Lee 452-200-RF in 1911

[j20owner]

I'm just getting started casting, as in I've acquired some wheel weights and will be ordering a mold and sizer/luber here soon. I'll start with my 1911, a Dan Wesson PM3-P, 5" Gov't model.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this Lee boollit/mold in a 1911. Does it work? Are you able to get a good enough taper crimp to hold boollit in place? It looks to me like it has a roll-crimp groove, but I'm wondering if it will work in a 1911 with the taper crimp. Here's a pic for reference:
http://www.factorysales.com/graphics/bullets/452200rf.gif

Any help would be appreciated. BTW, if this one will not work, I'll just go for the TL452-200-SWC from Lee.

[missionary5155]

Good morning J20ownwer
There is no reason it should not work. All you want to be sure is that the boolit is large enough diameter for the barrel.
If you have a chunk of soft lead (sinker, round ball or cast a couple soft lead boolit) lightly oil it and tap it into your removed barrel from the breach end. Use a wood rod. Just a short distance into the rifling. Knock it back out. Measure with a micrometer or dial caliper. Now you know your minimum boolit size. .001-.002 oversize (I generally figure .002 in my 1911 .45s) will get you in the 25 yard soda can groupsdepending on the fit of your Dan.
I would dought you need straight WW boolits. Me I would be mixing my first batch of lead 50-50 with pure lead. With most of my 45ACP I use even softer mixes of 2-1ww.
In low pressure cartriges like the 45acp I am of the opinon softer is better. But get the Dan a-shooting and then you can play with mixes. BUT always load a boolit that fills the bore. Too small and will will be "mining lead in a barrel.. yours".

[Rick N Bama]

Good Morning, I shoot that boolit in my DW Pointman Stainless & it does just fine, in fact, it's the most accurate boolit I've tried in it. Taper crimp it just above that groove, then load it with a moderate dose of AA5 & you should be good to go.

Rick

[j20owner]

Cool, thanks for the hints!

[Shootn]

Good Morning, I shoot that boolit in my DW Pointman Stainless & it does just fine, in fact, it's the most accurate boolit I've tried in it. Taper crimp it just above that groove, then load it with a moderate dose of AA5 & you should be good to go.

Rick

Ditto for me. I bought it as a "dual use" bullet for my .45 Colt revolvers and my Springfield 1911. I seat it just over the crimp groove, taper crimp. I'm using 5 grains of Unique and Lee Liquid Alox. As a bonus, I shoot them "as cast" with no sizing.

[Larry Gibson]

+Ditto for me. I use that bullet in both my Colt M1911 and CC, a M1917 S&W in .45 ACP. I also use it in my .45 Colt SSA and M92 Rifle. In ACP I also taper crimp in front of the crimp groove. I shoot it over 5 gr of Bullseye. Rivals the H&G 68 for accuracy. Feeds in everything including a M1928 Thompson, MAC10 and M3A1 grease gun.

Larry Gibson

[j20owner]

I bought it as a "dual use" bullet for my .45 Colt revolvers and my Springfield 1911. .

That's kindof what I was hoping to do, too. I'd like to be able to pick up a .45 colt single-action at some point. Maybe even a .45Colt lever gun, too.

[txbirdman]

I've used that bullet in my Colt Combat Commander with mixed results. It's plenty accurate but with some magazines I have a failure to feed due to OAL. This bullet is too short to work for me with Tripp conversion magazines. I primarily use the RCBS 200 SWC and the 452460 along with commercial H&G 68's and never had the feeding problem but the Lee 200's sometimes give trouble.

[yondering]

I use this boolit for my 1911, and like others have said, it's very accurate. The mold I got though, has a much larger meplat than shown in the picture, considerably larger than the 45-255-RF mold I have. Because of this large meplat, it has difficulty feeding in some guns. It does work OK in my 1911, but only when the slide is allowed to slam closed, and only when the OAL is right. I seat it down past the crimp groove and taper crimp.

It seems to be more accurate in my 1911 than the 45-230-TC.

[OBXPilgrim]

That's another of my favs. The flat end on mine is about the same dia as the flat of the old Speer 200 gr JHP "flying ashtray" that they quit making. I loved those. The meplat is larger than the meplat on my Lee 255 RF also (those work good in my 1911 colt & SW 625 also).

I too seat the slug to where the crimp groove is hidden in the case, barely.

I seat them to crimp into the groove for 45 Auto Rims for my 625.




Feeds in everything including a M1928 Thompson, MAC10 and M3A1 grease gun.
Larry Gibson

Dang it Larry - I could do without hearing that!!:kidding:

[35remington]

Just be advised that depending upon the overall length of the loaded round, there may be mixed results with mixed brand magazines.

Generally, those rounds shorter than 1.210-1.220 need "early release" magazines. These are often found with straight rear feed lips and a wide flared release point.

The 1911 was orginally designed to work with rounds of a longer overall length, in the vicinity of 1.250-1.270" with a rounded nose profile, using tapered lip magazines with a later release point.

The further you get away from the 1911's functional design parameters, the more likely you are to have feeding malfunctions. It's unrealistic to expect 1911's to work with many .45 caliber bullet designs that were not intended to feed through it.

If it works, great. If not, well, I'm personally bothered by cartridges that jam occasionally, as they give me less than 100 percent confidence in the gun. Even considering that those loads will not be chosen for anything other than practice and plinking.

I choose bullet profiles that always work, and stay away from extremes in shortness regarding cartridge overall length. Any length at or much below 1.20" is too short for my use, and the magazines that must be used to shoot short rounds with reasonable reliability are a reliability compromise themselves.