1911 Feed question

[philthephlier]

Should the Lyman 452488 195 gr SWC feed reliably in an unmodified 1911 A1?

[Echo]

It's a close copy of the H&G 130 (or is it the other way?). I have no experience with that boolit, but have seen it used in competition, successfully. I would thing magazine selection would play a part in it's use in an unmodified 1911.

[Artful]

Yes it can, but seating depth is critical on each gun/magazine in my experience - try altering your OAL - in mine I picked one colt factory magazine and adjusted until it fed in that one and kept adj until it failed again to find a range where it worked - then tried another magazine (pachmayr) until I found the range in that and seated to the overlapping length. Sorry I don't have exact figures anymore but I don't shoot bullseye anymore.

[kawalekm]

I'd say no, because the 1911 was designed for heavier bullets in the 225-230 grain range. With lighter bullets there is less mass in the forward section of the cartridge, resulting in jamming.

The first cast load I developed for my 1911 was Lyman's 452460, a 200 grain SWC which I loaded to Lyman's published OAL of 1.161". Every other round would jam while feeding. After reading through the 1911 literature, I found other's have had the same problem and the solution is a longer OAL. I found that an OAL of 1.180" puts the bullets right on the rifling, but that solved my feeding problems.

Phil, what I would recommend you do is take your barrel out of your pistol and determine how long you can make your cartridges with your 452488 bullet. Take an fired but unsized case and place one of your bullets in the case mouth. Try to get light friction fit, but with bullet movement back and forth. Slide the bullet/case into your chamber and let the rifling push the bullet back into the case. Carefully pull out the bullet/case and measure its OAL. This will tell you the maximum OAL where your bullet is butting against the rifling. Start reloading a few dummy rounds a few thousandths shorter than that number and test feeding.

Remember though whenever the bullet is sitting on the rifling, pressures will go up, so reduce the powder charge proportionally.
Good luck,
Michael

[wiljen]

I have the lachmiller version of the same bullet and have had no issues with it feeding in out of the box springer, taurus, and colt guns.

[MtGun44]

This is a very short design and will work in some 1911s and not in others. With proper
power level, spring tension, magazine selection and throating it can be 100% reliable, but
it is well outside the original design envelope, so you may luck out right away or you may
need to fiddle a while to get everything to work.

If you are looking for a target boolit that feeds very reliably in the 1911 platform, would
recommend the Lyman 452460, which shoots more accurately for me than the H &G 130
has. You will find flawless feeding very easily with the H&G 68 and accurate clones, but
while I have fired over 1/4 million of the H&G 68s in the last 30 yrs, the 452460 is
significantly more accurate for me at moderate (not full power) loads.

So - if you are just looking to buy a mold, I'd push the 452460. If you already have a 452488
and want to make it work, you may or may not have easy success, but the old bullseye shooters
used the H&G 130 a bunch, so it has real possibilities.

Bill

[Shiloh]

Mine digests most anything. Tweak the seating depth. If short, pressure issues.
Back offpowder charge.

Shiloh

[35remington]

There's a reason bullseye shooters are allowed alibis......they shoot bullets that require compromises in magazine design that, along with the cartridge's short length, make malfunctions more likely in a 1911.

Short bullets require straight lip, early release magazines and the 1911 was never intended to run with such early release, steep feeding styles of magazines. Somehow we've decided that early release magazines are also appropriate for everything, and 1911 reliability has been in a decline ever since, mostly due to the fact that we try to shoot bullets in a 1911 that it was not designed to use. "Improvements" in magazine design often have as many drawbacks as benefits.

100 percent reliability is difficult to attain the further you get from the 1911's functioning parameters.

If reliability is your focus, choose a reliable design. Many reliable designs are also very accurate and this is a reasonable alternative.

If accuracy is your focus with a short bullet, learn to put up with the greater chance of less reliable feeding. To ask for both in a short bullet is asking for a less statistically probable event to occur all of the time, which is unrealistic.

Bluntly stated, less reliable feeding is a probability rather than a possibility the shorter you go.

[gray wolf]

*--------------no------------*

Get lucky=yes
make ajustments + get lucky = perhaps
WHY? --- for the reasons stated in the other post.

[DLCTEX]

I have been able to get Lee's 200 gr. SWC to feed reliably in three different makes of guns. It did take some length and load adjustments to make them work in all three.

[JIMinPHX]

The type of magazine that you use will make a big difference. Post 5 on this thread will show you what I mean - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=42221

[anachronism]

I seem to recall there being feedlip tools for 1911 magazines for use with wadcutter loads. These tools changed the feedlips so the case wouldn't release fully from the magazine until a little later in the feeding cycle. Back in the olden days, I was told it was because wadcutter loads were sometimes to short to feed properly. I think Brownells still offers these tools.

[35remington]

Anachronism, the tool makes the feedlips release earlier, not later. I've a few magazines modified with the Brownells tool. This was intended to modify late release, tapered lip GI magazines.

The interesting part is that a properly functioning GI tapered lip late release magazine is more reliable with ball than the early release SWC magazines are with ANY ammunition.

[anachronism]

Thanks for clearing that up.