Something went right today

[ghh3rd]

I am happy today! Something went right.

When I bought my Walther PPQ 45 I also purchased a Lyman 452460 200gr semi wadcutter mold. It rains nice boolits, but my gun doesn't seem to like them at all.

Sometimes live rounds are flung from the gun, and others jam. I tried different seating depths within reason, and various crimps, without improvement.

I did not try factory ammo, as I am too cheap, and because I shouldn't have to shoot factory.

The good news - I bought Lee 230 RN mold and cranked out a few hundred boolits. I have shot 150 of them without a hiccup, and they are very accurate. I am back to feeling good about my gun, but sure wish I could get those 200gr boolits to work.

199418

By the way, I am using OAL 1.200 with a .472 crimp on the 230's.

Randy

[tazman]

It's always good when you find what works.
If you decide you don't like the 452460 mold, I am in the market for one.

[Guesser]

I fully understand.....I had a Ruger P-90 and a Para Ordinance P-12; neither of them would feed anything but RN. I still have all my molds but both of the guns went away.

[ghh3rd]

I'll keep that in mind tazman ... I'm going to try again with and use Hi-Tek just to see if it makes a difference. I really want that mold to work out.

[Bzcraig]

I don't think there's a better feeling than getting a gun to work that you were thinking about putting away!

[Rainier]

Woot! Love to hear about a plan coming together. May the casting gods continue to smile down on you :)

[ioon44]

I am happy today! Something went right.

When I bought my Walther PPQ 45 I also purchased a Lyman 452460 200gr semi wadcutter mold. It rains nice boolits, but my gun doesn't seem to like them at all.

Sometimes live rounds are flung from the gun, and others jam. I tried different seating depths within reason, and various crimps, without improvement.

I did not try factory ammo, as I am too cheap, and because I shouldn't have to shoot factory.

The good news - I bought Lee 230 RN mold and cranked out a few hundred boolits. I have shot 150 of them without a hiccup, and they are very accurate. I am back to feeling good about my gun, but sure wish I could get those 200gr boolits to work.

199418

By the way, I am using OAL 1.200 with a .472 crimp on the 230's.

Randy

I have been shooting a PPQ 45 for about 2 years with 200 gr SWC & 185 gr SWC with zero problems, the bullets are H&G 68 style nose and seated to 1.255" OAL.

What is the OAL on your loaded 452460 bullets?

[Thin Man]

My condolences to the OP. One of the first molds I bought was a Lyman 452460 (4X). After settling the COL issue I found that this boolit over 7 grains of Unique gave me more smiles than I could have hoped for. The load is reliable in practically every pistol I feed it into and speaks with authority when I turn it loose. Why not go back and try different COL values and crimp dimensions, then also moderate to higher loads. Hopefully you will find that balance that your pistol likes.

[ghh3rd]

I just looked in the notes from when I loaded boolits from my 452460 mold about three months ago. My OAL was 1.185 and the crimp was .466-.467 on some and .467 on others. As I recall some were giving me an issue in the go-no go guage and I reduced the crimp until they dropped in smoothly.

Since the Lee 230 RN is working fine, wouldn't the same crimp work for my 452460's, or does each boolit have it's own crimp measurement? Could over crimping cause the issues I was having?

I'll have to see if I have any left over from the 35 lbs of them that I cast... they may have been a PITA to shoot with some jams and some live rounds being ejected, but I still managed to shoot a bunch of them :-). If not, I'll cast some more and try loading again with different crimp. I think that 1.185" was where I found I had flush headspace, but I'll check that again.

[ioon44]

Have you tried to use your PPQ 45 barrel as a case gauge instead of your go-no go gauge?
My case gauge wont pass ammo that my PPQ barrel will accept and shoot just fine and I crimp to .470", what were you crimping you 230 RN at?

[jbutts6785]

I shoot 452460 out of my Gold Cup. It is a very accurate bullet over 4.3 grains of Titegroup, but very touchy about OAL. 1.185 seems to be about right. Anything shorter leads to jams. I am still playing with the crimp to get it right. That doesn't seem to be as much of an issue as the OAL.

[rototerrier]

Best mold I've found for my PPQ M2 45, and every other 45 I've had the pleasure of testing is this: http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=45-230MZ-D.png

Flat point so it stacks up square and feeds reliably in my bullet feeder on my press but still has the benefits of a round nose for reliable chambering.

I've had the live bullet ejection issue with my M2 and have 100% been able to reliably duplicate the issue by simply adjusting the powder charge. Too hot of a load and it will eject a live round.

For this particular boolit, I load with HP38 and anything over 5.4gr will do it. For the LEE 452 Truncated Cone, Anything over 5.2gr will throw live rounds. I have 4 different magazines, and they all do it. I've also tried different barrels, and they all do it. Contact Walther about it, they claim they can't repeat it and therefor it doesn't happen.

[OS OK]

What do the black marks on the bases mean? (in the picture)

Some of the primers appear to be proud of the base...the light shining on the primer rim is what I'm noticing.
How do you prime the cases?

[ghh3rd]

I'll check the primers on my remaining rounds, but I think it must be the lighting since I look for high primers after I get done priming. I have an RCBS hand primer that has worked great so far, although I need to be careful not to jiggle it too much or I might get a sideways primer :shock:.

I normally put a line across the base to identify that it's my brass since I often get to pick up other .45 ACP brass along with mine. The "new" brass goes into my reserve, and continue to reload the pile that I have.

I had loaded a hundred one day and a hundred another, etc. and just added an additional line each time for no good reason.

rototerrier, thanks for sharing your favorite boolit design. So far this Lee 230 RN has worked 100% of the time for me... no live round ejection, no jams, and very accurate. I've been loading with 4.8 W231. I tried 50 rounds with 5.2 W231 and actually didn't even notice any difference in recoil or performance, so 4.8 gr it will be.

Oh yeah, since you have a PPQ 45 let me ask... do you use a brass catcher? I've tried a few things including a Caldwell catcher, and nothing seems to work with the PPQ. I think the brass must eject straight up!

[rototerrier]

I use the ground. 100% reliable. Never fails to catch all my brass, but it does have a nasty habit of hiding some from me, especially in fall.

[OS OK]

I'll check the primers on my remaining rounds, but I think it must be the lighting since I look for high primers after I get done priming. I have an RCBS hand primer that has worked great so far, although I need to be careful not to jiggle it too much or I might get a sideways primer :shock:.

I normally put a line across the base to identify that it's my brass since I often get to pick up other .45 ACP brass along with mine. The "new" brass goes into my reserve, and continue to reload the pile that I have.

I had loaded a hundred one day and a hundred another, etc. and just added an additional line each time for no good reason.

rototerrier, thanks for sharing your favorite boolit design. So far this Lee 230 RN has worked 100% of the time for me... no live round ejection, no jams, and very accurate. I've been loading with 4.8 W231. I tried 50 rounds with 5.2 W231 and actually didn't even notice any difference in recoil or performance, so 4.8 gr it will be.

Oh yeah, since you have a PPQ 45 let me ask... do you use a brass catcher? I've tried a few things including a Caldwell catcher, and nothing seems to work with the PPQ. I think the brass must eject straight up!

Since you use the hand primer you can use your index finger to feel the primer height when you remove the primed brass from the shell holder...just flip the primed brass over in your grasp as you remove it from the shell holder and let your index finger gently swipe over the base of the case from one side to the other. You can feel a proud, evenly seated and even a primer that is properly set at .002" deep.
You won't have to even look at them...it becomes habit, it's one of the procedures you can develop to save time and 'not' cut corners to do it.

c h a r l i e

[ghh3rd]

Update: the 452460 boolits have been working great since I seated them with the shoulder flush with or just barely above the case rim and crimped about .467 — am using PC and HiTek and both shoot well.