Getting Correct OAL Rem 1911 R1

[Judan_454]

I have been trying to get the correct OAL with a Lee 200 cast RFN. What I do is soft seat a bullet in a case chamber in gun let slide go forward and then measure the OAL of the bullet when I take it out of the chamber I and measure it, which is 1.1530. That much smaller the then max. OAL for the 45 ACP. that is listed which is 1.275. Would it be the style of the bullet that pushing it back further in the case that makes it much smaller in lenght than the max. OAL listed?

[35remington]

Yes. Your bullet was not intended to be a 1911 45 ACP bullet although some guys do use it.

The correct method of determining OAL is to remove the barrel from the pistol and drop the loaded cartridge in the chamber. If the case head does not protrude above the hood, but rather flush with it, you are correct.

Don't confuse this method with headspacing, because that is a different issue. This is just the standard test for functionality.

Your "slam fit" method is not the right way to do it. The cartridge must fit freely and fall out freely without being slammed into place. Your method may make it difficult to eject a loaded round as the rifling may bite into the bullet in a sized and loaded cartridge.

If you use the barrel out of the gun method your OAL may wind up even shorter than it is now.

Your bullet is nonstandard and was not originally intended for 45 ACP use, thus the 1.275" maximum length does not apply to you. That is intended for a longer roundnosed bullet or any bullet with a longer nose that could conceivably be loaded to 1.275" and still chamber. That length is used because going much longer means the rounds would not fit in the magazine.

Be aware that due to this nonstandard overall length you have, which is only 1.15" or so, maybe less when you revise your methods, the bullet hits the feed ramp later than a longer round and must go into the chamber at a steeper angle. The feeding is more "ka-chunky" as a result.

While it may very well feed, and a lot of users report their guns handle this bullet just fine, also be aware that the 1911 was not originally intended to run with a bullet this short.

Since release timing is all important when overall length is shorter than intended, use magazines that have earlier release timing if the rounds jam at an angle and the rim is not under the extractor. These would be known as "wadcutter" magazines of the CMcC style.

For best reliability in most 1911's, overall lengths usually should approximate or exceed 1.200" in overall length. That may not be possible with this particular bullet, but all you can do is see how it shoots.

Oh, and by the way:

Do not load a 1911 by dropping a case in the chamber and slamming the slide shut on it. The 1911's extractor was never designed to "snap over" the cartridge rim. As a controlled round feed design, the cartridge must be fed up from the magazine and the cartridge rim must go under the extractor from below, not snap over it. If you want to see how a round chambers, do it by removing the barrel from the gun or by feeding the cartridge from the magazine.

[Judan_454]

Thanks, great post lots of very helpful information.
Dan

[ColColt]

I had to reseat the Accurate Mold boolit 45-230M a bit more as where my OAL was creating some FTRTB issues with my 4516-1. I had to go from 1.255" to 1.248" due to the ogive of this boolit. Before right at case mouth it checked out at bore diameter, .452" and now at the same place it's .448-.450" depending on which case I measure and it's length...same with the H&g #68 which I seat at 1.245".