I bought my first 1911 today... which die set?

[Animal]

Hey guys,

I had a thread going a while back about which semi-auto is worth looking into for being cast friendly. I settled on a Rock Island 1911. It would seem that they have a solid reputation for reliability, eating cast boolits and decent enough accuracy for my needs (center mass at 20 yds or less).

Here comes the question, what die set do I get????? I've only loaded this type of cartridge with J-word bullets for my dads .40 s&w, so I used the Lee 4 die set. As I understand, the FCD can be problematic with cast boolits.

Will the Lee 3 die set be enough to expand the case mouth and allow for a light taper?
Is case mouth tension used to crimp the cast boolit in place?

I'm coming from the six gun department, so please bare with me. Thanks!

[c1skout]

I've loaded thousands of cast in 45acp with a Lee 3 die set. No problems.
Yes, just case tension, no crimp, 45 uses a taper-crimp and headspaces off the case mouth. Your loading manual will show you specs for how large it should be. I use Midway loaded round checkers (can't think what they call them) but you can just pull out your barrel and plunk-test loaded rounds for fit.

[DougGuy]

Lee 3 die carbide should be plenty good enough, I used them for years and never had a single issue because of the dies. I used the taper crimp die for most of my 45 Auto loads. I did use a FCD from time to time but I wasn't shooting cast then either.

Some of the FCDs are larger diameter than others it seems, meaning some might resize a cast boolit and others might just smooth out the case wall and not squeeze things down at all.

[Zymurgy50]

One of the first cartridges i loaded was the 45ACP. started out with a steel RCBS set, later added a Lyman taper crimp die. After a few thousand rounds, some money fell into my lap and I went with a Dillon 550.
As long as the loaded rounds will chamber in your barrel, ( pull the barrel and drop a loaded round in, it should chamber all the way with no resistance) and you are not "shaving" any lead in the bullet seating process, any quality set of dies will work. I do not have any experience with the Lee FCD die, but the 45ACP only requires enough crimp to straighten out the case against the cast boolit. Much more crimp than that can size the lead smaller than you want for your barrel diameter.
It is not really case mouth tension, but case neck tension that holds the slug in place. This type of case headspaces on the case mouth (though some will argue that it headspaces on the bullet) and does not require a heavy crimp.

[Rainier]

For what it's worth I've loaded thousands of .45 acp with a set of Lee dies. Good advice given in this thread. Just close the bell on the mouth of the case - pull the barrel out of your 1911 and give them the "plunk" test and go shooting.
Enjoy the 1911 they are great boolit launchers!

[kens]

+1 on the replies.
Also, on my 1911 reloads, I have found some feeding problems with boolits seated out too far.
Deeper seating solves many feeding issues with various boolit designs.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

just like the rest ^^^^^^

[MtGun44]

Hornady dies are extremely good. Make sure you taper crimp as a separate operation to
a diam of about .468 or even tighter at the case mouth. Everyone is killing the imaginary
boogy man of 'overcrimping'. Never ever saw a single example of a real problem with
overcrimping in this cartridge, and about 80+% of problems with newbies to .45 ACP have
been UNDERCRIMPING when I was helping folks learn to reload for IPSC competition.

Avoid the Lee FCD like the plague.

Bill

[ole 5 hole group]

I run a Hornady LnL progressive and use Redding carbide dies to include the profile crimp die. I polish the expander plug down so nothing touches the case mouth except the bell portion that opens the case mouth a little - I find (or at least I think I do) that I get max case tension on the bullet and I crimp to 0.468.

I think most carbide dies on the market will do you a good job and I know a lot of ole bullseye shooters who never did crimp their rounds and some were 2600+ shooters and to add insult to injury, they seldom cleaned their pistols and just kept oiling the slide. Some were real nasty looking but shot just fine in the Master Class.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I've used Lee and RCBS carbo dies for many years and both have done a good job. I don't think that there is major difference between the major brands of dies on the current market. A powder through expanding die is a big convenience if you wish to use it. Four die sets are really the way to go especially if you are using a taper crimp. LLS

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I use RCBS with a carbide sizer in the Dillon 550, cast boolits for all my Colt 1911's. Never had a problem.

[smokeywolf]

Hornady is probably the first choice in dies, followed by Redding.
I would listen to MtGun44 on that crimping business. Too light a crimp and you increase your risk of pushing a boolit back into the case (bullet setback) as it feeds.

smokeywolf

[Animal]

Thanks for all the speedy, experienced responses guys! I feel much better knowing I can stick with the Lee die set (I haven't used anything else). I'm looking forward to bonding with my new firearm and learning about the .45acp! Thanks guys!

[h8dirt]

If you buy Dillion you'll never use anything else -- my experience FYIW.

[prs]

Since you already hace a Lee 4 die set for .40, you could get same in the .45, then remove the taper crimp ring from the .45 CFCD and install it in the powder through die of the .40 set to use as a seperate crimp only die for .45ACP.

prs

[BCRider]

Just a word of warning on lead boolits based on some trouble I ran into.

If you seat and crimp with the same die be sure not to crimp in enough that it begins to plough lead ahead of the case mouth. Trust me, it is VERY easy to do. You may only set it to barely remove the flare but then along comes a casing which is a hair longer and it crimps in tighter and ploughs up a ring of lead ahead of the brass. Then the round won't chamber fully.

Even with care I found I got about 25 to 30% of my cast loads that did exactly this before I realized what the issue was. On my EAA 1911 (which I don't think they ever sold in the US) it's fine as the chamber is cut a trifle deep. On my new Remington R1 Enhanced it was a no go with the gun failing to return fully to battery due to the added length of the ring of lead.

So all in all I suggest a 4 position setup with separate dies for seating and crimping if using cast boolits.

Or perhaps if the boolits have a fairly generous cannelure groove you could time the crimp such that it doesn't begin to pinch until the rim is entering the groove.

I tried that and had SOME success but I still found that the casings were varied enough in length that I still got about 1 in 20 that ploughed up a ring of lead during the combined seating and crimp. So now I'm just saying to heck with it until I get the parts for my Dhillon 550B to let me load with separate seating and crimping.

EDIT- Forgot to add that if you're using a Lee progressive loading setup then you are likely going to want to stick with Lee die sets. Otherwise you can't use the powder drop die as your flaring die. A buddy ran into this issue with a set of .45Colt RCBS dies used on a 3 hole Lee setup. To make it work he had to get a .45acp Lee brand die to use as the powder charge/flaring die for the setup to work.

[MtGun44]

Like said:

Taper crimp as a separate operation to .468 or so. Really - this is the key point that
most folks miss when they are loading the super easy to load .45 ACP. Too tight will
NOT hurt, too loose WILL.

Bill