First .45 gun - first .45 loads

[ghh3rd]

I am picking up my Walther PPQ 45 in two weeks. The Lee 452-230-TC mold and the dies arrived today.

I'll be casting some boolits this weekend, and I KNOW that I'll load up a few before I get the gun... just because. Knowing me, I could talk myself into taking a chance and loading say 100 rounds without the gun on hand, so I can go to the range once I pick it up and give it a quick cleaning.

Maybe if I keep everything in spec I'll be lucky and they will feed satisfactorily. [smilie=1:

Powder I have, and loads I was thinking of starting with:
UNIQUE 5.5 gr
AA#5 8.0 gr
BULLSEYE 4.2 gr

Since the barrel is polygonal, I was thinking Unique (since it's slower than AA#5 and Bullseye) might keep leading potential down.

Assuming that I do decide to load up a batch, any suggestions / tips on increasing my chance of initial feeding success? One thing that I read was not to seat the front driving band out much more than .020 or so, or the band will start to be engraved by the rifling. I'm sure there are other good tidbits out there...

Thanks

Randy

[454PB]

That's a dandy boolit, and in my guns, it has to be seated as you described to chamber properly.

[jcren]

Is that the tumble lubed bullet? And I ran 5.6 grains of unique under that bullet for a long time with no problems. If it is the tl bullet, seat to 1.17" oal to start with and taper crimp so that the very edge of the case mouth is .470-.472. This combo won't be ideal for any one gun, but has worked well in several for me and others.

[C.F.Plinker]

Don't load too many more than you are willing to pull if things don't go according to plan.

According to the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook Accurate No.5 is slower than Unique. They don't show any loads for AA5 with the Lee 230 TC boolit but with a 230 RN the Maximum Charge of AA5 is 8.2 grains. See if you can find a starting load for your boolit.

[ghh3rd]

jcren, not TL, one lube groove. Thanks for the replies.


Edit:
I just noticed that the sheet that came with the Lee dies and lists some loads for the 230 gr boolit.
AA#5 7.7 - 8.5 gr (although 8.5 would be 968 fps and I think I'd like to keep it about 850 for now)
Unique 5.1 - 5.8 (5.8 shows 849 fps)
Bullseye not listed

This is gonna be fun!

[bobthenailer]

load to a COL of 1.200

[gray wolf]

You know what your doing is iffy right ?

Then again I have done the same thing a time or two.

My 2 cents:

Make your loads up and leave them a tad long with no crimp.
When you get the gun take a bullet (1) and just crimp it a little so the case will enter the chamber.

It probably will not seat cause it's long, slowly seat it till it passes the plunk test.

Do the final crimp and try again, if all is OK then just set the seat die and finish em up.

[ghh3rd]

Hey Grey Wolf, that sounds like the ideal solution for the ideal person to try. Thanks.

[Groo]

Groo here
5gr Bullseye WW2 milspec.
The same powder and charge with a 200gr bullet will give close to the original load JMB made for the 45acp.
The same charge with a 185gr bullet makes a nice target load.

[gray wolf]

Hey Grey Wolf, that sounds like the ideal solution for the ideal person to try. Thanks.
Liked that did Ja ?

[HangFireW8]

What Groo said.

4.2 gr of Bullseye is a target load and is borderline for factory springs, especially during break-in.

5 grains under 230 or 200 gr boolits should work fine in any factory spec 45.

[CastingFool]

as a test for my 45, I started loading the Lee 452-200 rf, with 4.5gr of BE, and it feeds just great. Accuracy wasn't bad at 5 yds with open sights (which are slightly blurry to me) recoil is minimal Tried 5 grs BE and group opened up a bit. Interpolating the fps from published, I should be getting about 757 fps.