colt acp 70&80 series feeding 200gr swc H&G bullet

[MT2DAY]

I am asking if anyone has has problems with feeding a colt with 200 gr swc Hensley & Gibbs moulded bullet? ...........I will post my results after the 1000 round test. pm me ---I would like to know to condition of gun, the spring rating, if any custom work has been done, clip used, and anything else that might be important ....

[btroj]

My Series 80 Gold cup handles them quite nicely.

I'm using the factory 16 pound spring and Checkmate Hybrid lip magazines. 4.0 gr of Clays does very well.

[MtGun44]

Load the H&G 68 to 1.250 to 1.260 LOA, and taper crimp as a separate operation to
.467 or so, tighter will not hurt.

These are essentially 100% reliable feeders with good magazines and properly loaded
as said above.

Bill

[kweidner]

MtGun44 is right on as usual. The lips of some magazines sometimes have to be tweaked as they let the round pitch too far up too early causing an FTF. A simple bend with flat jaw pliers can fix that. I have tweaked many a surplus millitary for friends to run that bullet flawless. 99% of the time it is an uncooperative magazine. Find a mag that works, and tweak the other lips to the same profile.

[6bg6ga]

101441

H&G 68 on the left, Magma 200gr SWC in the middle and 185gr Magma SWC on the right.

All three should work well in most any 1911

[35remington]

The rub with "tweaking" magazines is that there is only one type that can be tweaked, and that's GI magazines that need tweaking. The other rub is that if GI magazines need tweaking because they let the round "pitch up" it's because they release too late, not too early. It's pretty much impossible for an unaltered GI magazine to release too early. If you have to fix it for this reason, somebody altered it before you got it.

The newly manufactured Check Mate GI's need no tweaking whatsoever. Do not attempt to "tweak" any other brand or magazine lip style to any degree as they will simply be ruined.

[gray wolf]

Series 70--series --80 are basically the same pistol other than the enhanced drop safety feature of the 80
You will know a lot sooner than a 1000 rounds if your pistol functions, 25 rounds should tell the tail.
Spring rate has nothing to do with bullet shape, it makes the slide go back, and it drives it forward.
The NOW standard 16 pound recoil spring and 23 pound main spring should get the job done just fine with any within reason bullet regardless of the shape, and most within reason powder charges,
A well made standard G.I. ( none altered )configured Mag should also work just fine.
You shouldn't need to do any mods to the pistol unless the profile ( geometry ) of the barrel throat is of the shape for G.I ball ammo only and that is doubtful, possible, but unlikely.
Not to many 1911 or 1911-A1 pistols need mods done to them in order to work if they have been made correctly, and not had MODS done to them or been tinkered with by people unfamiliar with the 1911 platform.
There is a wealth of info available about the 1911 pistol, some reading may be helpful at this time.
Many things other than a #68 bullet can make a 1911 not work.
Here is a little help about how a 1911 works and how the parts relate to each other.

http://www.m1911.org/locking.htm

[MtGun44]

35 Rem is right. The only ones that need the early release mags (and essentially ALL modern
mags are early release designs except the Checkmate GIs - apparently the last of the breed)
would be that super short nosed beast of a 185 gr on the right in the photo. Those are
not super reliable feeders, IME, where the H&G 68 IS a super reliable feeder, with either
type of magazine in almost any modern 1911.

Bill

[6bg6ga]

Well, I'll probably start WWII with this but here goes... My Colt officers model wouldn't feed anything except the 230RN military round without having problems. In checking the ramp it was found to be out of tolerance by several degrees. This was corrected and the ramp was polished. It now will feed anything from the 185gr swc to the 230RN mixed without a problem. I don't have any fancy high dollar magazines for it either. I have several stock mags and 4 or 5 full sized military surplus and it will use these without problems.

[Bonz]

I am finally giving up on the SWC's in my 45's. Feeds "ok" in the 5", not so "ok" in the 4" and definitely not "ok" in the 3"; shorter the barrel, steeper the feed ramp. Spent a bunch of money having the feed ramps polished; helped a bit but not enough.

[Finster101]

I have an Officers model and a Commander both Colts, 80 series. Once I got the OAL figured out and the taper crimp down enough the SWCs feed fine, in fact they feed through anyone else's pistol I try as well. There are several threads on this very issue and when I quit trying to figure it out on my own and took MTGun44's advice my problems instantly went away. Don't give up, it's a great boolit!

[sagamore-one]

I have a series 70 Gold Cup that has over 50 thousand of the H&G 68's put through it. No mods to the gun except the sights that I got tired of putting back on , had the slide welded up and machined for S&W k frame sights. I changed the recoil spring between 5 and 7 thousand rounds and used Wolff 18 1/2 pounders. Finish disappeared and was Metalife plated. Load was 6 gr of 231.

[35remington]

Barrel length has nothing to do with feed ramp steepness, nor does a change in barrel length require a change in how how steep the feed ramp is. It is a fixed angle for all.

The difference is in slide run up when barrel length is changed. The most correct feeding for the 1911 is obtained when the original designer's magazine type is used, which is a tapered lip magazine. All other types do not feed a 1911 the way it was intended to be fed.

[M-Tecs]

Load the H&G 68 to 1.250 to 1.260 LOA, and taper crimp as a separate operation to
.467 or so, tighter will not hurt.

These are essentially 100% reliable feeders with good magazines and properly loaded
as said above.

Bill

That info is spot on. If it feeds ball it should feed the H&G 68’s with the above specs.

[Larry Gibson]

That info is spot on. If it feeds ball it should feed the H&G 68’s with the above specs.

The reason is the circumference of the meplat of the H&G 68 is coincidental to the profile of a military 230 gr hardball and hits the feed ramp and top of chamber in the same place as does the hardball bullet. That's why the H&G seated to the above OAL feeds in most any 45 ACP. It was designed that way.

Larry Gibson

[MtGun44]

Larry is dead right, as usual, good explanation.

Here is a picture of a 9mm ball and 9mm TC set up the
same way - and it feeds perfectly in any of my semiautos, too.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52652&d=1314925371

Look closely - there is a 9mm factory ball round behind my TC round -
this pic was taken to explain why I recommend the Lee 120 TC design, LOADED THIS WAY
for 9mms. Same exact thing as the H&G 68 in .45 ACP, and why it is a 100% feeder when
loaded properly.

I had to smile a bit when reading post #12. I have been helping IPSC shooters get their .45 ACP ammo
working since about 1982, and have seem pretty much all the screwed up ammo you could imagine. We
shot enough in the old IPSC days (10-15,000 rds per year in my case) to really learn what worked.

And it still does.

Bill