Need help with a .45 colt bullet load

[whitetail1]

I am loading a 200 gr LRNFP in my .45 and can not find a COL that doesn't jam either on the first cycle or somewhere before i finish the mag. I would like to try seating the boolit up to or slightly over the crimp ring but this would make my COL about 1.185. Does anyone shoot this colt type round through their .45 with a short COL?

[littlejack]

whitetail1:
Hey, welcome to the CastBoolits.
I can't really say about that particular boolit/cartridge overall length. I did load it here a while back, but my pistol (Taurus PT 1911) eats anything.
Sounds as though your feed ramp may not be ground and polished correctly to accept that boolit.
You did not mention what make and model piece you have. Maybe this information will help us make a suggestion.
The COL that you mentioned, does sound a little short for the acp round.
Someone will be along soon to give you some more suggestions.
Jack

[GabbyM]

For 1911's we laod the Magma 45-200-rnfp right at the crimp grove.

[stubshaft]

I used to shoot a bunch of 185's and the RCBS 200 SWC. Both of which have short noses and did not have any problems seating up to the shoulder of the boolit. There are other potential causes of jamming such as a heavy recoil spring, loose wrist, magazine lip bent and a rough feed ramp.

[David2011]

Hey, Whitetail1,

Welcome to the forum. COL on a 45ACP round is a funny thing that's very dependent on the boolit profile. An awful lot happens in the cycling of a 1911 as it feeds a fresh round. I can only guess at the shape of the boolit but expect that it looks like a Cowboy Action boolit; kind of blunt and fat to the meplat. If not, then everything else below doesn't apply to your question. It might help clear things up to know what boolit you're working with. I learned a lot about the 1911 at the School of Hard Knocks. It is now my favorite handgun to shoot and to work on.

Littlejack is dead on with the feed ramp comments. If the ramp is not smooth it needs to be. We can help but that's another subject. The transition from the ramp to the chamber must be a smooth but small radius. If it is sharp as in many factory barrels the sharp corner will dig into the brass and cause a three point jam.

If you put a factory ball FMJ round in the magazine and look at it from above you will see that John Browning designed the bullet shape and the magazine profile to work together very closely. Very, very closely. Comparing COL to SAAMI specs and the info in reloading manuals is only good for the ball ammo profile unless the manual gives specific COLs for other bullet profiles. You have to work out the function in the magazine as well as the function as the round is stripped from the magazine and fed into the chamber. An extreme example of what I'm attempting to explain is if you seat a semi-wadcutter out to the 1.275" COL or even anywhere near that length it won't fit in the magazine. The corners of the meplat won't clear the curve of the front of the magazine. It has to be seated deeply enough to move freely in the magazine.

If the shape of the boolit is too fat then as the round tried to chamber, the distance from the lowest point of the rim to the point of contact in the "roof" of the chamber will be too great and you will get a 3 point jam. The points of contact are the roof of the chamber, the corner of the feed ramp and the rim against the breechface. If that length is reduced with a smaller profile the round will be able to slide up the breechface and under the extractor as it chambers fully.

Another example of geometry: The truncated cone is designed to have the same geometry for autoloading as the military ball profile. If you compare the diameter at the meplat of a .45 TC that feeds well you will see that it matches or is very close to the diameter of a FMJ ball bullet at the same distance above the head of the cartridge.

You can't seat a boolit any deeper than the point of tangency of the straight sides of the boolit to the ogive. If you do, the mouth of the brass won't have boolit supporting it and will leave a very hard, sharp edge that will snag during feeding. Hopefully your boolit has a camber (curve) to the meplat that its profile is not fatter than a GI ball FMJ. If it is the same shape or smaller than a FMJ it should run OK. If you can't seat it deeply enough to have its diameter the same size or smaller than a FMJ at all points along the profile it will probably never be satisfactory. The ogive will either drag on the inside of the magazine or run into the ramp and the inside top of the chamber with the wrong geometry.

I hope I communicated well enough that it all made sense. Let us know what the mold is for your boolits and that will help a lot in troubleshooting.

David

[whitetail1]

whitetail1:
Hey, welcome to the CastBoolits.
I can't really say about that particular boolit/cartridge overall length. I did load it here a while back, but my pistol (Taurus PT 1911) eats anything.
Sounds as though your feed ramp may not be ground and polished correctly to accept that boolit.
You did not mention what make and model piece you have. Maybe this information will help us make a suggestion.
The COL that you mentioned, does sound a little short for the acp round.
Someone will be along soon to give you some more suggestions.
Jack
I have an STI Spartan. It is a great shooter. It's actually my first 1911. I Know...What took so long! I can tell you after shooting it i too wonder. :[smilie=b:

[Grapeshot]

I am loading a 200 gr LRNFP in my .45 and can not find a COL that doesn't jam either on the first cycle or somewhere before i finish the mag. I would like to try seating the boolit up to or slightly over the crimp ring but this would make my COL about 1.185. Does anyone shoot this colt type round through their .45 with a short COL?

Well, I used to shoot the Lee .452-250-RNFP out of my Colt Series 70 for years. I then accquired a Springfield Armory's GI 1911A1. I had to make sure all my boolits were passed thru a .452 sizer die and that all my .45 ACP cases were champhered or I would get a ring of lead at the case mouth that interfered with chambering of that particular boolit. I finally purchased a NEI TC 230 grain mold that solved my feeding problems and still gave me a wide meplat and the correct OAL to fit in the magazine and still feed.

The RNFP .452-250's I use in my S&W 625 shooting .45 Auto Rim or the ACP with moon clips.

Have fun.