed totally reliably from the magazine when firing. I haven't tried that yet. Still deciding on a powder.