LEE 200gr TL SWC seating depth for 1911?

[duhbob]

I found two posts that almost answer the question "how deep". One said "leave a thumbnail showing, the other said they seat to 1.109...
I have tried 1.250 with a hard crimp (with lousy results;they tumbled). That's why I am looking for a practical answer from experienced re-loaders.
The bumpy coating is (Piglet's) powder coat/acetone, but that's for another time/discussion.

[ShooterAZ]

I seat all my SWC's in 45ACP about flush to the shoulder...Maybe a 1/32 showing at the most.

[ACrowe25]

1.25 work fine for me with the normal lube grooves.

[243winxb]

The head spacing of lead bullet only work with some barrels. Depends on how there are chambered. At the length show, the bullet is just touching the rifling on my old Gold Cup series 70.

[duhbob]

1.25 work fine for me with the normal lube grooves.

Because I'm "learning" to powder coat, I opted to cast tumble-lube style bullets. The first micro band is about gone into the first micro groove at 1.250 seating depth. I actually had to roll crimp the cases about .010 to get any surface contact between case and bullet.
With my regular-lube pills (Lyman long-ogive 225 gr., or RCBS round nose 230 gr.) I seat at 1.245-1.250. and don't have any issues

[duhbob]

Great pic. 243winxb!
Now I'm looking guilty as hell. About every loaded cartridge I own fits the "chamber too long/case too short, headspaces on extractor" description.

[williamwaco]

Seat them as long as possible so they will still feed through the magazine and feed and function reliably, and not leave the lube groove exposed.

You do not need a caliper for this operation.

You can get them so long then will not fit in the magazine chick this with a load of 7 cartridges BEFORE you load up a hundred of them.

[fredj338]

^^THIS^^^ As always, OAL is specific to your bullet & your bbl. The tumbling was not caused by OAL but by over crimping & reducing the bullet dia.

[zomby woof]

My notes show 1.190(ish) for that boolit with good function. good luck

[duhbob]

My notes show 1.190(ish) for that boolit with good function. good luck

Thanks,
1.190 with a very slight taper crimp looks/seems normal enough. I will load a few doz. and chrono. and function test with 5.7 grains of HP 38 looking for 850fps +/-
...it is the same load I'm using for regular non-coated lead 200gr SWC; we'll see.

[runfiverun]

slight taper crimp is correct.
.470 ish is the number I recall being correct to headspace on the case mouth.