What mold do I need for a 45acp

[Dave B]

What's a good overall bullet for a 45acp that will feed in most everything? I have a Lyman swc and a Lee swc. They work OK in a Gold Cup, but not so good in most others. I was thinking about Lee's TC with micro groove or reg. Also Lee's 2Rnd nose designs. Also maybe one of the Lyman Rns. Any ideas out there?

[RobS]

The Lyman 452374 will feed end of story, but Lyman quality control is really relaxed right now and many of their molds are going out the door undersized. I tried two of their molds over a year ago, closer to two, that both cast .451 from WW alloy.

The Lee TC boolit has worked in a variety of 1911's as well as with my picky 1st generation XD tactical. The TC is a short stubby boolit, much like many of Lee 45 auto molds, so don't be alarmed if you load with a shorter COAL than what most reloading manuals have written. If you are not tumble lubing the traditional lube groove is a better choice IMO. One issue for some, both have a small bevel at the base which can be a moderate PITA when using a lubricator like the Lyman, RCBS, Saeco series lube/sizer presses. The TL 230 2R will feed in a lot of 45 autos but some won't like the small shoulder where the tumble lube grooves and ogive meet (similar to the Lee TL 200 grain SWC design if you seen it). Another option by way of Lee is the 200 grain revolver design, 452-200-RF and it has fed in everything I've shot it in with pretty darn good accuracy. The wide meplat has been reported to give some issues for folks.

You may want to look in the boolit exchange section to see if you can get yourself some samples to try out first in each particular design so you don't waste $$$ on a mold that won't work for you.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

[frkelly74]

I have the 230 TLTC mold and it did take some learning to get it to work well in my RIA 1911A1. What works for me: I cast them from scrap lead that is somewhat soft. tumble lube in LLA, size in a 452 lee sizer which fills in the lube grooves with the lube and then lube again. let them dry well. Bell cases , prime and charge cases, seat bullets till the corner where the truncated cone starts is at the case mouth, then in a separate operation put the minimum crimp on so that they will chamber. Too much crimp will size the boolit too small and produce leading. This has produced good results for me.


there is another thing about this mold that you will need to know. Lee apparently uses a light alloy of some sort to specify weights. With my soft alloy , weight comes out at about 245 gr, "pure" lead comes out approximately 250 Gr. I was using some pure in my muzzle loader.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

I make and sell both the TC and RN Lee bullets. I have had no complaints about either leading or feeding with either bullet. I use the TC boolit in my Taurus PT1911 and it eats them up. Good accuracy and no leading, even with softer lead I sometimes use in MY firearms.

Just as a point of interest, both the standard lube groove and TL groove boolits can be tumble lubed. I use 45/45/10 and am careful not to over lube them. Its quite easy to do.

Good Luck

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[geargnasher]

I had feeding issues and poor accuracy out of a number of designs in several different .45 ACPs, I ended up designing AM230L with Tom at Accurate Molds, it's been THE solution for me. The 452374 and good H&G #68 clones are good choices for a lighter, target boolit.

Gear

[MtGun44]

H&G 68 clones are THE design for .45 ACP, accurate, feeds in any modern gun like
**** thru a goose - with the exception of early Springfield XDs which fail to eject
with any SWC, apparently fixed on later guns. The Lyman 452460 occasionally has
some feeding issues, but is usually a reliable feeder, and is a bit more accurate than
my H&G 68s in most of my guns.

The 452374 is a good RN, will feed well in ANYTHING, but not punch quite as nice
holes in the target and uses up about 25% more lead every shot to no particular
large benefit, IMO.

The 200 gr RN HP from Mihec is my current accuracy champ, and feeds very well,
100% so far for me. His molds are works of art, too.

Lack of, or inadequate, TC is the most probable cause of ammo problems with this
caliber in my 30+ yrs of experience shooting it and helping newbies with it. Use the
dismounted barrel as a gauge to set up a dummy round for LOA and TC so that the
round will drop in freely. Up to around 1 lb of fingertip pressure is OK.

Bill

[ChuckS1]

How about the group buy going on for the H&G #34? It's a 230 grain round nose with a profile specifically designed to match that of the Govt FMJ round. If your .45 won't feed that, then it won't feed anything!

[dale2242]

Lyman 452460 200gr SWC is my go to boolit in the 45 ACP.
Loaded with 5gr 700X and seated 1/16" below the top driving band , the load has fed through every gun we have tried ....dale

[fatelk]

I also have the Lee TC-TL six cavity mold. Once I got it figured out, it works well in all my .45's. I didn't like the fact that I had to seat them so deep, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

Lee apparently uses a light alloy of some sort to specify weights. With my soft alloy , weight comes out at about 245 gr, "pure" lead comes out approximately 250 Gr. I was using some pure in my muzzle loader.

I don't know what Lee is smoking with their bullet weights and "recommended alloy". Why in the world would anyone actually use 10% tin? Mine cast the same weights as yours. I guess it's no big deal either, but it bugged me, so I milled the top of the mold off so it casts right at 230 now with the alloy I'm using.

The other problem I had was one of my barrels slugged a bit large. I lapped the cavities, but the other problem was that tumble lubing wasn't quite cutting it for me with this bullet, so I had buckshot make me a custom sizer die. The bevel base was already milled off, so I just run them through the lube-sizer and it's all good.

[mdi]

I've been using my Lyman 452374 225 gr. Round nose for quite a while now. I've been using range lead a lot lately, and have no probs. Easy to cast and just about any lube works when I shoot them in my P90 or RIA 1911, with a little over 5.0 gr. W231.

[Moonie]

I've yet to find anything that the 200gr Mihec HP boolit won't feed in.

[Maximumbob54]

I'm not sure if it is the SWC mold others have refered to here but I use a LEE DC TL452-200SWC mold. It is more of a round nose SWC and not the usual SWC profile like the other option they make. It feeds flawless in any of my 1991A1's or my Series 70 repro model. I also shoot them from my S&W 625-3.

[Doby45]

I've yet to find anything that the 200gr Mihec HP boolit won't feed in.

+1, solid performer..