Help with Lyman 452460

[Heavy lead]

Recently I've been shooting these with pretty good accuracy and not much if any leading out of two different 1911's.
Now today out of the blue with one of them the last round out of the magazine jammed.
My thinking is I have my oal too short, basically I seated this lot of 200 I loaded up with no drive band exposed. The first 6 fed flawlessly, the load is 6.2 grains of Unique and a Federal 150.
Any help would be appreciated.
Specifically the boolit jammed up at the top of the barrel, with the slide jamming against the side of the case, that's the best description I have.

[dale2242]

452460 is my go to boolit in the 45ACP.
I seat it with about 1/16" below the top driving band.
That seating depth has worked in every 45ACP I have tried it in....dale

[2shot]

Never had a problem with this bullet and I've used it a lot but I have had what you describe as far as a jam. In almost every instance it was traced back to either a bad magazine spring or a dirty magazine. Usually when a mag spring goes bad or the follower hangs up it's the last few rounds that seem to jam and cause the problem, at least that's what I've found out.

Mark the magazine and try shooting this bullet again with the marked mag and other mags. If it's only happening with that one mag maybe it's time to rebuild that mag or try cleaning it and see if that helps . I load these 452460's and every other SWC with no exposed band for my 1911's and never have had a problem do to the OAL. The nose is short on these 452460's but IMO I don't think that's your problem, they should still feed. If you were having problems do to the lip design on the mags such as using a GI conture or a Hybred lip you would notice jams with all the rounds in that mag not just the last one.

My money's on either the bad mag spring or the follower hanging up!

2shot

[MtGun44]

I shoot 452460 with about .030" of full diam outside of the case.

Short LOA is a common problem with feeding so pull your bbl and use it as a gage and set
the LOA as long as you can while still getting the dummy round to seat in the chamber fully
with no more than 1 lb fingertip pressure and minimal marking of the full diam shoulder
by the rifling. If this still jams, try different magazines and finally you MIGHT need to
go the H&G 68 clone, but my bet is if seated as long as the chamber will accept and with
a good early release mag, you will be OK.

Bill

[Heavy lead]

Thnnks for the replies, first, I will try a couple different magazines this weekend, I have 40 rounds left of the particuliar lot left, I will load another 50 with a slightly longer oal.
At first I was remembering I used two different mags, both never had issues with, now though I think I just used one, got the same jam twice, so it might be just a mag issue.
All else fails I might just get Mihec's 68 clone, seems a travisty I've never tried this boolit.
Any thoughts on the hollow point version of the 68 that is running right now and feeding, accuracy?

[MtGun44]

The std (non-HP) H&G 68 is pretty much THE standard 200 SWC and probably billions have
been fired through 1911s over the years. If the gun has the normal modern civilian throating,
it will very likely gobble up H&G 68s with no bobbles. Not sure if the HP version will change
anything in the feeding dept. For decades, I loaded to 1.260 LOA with H&G 68, but this is
throat dependent. When my DW Pointman 7 joined the stable, I had to go to 1.250 LOA to
suit it.

Missing or inadequate TC is the most common issue with handloaded .45 ACP jamming.
Use your dismounted bbl as your gage to set LOA and TC.

Bill

[bhn22]

You're probably fine with what you have. My first impression is that it might be time to replace the springs in all your 1911 magazines, sine you have a potential issue with one of them. This way it's easier to keep track of what was done with each magazine.

[2shot]

Any thoughts on the hollow point version of the 68 that is running right now and feeding, accuracy?


Lots of guys that I shoot bullseye with swear that the HP versions of any of the SWC shoot more accuratly that the non HP. Their reasoning is that with the HP more of the weight is on the driving bands of the bullet instead of most of the weight being in the nose. I have never shot the HP version in competition being happy with the #68 w/flat base but in theory it would seem to make sense. The HP version of the #68 should make no difference in feeding.

While OAL and TC is the reason for jams in 1911's I feel the reason for the jam you describe is like I have stated, magazine problem although Mtgun44 does bring up good points to remember when handloading. I have an old 1911 barrel that I check every round in that I will use in competition. PITA but it saves alibi's.

2shot

[Char-Gar]

Rather than look at the load, I would look at the magazine or recoil spring. I have the same malfunction you describe that could be traced to one of these two causes.

[gray wolf]

OK I'll be the odd ball out with a just by chance guess.
Sometimes a week extractor ( extractor tension ) can let the last round drop and not feed properly. It can also jam a last round empty when it tries to eject it,
wedging the case between the breech face and the slide.
But the advise above is all correct also.

[35remington]

Last shot jamming due to the round escaping the magazine lips is usually a magazine spring issue.....too weak. The slam of the slide striking the frame jars the round loose of the magazine lips rather than feeding it.

If it's always the last round, this is the way to bet. The fact that you're describing the slide hitting the side of the cartridge seems to be another clue.

If of seven shot format, try Wolff's seven shot +10% 11 lb. springs. Do not confuse these with the eight shot springs, which are +5% and are configured with a different follower.