Which CB for 45 acp

[AnthonyB]

The Saeco 58 is one of my favorite lighter than 230 grain moulds. I would love to find a four cavity at a reasonable price, but my two cavity may have to do.
Tony

[AlaskaMike]

Years ago we had a group buy with Lee for a six cavity version similar to the Saeco 058. The design is essentially the Lyman 452423, but minus the crimp groove and middle band, resulting in a weight of about 210 grains depending on alloy.

My 1911s and also my Sig P220 shoot it better than the H&G 68 designs. Sacrilege? Perhaps.

[justindad]

The Saeco 058 on the left in all it's glory.
Attachment 301730

What’s on the right, and how much does it weigh?

[44MAG#1]

It is a close 230 grain, depending on the alloy, copy.

[The Old Salt]

I use a Lee 2-Cavity Bullet Mold TL452-230-2R 45 ACP mold. Its a tumble lube but I use the homemade Felix lube. Out of my SR1911, it can fire groups of less than 1” at 7 yrds. I am loading Unique powder.

[trixter]

This is my all time favorite, the holes it makes in my paper targets are totally cool (like I used a hole punch).
this is the H&G #68 from Mihec.


This is choice #2, it is so easy to cast. This is from a Lee 6 cavity mold.

[kens]

my vote is Lee 6-cavity truncated cone, they simply fall out of the mold

[Divil]

RCBS 225 grain RN with hardball alloy and a few musket balls dropped in to eventually yield 227 grain boolits has been a success for me.

Using straight hardball alloy:
Accurate Custom Molds using the: 45-230-LL (conventional lubed), 45-230-LT(tumble lubed version of the LL),
45-230-MH (gas checked RNFP) and 45-185-O (lightweight tumble lube RNFP) have all worked well for me in various 1911’s.

I am still experimenting with which one the Glock 21 with KKM shoots best with.

My full sized steel 1911’s get the 230 grain boolits. My alloy framed 1911 gets the lightweight boolits.

[oldsman]

i had good luck with the old 200 swc , and you dont need that hard of an alloy . I use 50 50 mix wheel weight and pure lead with a touch of tin

[h8dirt]

Keep looking. You can shoot these but depending on the load you can unnecessarily beat your gun up.

[44MAG#1]

Keep looking. You can shoot these but depending on the load you can unnecessarily beat your gun up.

What "THESE" are you referring too

[Lost Oki]

Not gone, just been busy trying a few loads with some 200 grain bullets I purchased. Great accuracy out of the 200 gr SWC at 15 yrds, 210gr RFN not as good but has potential. Initially a little problem feeding both (5 rd in 7 rd mag) but added 6th rd and problem stopped. (sounds like I need new mag springs). Have another trip to the range scheduled for today, will post more info.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I tried the HG68 style boolit in my Glock 21 SF and it got wedged between the feed ramp and the chamber wall perfectly every time. I got Lyman 452374 which is the classic .45 ACP boolit. I powder coat mine and they work perfectly. 5.7 gr of W231.

Randy

[h8dirt]

What "THESE" are you referring too

The comment is in response to the OP’s question … so, the ones the OP asked about shooting (which are typically 255 grain 46 Colt bullets)

[Willie T]

OP. The bullets in your pictures are heavier than what is commonly loaded for 45acp and have crimp grooves for a roll crimp. You could make them work but they are not ideal. They suit 45LC. 45acp headspaces off the case mouth and are suited to a taper crimp. 230 grains out of a 1911 are what the 45acp was designed for. Lots of target shooters throttle that back to 200 or even 185 grains. I cast for a pair of 1911’s. A Colt Government and a Springfield mil-spec. I’ve tried lots of molds and loads but I settled on a Lee six cavity 230 grain round nose tumble lube mold. The mold I have is close to perfection for my needs. It consistently drops high quality .4525 diameter Bullets with a soft alloy of 37.5% clip on and 62 1/2% soft lead.
Attachment 302271
Sized to .452 and conventional lubed in my Lube A Matic, I give them a light taper crimp over 5.4 grains of W231 I get reliable function, no leading, and stellar accuracy in a bullet with almost 100% weight retention and good expansion At 45acp velocity.

Willie T

[Kosh75287]

LOST OKI, it's good to see you back! For .45 ACP, it's usually more difficult to find a bullet that does NOT work well, than to find one that does. Same with propellants.
Your 250 gr. projectiles aren't what the .45 ACP was designed for, but they'll surely work. They're at their best on bowling pins & similar targets, and pushing them too fast can be bad for the frame. Mercifully, you need not launch them faster than 750 - 800 f/s to do EVERYTHING you'll ever need them to do. Loaded to 700 f/s, they somewhat duplicate the old .455 Webley revolver round, which had a well-established reputation for fight-stopping, in its day.

[BD]

I have a question concerning cast bullets for the 45 Auto. First let me set the stage before I present my question. I am not a benchrest shooter of the 45 Auto. I shoot offhand standing. While I am not in the "all in one hole offhand group" I am farrrrrrr from a lousy shooter of the 1911 45 Auto. Now with that being declared at the beginning why does the Saeco 058 215 grain bullet, one time known as the "bowling pin bullet" rarely if ever mentioned?
I have 3 Kimbers 3", 4", 5 inch, Springfield 5 inch, 1 Tisas 5 inch and a Tisas 4.25 inch plus 3 Glocks that bullet feeds well in. While it may not shoot with the benchrest accuracy of the H&G 68 or its clones it would take a very, very, very good shooter to see the difference in actual standing on your legs shooting offhand type shooting. Plus it has a .325-.330 inch meplat which should leave a good permanent wound cavity and do well as a self defense bullet plus a good hunting bullet on smaller game if one should want to do that.
What say the experienced on here?

I used the Saeco 058 for bowling pins and varmints for a few years in the early '90s. It was not as accurate as the H&G #68 in my pistols, and it did not fly well out past 75 yards. However, it definitely did better on little critters than the 68. I wanted something better for hunting and more accurate out to 100 yards. That's what led to the BDacp. About the same meplat, (.320 in the original version) better SD and BC and more room in the case. That said the BDacp only makes up about 10% of the .45acps I load and shoot. I'm well over 100,000 #68s through my competition pistol with no complaints at all. I do occasionally sneak a mag or two of warm BDacps in when there's a plate rack or a Texas star in the stage as they will sometimes rattle everything enough that I get some freebie steel to fall At this stage in my life I need all the help I can get.

[AlaskaMike]

I used the Saeco 058 for bowling pins and varmints for a few years in the early '90s. It was not as accurate as the H&G #68 in my pistols, and it did not fly well out past 75 yards. However, it definitely did better on little critters than the 68. I wanted something better for hunting and more accurate out to 100 yards. That's what led to the BDacp. About the same meplat, (.320 in the original version) better SD and BC and more room in the case. That said the BDacp only makes up about 10% of the .45acps I load and shoot. I'm well over 100,000 #68s through my competition pistol with no complaints at all. I do occasionally sneak a mag or two of warm BDacps in when there's a plate rack or a Texas star in the stage as they will sometimes rattle everything enough that I get some freebie steel to fall At this stage in my life I need all the help I can get.

BD, sounds interesting--got any pics of your BDacp bullet?

[15meter]

My favorite is the Redding 062, 2 cavity, .452 diameter, 170 grain truncated cone with a bevel base. One of the first molds I bought.

It shoots and feeds ridiculously well out of my Springfield Armory WWII 1911 clone.

Got a buddy who mooches the mold whenever his supply of boolits runs low. He casts up a thousand or two to tide him over to the next time he needs to mooch the mold. He shoots it in his very nice Kimber and can't see any reason to shoot anything else.

It's alright he mooches it instead of buying his own mold, I've got a couple of dead guy Lyman molds in 6.5 in my shed that have taken up semi-permanent residency that belong to him. He doesn't load any 6.5's and I load 6.5x55, 6.5x52, 6.5x53R and 6.5x54.


Ain't having shooting and casting buddies grand?

[Lost Oki]

Finally got to the range, a cool day (below 95F). Changed powder from Unique to Bullseye. Accuracy for both was good at 15 yrds off rest. 200gr SWC not quite as good as the Unique load (6 grs), RNFP was actually better with the Bullseye. Tried both at 25 yrds, not much difference. I am shooting off a rest with my Colt Compact. Did get a little leading 30 rds but nothing that didn't clean up easily. Probably pushing a little hard for cast, but was looking for best accuracy with most speed. I had ordered a split box of bullets from source so I could try out. Think I will go with the SWC at 200gr., this load will be a little easier on the hand. While out I tried the copper coated bullets I had loaded at 100 yrds. After a few practice shots off the rest to get bullet drop, I could keep them in a 24-30 inch circle. Definitely not a 100 yrd gun.