45 Cast Bullet Length Issue?

[77cutlass]

One more problem I need to ask the forum for help on. I shoot a 230 cast RN from a local supplier. I also cast for the first time this past week from an old Lee 452288 (90351) Hollow Point mould. Both sized to 452. In both instances they seem to want to be seated much deeper than I am comfortable with. In other words, I first noticed this in my Ruger P345 that the bullets I got from the local guy would not chamber correctly. It would not let the slide go into battery fully. The case was not fully chambering. I believe I had originally seated to an OAL of 1.272 or so according to the Lyman book for their RN bullet 452374. I reseated until they fit that chamber on the Ruger and they ended up being 1.233 OAL. I just loaded some of the Lee HP's for a friend and he is having the same issue in his Star pistol. I gave him a few dummy rounds for him to check before he shot anything all seated to different OAL's. The 25 live test rounds were seated to an OAL of 1.210 to match a plated HP round he provided for length. All rounds "stick" out much like in my Ruger. Both bullets seem to be fatter on the ogive farther out to the tip. I have looked at factory RN FMJ rounds and they are seated much longer but the bullet has a faster taper to it and they chamber fully and fine. The Lee bullet is actualy "fatter" farther out than the local bullet. It seems to me that both of these bullets are banging into the edge of the chamber before the case rim gets to index where it should. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be happening here or ever experienced this before? Thanks to all for your advice....

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

The currently available Mold from Lee, 452-228-1R
is a Fat nosed boolit. I like it, but it needs to be seated deep.
OAL is 1.210 for my guns,
But I have heard others here post that they seat them to 1.190

in general, with fat nosed pistol boolits, you need to seat to fit your chamber,
obviously check for pressure issues and adjust the charge or change the powder accordingly, due to reduced case capacity.
Jon

[Whiterabbit]

I'm not sure I understand the source of your concern.

If we completely ignore OAL as a number for a moment....

You seat the bullet down till you get reliable whatever. feeding, chamber fit, going into battery, accuracy downrange, whatever. But the depth you must use to achieve this makes you uncomfortable. why?

Is it because of a meaningless number you read off a caliper? Or is it something you didn't mention, like using max loads then pushing the bullet deeper, or some other ballistic concern? does the depth you need to feed or chamber result in a case mouth on the ogive?

Are you just worried because of the number your caliper tells you? WHAT makes you uncomfortable about seating the bullet .04 deeper?

[77cutlass]

Whiterabbit, it just looked strange to me so deep. I did end up seating the local cast bullets to an OAL of 1.233 to achieve what you mentioned above. I get it... The loads were all low power starting loads for range/target use so no full power loads needed here. I haven't used these fat nosed bullets before as I shoot mostly cast SWC. I figured I just needed to seat a little deeper with this type of bullet but thought it cant hurt to ask the forum. JonB's answer was all I needed to hear. Said it plainly and perfect....

[Cmm_3940]

Cast boolits for 45ACP need to be seated to fit the gun for best results. Depending on what your gun likes, you should head space either on the case mouth, or so the boolit is just touching the lands. There should only be a couple hundredths of the boolit shoulder showing above the case rim. I've found that listed COLs for J bullets are longer than what works with boolits, so that on it's own is not a concern. If you want hot or max loads, it IS a concern; reduced internal volume increases pressure. Once you find the correct COL you need to start low and work back up. Remove your barrel and use it as a cartridge gauge when loading.

[Walter Laich]

As mentioned above when you are working around max loads the deeper bullet can increase pressure past what is safe.
Since you are starting with low pressure loads you can just seat the bullet to what works for you and gradually go up in powder. As long as you don't mess with bullet depth during load development it becomes a non-issue

[osteodoc08]

Pretty much as noted. Just for reference, Hodgdon lists 1.200 as their OAL on a 230gr lead RN boolit. This is for a 45 ACP, which I assume is what youre shooting. I just reloaded some 230gr cast RN at 1.210 last night. I'll hopefully try them out today after work. Never start at max load and work your way up. That's just plain good reloading practice, but bears repeating.

[bhn22]

We were just discussing this on another board. The throating for each manufacturers barrel is slightly different, and this causes issues with chambering, and often leading:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?232061-1911-Throating

[77cutlass]

Very nice..... Thanks!

[jonp]

I'm not sure I understand the source of your concern.

If we completely ignore OAL as a number for a moment....

You seat the bullet down till you get reliable whatever. feeding, chamber fit, going into battery, accuracy downrange, whatever. But the depth you must use to achieve this makes you uncomfortable. why?

Is it because of a meaningless number you read off a caliper? Or is it something you didn't mention, like using max loads then pushing the bullet deeper, or some other ballistic concern? does the depth you need to feed or chamber result in a case mouth on the ogive?

Are you just worried because of the number your caliper tells you? WHAT makes you uncomfortable about seating the bullet .04 deeper?

Powder compression and pressure spikes