Feeding the SR 1911 Lee mould advice

[Buttonbuck]

Good Morning, I intend to cast out of wheel weights for a Ruger SR1911 45 ACP. I have cast for muzzleloading roundballs and Lee Slugs some. I use a Lee 20 lb bottom pour production pot but use lyman ladle as well. I am wondering what is a good mould for this gun and load data. Thanks all this is a great site.

[marlin39a]

I spent last weekend casting with the Lee 452-230-TC. Made over 600 boolits with ease. Sized through my 450 at .452 with hard lube. I found loading over 4.6 grs HP-38 seating at 1.210 was perfect.

[bobthenailer]

I would go with the 200gr swc H&G 68 style or a clone of the same ! almost every mould company makes a there version including Lee in a 6 cavity , + Saeco , RCBS , Lyman , and our custom mould makers on this fourm. i personaly have a 8 cavity Saeco#68 mould, with a little over 51,000 bullets made with it. with no measurable wear !
Ive shot perhaps 40,000 of them through perhaps 10 different 45 acp pistols over the years with excellent accuracy & feeding in all.

[captaint]

buck - I would have to agree with the 200 gr SWC crowd. Very hard to beat, and accurate as well. If you are getting a Lee mold, the 6 cav is a little better quality than the 2 cav's. The 6 cav's are harder to learn to use - once we get them heated up good, no problem, though. enjoy Mike

[Miata Mike]

200 grain semi wadcutter works great in my 1911's. Haven't shot my SR-1911 yet, but I am sure it will eat'em up and ask for more. I love WST for powder with 200 grain lead semi wad cutters.


I would go with the 200gr swc H&G 68 style or a clone of the same ! almost every mould company makes a there version including Lee in a 6 cavity , + Saeco , RCBS , Lyman , and our custom mould makers on this fourm. i personaly have a 8 cavity Saeco#68 mould, with a little over 51,000 bullets made with it. with no measurable wear !
Ive shot perhaps 40,000 of them through perhaps 10 different 45 acp pistols over the years with excellent accuracy & feeding in all.

[fcvan]

I started out with the Lee 452-228 1R and loaded to approximate factory ball ammunition. Then I bought the 452-200 SWC. I also bought the 450-200 1R and 450-200 1RHP molds which were taper based and designed for black powder percussion cap and ball revolvers. My conical molds cast larger than 452 at the front band area and are tapered to less than .452 at the base. I have shot these boolits through my 1911 without any leading or accuracy issues. Recently, I started shooting them with plain based gas checks. The 1911 is a versatile gun and .45 ACP is pretty easy to load for. You will probably collect many mold for your gun and play with many load combinations. I have more molds for .45 than any other caliber, and there are several others on my wish list. Frank

[Buttonbuck]

just looking to start out with one. For a 6 cavity mould do you use the bottom pour feature or the ladle. I generally use the ladle for round balls but those are cast of pure lead. Especially 50 cal and up. I am figuring the volume to be close to my 54 cal roundball. Though wheel weight alloy has tin and should fill out the mould better.

[40Super]

I use a Lee 20lb bottom pour in my casting,I also shoot a majority of the 200gr swc in my 1911's. The 200gr boolit in a 4 or 6cavity mold will use plenty of lead so the bottom pour come in handy. A ladle needs to be bigger than your Lyman to fill all the holes (if I'm thinking of the right ladle).


PS, put them slugs over Win231 or HP-38 and you'll be happy

[Moonie]

I have 3 45 molds and love each of them. The 2 cav Lee 230gr TC feeds in anything (non TL boolit). My mihec 200gr HP is a work of art. My 6 cav 200gr Lee swc (non TL) makes a pile of boolits quickly and is very accurate in all of the families 1911's, 3 different full size guns and 1 compact.

[MtGun44]

Strongly recomment H&G 68 clone as primary 1911 mold. Lyman 452460 is also a very good
design, both are 200 gr SWCs. H&G 68 will feed perfectly in any modern production 1911 clone
which has the normal factory throating - a few of the older 1911s could need gunsmith
throating, but nothing after Kimber's first model will have a problem.

Lee's H&G 68 type mold is NOT a clone, but many find it is close enough. Real clones can
be had from other makers like MP molds. More expensive but they are works of art.

Bill

[Echd]

I love the Lee 452-230-TC. It is an easy cast and loads and feeds easily. It gets excellent accuracy from my .45s.

I normally put it over 5gr of Red Dot, which I believe exceeds the Lee load data for cast (although it's their max for plated) and it shoots quite well.

[turmech]

A good offering from Lee is the 230 TC non tumble lube bullet that has been mentioned before and has preformed well for me.

I did not see it mentioned already so I will. They Lyman 452374 is another classic that I really like.

[parrott1969]

For the H&G crowd, what OAL do you use? bullet diameter? I have found in my paraordance that the slide does not fully close without a good whack with the palm of my hand. This only happens on the first round. After that its GTG.

[bobthenailer]

I used only .452 dia bullets in perhaps 10 different 45 acp pistols with excellent accuracy and no leading . the normal seating depth is between 1.250 & 1.265 but it really depends what your gun likes you can go up to 1.275 col being max
Most guns will run 1.265 col but ive run into a few that needed 1.250 to run correctly . first remove the barrel from the gun , then drop a loaded round in to a clean chamber and see if the back of the case head is level with the the top of the hood extension on the barrel ! if not adj seating depth to obtain that setting.

[40Super]

I have one that uses .452 and another .454. both feed good with a oal of 1.260.

[Recluse]

Add me to the list that loves the Lee 200SWC.

I started off tumble-lubing it, then went insane and lubesized it with the Lyman 45, re-couped my sanity and went back to tumble-lubing it. Loads, feeds and shoots like a dream.

:coffee:

[MikeS]

Actually the list of 'good' 45 caliber boolits for the 1911 to way longer than the list of bad boolits for the 1911! Also, the H&G #68 design has been copied by almost every boolit mould maker. The Lee 20gr SWC that has a lube groove is one. The Lyman 452640 is another. RCBS has their 201gr SWC (not their 200gr SWC), SAECO has both their #68 & 69 designs (the #69 is a clone of the H&G#68, their #68 is really a clone of the #68BB), Mihec has made a group buy of the design, Accurate Molds lists one too. The list goes on.

[MtGun44]

452 diam, 1.25-1.26 LOA for a REAL H&G 68, will be different for semi-copies like
the Lee with a longer nose. Try to put the LOA where it makes the front corner
fall on the line of a FMJ ball round. Like this, altho this is a TC in 9mm, same
principle.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=4223

Bill

[AndyC]

http://i46.tinypic.com/vh51tf.jpg
Personally, I don't like the Lee SWC design.

[40Super]

I see the Miha version looks similar to the Lyman for the nose radius(the Lyman may be a few thou longer). Thats what I didn't like about mine,it caused some damage to the tip because of the small radius hitting the feedramp and not feeding as "freely",in my 2 1911's(XDm was ok). I don't have that with the H&G now and the dent is gone.

[MikeS]

I have a Taurus PT 1911 and it cant tell the difference between the Mihec, SAECO, or Lee versions of the H&G #68. The same is true for my Jericho. They're more accurate with them than I am, so I really can't tell if one is more accurate than the other.

[40Super]

When shooting for bullseye comp and testing loads with the gun rested I could, isn't much but when multiple groups on different days say the same thing, it tells the tale. Offhand is definately harder.

[prs]

First, congratualion on the fine fire arm you purchased! I really like mine. Very accurate, very crisp trigger break, the action spring is a real BEAR!

I have used both the Lee TL452-230-2R and the TL452-230-TC designs in 6 cavity moulds. The TC design dropped great boolits right from the start, the 2R was stubborn at first and I had lots of culls until it finally "cured" or whatever and started seeing things my way. My alloy is real close to 95/3/2 and that is about as "tin poor" as I could go and get the damned little TL grooves to fill-out totally. Wheel weight may need a little tin boost; trial and error. Both boolits are accurate in any sense that "accurate" fits my ability to shoot, and both feed very well. Be forewarned, set your cartridge overall length by using a gague or, better yet, using your barrel as a gague. Most of the published 230gr lead boolit data OALs were longer than these two boolits tolerate. Once I learned that, no problems with jambs or leading. Recluse mix as well as straight Lee Liquic Allox seem to work fine. I use the M die for 452 lead and crimp in a seperate stage and only very modestly. The only problem this pistol has given me is that the grip screws loosen during use. I am considering putting some Vibra-Tite on the threads and letting it dry thoroughly before re-install.

prs

[prs]

For a 6 cavity mould, I predict you will appreciate the bottom pour method very much. Pre-heating the mould is a big plus too.

prs

[MikeS]

For the H&G crowd, what OAL do you use? bullet diameter? I have found in my paraordance that the slide does not fully close without a good whack with the palm of my hand. This only happens on the first round. After that its GTG.

One way around your problem is to lock open the slide prior to inserting the magazine, and then releasing the slide with the slide stop lever rather than pulling back the slide. This way the slide will go into battery at full speed, just like it does after each shot.