Mould for new S&W 4" 45LC

[ammohead]

I love it, I love it, I love it.

It has yet to see a condom bullet in my hands and never will. But my gifted supply of 200 gr lyman swc will only last so long. Any suggestions. I am thinking 250 or a bit heavier. Plain base.

ammohead

[Buckshot]

............Hello Bruce! I have limited experience with only a few cast boolits in the 45 Colt. I know you asked about 250gr or heavier. I will mention that my Ruger Vaquero shoots the Lee 190gr SWC extremely well. So much so that I felt it would be match quality with the Lee 452-255RF, since it's such a boolity looking boolit [smilie=l:. Unhappily, it didn't turn out that way as it treats them rather indifferently. Naturally I bought a 6 cavity. Possibly too hard an alloy for my loads.

There were a couple others which did very well right from the git-go and they equal or exceed your weight wishes. One is the RCBS 45-250FN, the Ly 454190, 255gr SWC but it does take a GC.

http://www.fototime.com/68E891AD4F08210/standard.jpg
Left above the Lee I thought looked so good. Both those 45 cal rifle boolits do exceedingly well in the Vaquero. I haven't been too intrepid in loading the 340gr Lee up. About 850 fps has been the limit. The 292gr Lyman has seen a bit over 900 fps. You can buy a Lee .452" push through die to reduce them.

Or here is a golden opportunity to excersize your Atlas lathe to cut some 7/8-14 threads, bore and polish out your own push through die and pusher rod.

..............Buckshot

[9.3X62AL]

I'm in the same place with my 45 Colt (Ruger BisHawk) after opening the throats to .4525"--want a 250 grain SWC plain base, but get tempted by the ogival flat point design too. Since the recut, I tried some Lee 200 grain SWC H&G #68 copies, and they did pretty well--unlike their former work in the .449" throats. I ran some Lee 300 grainers through it, too--the jury is still out on those, and they have gas checks.

[BruceB]

ammohead;

I just checked the "inventory" of .45 Colt boolits-on-hand and it's not quite as extensive as I'd figured.

However, there are at least several hundred 454190s, half in 50:50 WW:Pb and half in unhardened straight WW, and about the same number of 454424 SWCs. All are unsized and unlubed, and have notes in their containers that they cast at .457".

You're welcome to all of 'em. Should be enuff boolits to give you a good idea of how they'll work in your gun.

The .45 Colt-suitable moulds are as follows:

- 2-cavity 454190

- 1-cavity 454190

- 2-cavity RCBS 45-255KT

- 1-cavity 454424

Also have a 2-cavity 452374, the classic .45ACP roundnose (I bought a 4-banger in this model) and a pair of .50 moulds if anyone wants them....these are the 515141 and the RCBS 50-515 which casts closer to 560 grains in WW.

All these moulds were making fine boolits the last time they were used. They can be seen during the Nevada Shoot.

Ammohead, you should read the article "The .45 Keith SWC" on

www.handloads.com

where it is to be found in the left-hand column listing 'latest articles'. In addition and very important to understanding that new S&W, find "search all articles" further down in the same column and pull up John Linebaugh's treatise on the 25-5 revolver. Very interesting, and he's a gent who knows whereof he speaks. You'll have to look for the article in a long column of good reading, but it's there and it's well worthwhile.

[beagle]

Well, there are three moulds that I use a bunch for the .45 LC.

You can't beat the old 454190. Then, there's the 454424 which is good also.

My favorite is a 452490 that I dehorned and made a PB. It's a DC and one cavity is HP'd. By far the best .45 LC mould I have.

An then there's the 45-325-FN RCBS that downsizes really good to give you a wide meplat 335 grainer if you're so inclined toward heavier bullets./beagle

[arkypete]

I've got and have used the Lyman 2 cavity 255 swc, the RCBS 2 cavity 255 with good results with leading until I started sizing .454. I got lazy and went to a 4 cavity NEI 255 with very good results, then found a 4 cavity 255 grain full wad cutter #452309 with excellent results. Then I really got lazy and got two Saeco four cavity 255 grain swc molds that became my stardard.
My suggestion is any 255 grain, plain base swc sized .454 will serve you well.
I use any where from 8.5 grains to 10 grains of Unique, Winchester primers with equal accuracy.
I'd suggest that you polish down the neck expander, not the case mouth flaring portion, to give a real tight grip on the bullet body and crimp the devil out of the case mouth in a separate step.
Jim

[C1PNR]

ammohead,

Only mould I use a lot of that hasn't been mentioned yet is the 452423. Kind of a middle of the road weight that has always worked well for me, especially in the RBH.

Haven't used it as much in the S&W 25-5, or the 25-2 for that matter. Thought I'd mention it though, as there is a group buy on a 6 C Lee in that design going on right now.

Only other thing I did with my 25-5 was to put Herrett's "Shooting Master" grips on it. They really feel "NICE!"

[Char-Gar]

I pretty much stick to three bullets in the 45 Colt.

1. RCBS 270 SAA - This is a great "improved" Keith bullets that cast out at 280 grains (wheelweight) and has proved very accuracy in my Smith and Wesson and Rugers. Mine cast at .4535 and I run them through a .454 die just to lube them.

2. Lyman 452423 (and clones) - This bullet is a Keith designed bullets that cast out at 244 grains (wheel weight) and is a good general purpose bullet, but is not quite as accuracte as the RCBS when the ranges get beyond 100 yards. These cast out .455 and I size them .454 for the sixguns and .452 for the auto pistols.

My S&W 25-7 has .453 cylinder throats and I have had the Ruger cylinders opened up to the same size. Bowen did a couple and Reeder did one.

3. Lyman 454190 - These cast out at .456 and weight 255 out of wheelweight. I am not a fan of the shape, but the bullets is very, very accurate and I use them in a USFA sa pistol with quite large cylinder throats.

I use 8.5/Unique with any of these bullets for velocity in the 800-875 fps range. Makes a nice general purpose load.

For more pop, I go to 20/H4227 and that puts the velocity around 1,000 fps depending on pistol and barrel length. These loads are not to hot for Smiths, Colts and Colt clones. This load will do anything you would want a pistol to do in the state of Texas.