Let’s see them. I will go first. I’m new here. Just recently found this forum. I learned what I do mostly from reading the Lyman cast bullet manual and figuring out what works for me through trial and error. I mostly shoot revolvers. I do enjoy shooting my 1911 less the Easter egg hunt for my brass though.
Bullets are cast from a 50/50 mix of clip on wheel weights and pure soft lead cast from a six cavity Lee Tumble lube 230 round nose mold. I have other .45 molds but these are what I usually cast for my 1911. Holding my alloy as close as I can to 720F, once the mold is up to temp and a consistent dwell time and pouring tempo, the Lee TL mold drops them at .4525 with consistency.
I size to .452. Through trial and error and maybe somewhat against conventional practices, these micro band Bullets get conventional lube on my RCBS Lube A Matic. Bullets are seated and crimped on the same stroke with a Hornady taper crimp seating die. I know a lot of loaders prefer to seat and crimp separately but i do not experience any ill effects with this taper crimp seating die.
Pistol is a 1911 colt government model. Old school flat mainspring housing and short trigger. Powder charge is 5.3 grains of W-231 and a CCI large pistol primer. The load has no leading and shoots better in this pistol than I can shoot it. It makes this combo a lot of fun. At age 61, my eyes and shoulders fatigue sooner than they used to. In light of that if I shoot for groups these days, it is while the eyes are fresh at the start of a range session. My nerves betrayed me yesterday. I started off with one magazine of slow fire at the 25 yard line. The low one was the last one in the magazine and I pulled it out of the group but that is what it is….
I dug one of the slugs out of the dirt bank I was shooting into. For expansion and weight retention I like the 50/50 alloy. Overall a solid load in my government model.