45 acp reloading

[hillbill]

my son is saveing for one of the new ruger 1911 pistols. we plan to reload for it. i also have a argentine colt from the 50's that is a very nice gun. my delimma is this,ive reloaded a lot of straight wall pistol cases and also tons of bottleneck rifle cases.but ive never reloaded a rimless case that head spaces on the case mouth.i plan to do a lot of research before i do, but my question is what has been yu guys experience loading the 45acp and 9mm?anything i need to look for?im looking to load with home cast 230 grn lee tl and prob red dot.prob a mid range plinking load.any advice from yu guys would be appreciated!

[Savage]

Be sure to buy taper crimp dies, and adjust as per the instructions that accompany the dies and all will likely be well. It's a good idea to get a chamber gauge to check loaded rounds to insure function. Or you can remove the barrel from the pistol and chamber check your reloads using the barrel as a gauge. Red Dot is a good powder for the .45 acp, as is Bullseye or Unique. Enjoy the old warhorse!
Savage

[nicholst55]

The .45 ACP is a pretty forgiving cartridge as far as reloads go.  Get the die set that has the taper crimp feature as stated above, and you should be good to go.  Lots of powders work well in .45 ACP, so you should be able to find something suitable locally.  Some guns may be a bit finicky about OAL of the reloaded cartridges, but that's easy enough to fix.  Use good quality magazines, and you shouldn't have much trouble.

I've loaded thousands of rounds of .45 ACP over the years, and I find it a very enjoyable cartridge to load for and shoot.

[Bigeasy]

As others have said, use a taper crimp.  You may have to flare your case mouths slightly to seat your bullets, and that's ok, just crimp them back to normal, but don't try to form a roll crimp, even if the bullet has a crimping grove, as that will mess up your headspacing.  The .45acp seems to be a pretty forgiving round to load for, and does not seem as picky as to accuracy and function as some 9mm's I have loaded for.

Larry

[SteveHawaii]

I've only reloaded the .45 ACP for less than a year now, so I'm not exactly an expert here.  Anyway, what I've been using is 5.5g of Winchester 231 powder under a 230g RN bullet.  Seems to work pretty good.  I've also tried 5.9g of W231 under a 185g Nosler JHP bullet.  That works real good.  I'm shooting a Sig P220.  I've also found that the cases clean up much better in my ultrasonic cleaner, compared to bottle nosed rifle cases.

[hillbill]

well thank you guys for the advice!sounds like it wont be too problamatic.ill be sure and go for the taper crimp dies.i have some range pick up brass i may start out with. do i need to trim it all to the same length before i start?id think the taper crimp would be more forgiving of diff case lengths?

[HAMMERHEAD]

No need to trim pistol brass.
The one thing I would recommend for loading auto pistol cases is to use the absolute minimum of flare on the case mouth.
Yes, the taper crimp is more forgiving. I set it up so the longest cases crimp just .002"-.003" and the shorter ones just get returned to straight.
Bullet tension does more to prevent bullet set back than does the crimp.

[Cheesehead]

i also use Red Dot and home cast 230's dropped from a Lee 6 gang truncated mold with good results.

Cheese

[GH1]

I've not loaded  .45 ACP but I've loaded a BUNCH of .380 ACP, and it's pretty easy. Get yourself a three piece , carbide die set and have a ball. As long as you pay attention to OAL and follow the reloading recipe you'll be fine. I use cast RN im my .380's with great success.
GH1

[noylj]

1) .45 Auto is the easiest cartridge to reload.
2) If possible, separate seating from crimping
3) Crimping is just to remove the case mouth flare/bell and NOT to crimp the case into the bullet
4) Stick with fast powders for accuracy
5) I prefer 185-200gn bullets to 230gn
6) Start with real jacketed. Buy from Montana Gold, Precision Delta, or Zero (Roze Distribution or Powder Valley). Don't waste your money on plated bullets. The above jacketed are superior and cost the same.
7) Before trying any lead bullets, slug your barrel and be sure your lead bullets are at least 0.001" larger than groove diameter.
Best accuracy is generally with AA2, Bullseye, or Red Dot.
9) 9x19 can be tricky to reload (case taper, very small case, very high pressure spikes if there is any bullet set-back into the case, barrels that range from a groove diameter of 0.355" to 0.362"). Don't be afraid to use 0.356-0.358" jacketed bullets depending on the groove diameter of the barrel.
10) measure the length of all sized cases and save the few that are within 0.005" of the max length. These will generally produce the best accuracy. Use the shorter ones for generally shooting and training.
11) case prep consists of at least wiping off the outside of the case and inspecting for crack in the case and at the case mouth. Anything beyond that is due to reloader's need to "do something."
12) Use data from reputable reloading manuals. Check several and start with the lowest starting load from the various manuals.
13) Buy Lyman #49, at a minimum. Speer, Hornady, or Sierra manuals if you want. Richard Lee's Modern Reloading has the most loads, being a compendium from many other reloading manuals.
14) Unique is probably the most "useful" powder for almost any handgun, but some people can't stand how "dirty" it is or they can't get it to measure well. It is very forgiving and the target shows no effect of a +/- 0.2gn charge variance. AA5 is also excellent in my guns and meters superbly.
15) Learn how to determine the COL that works best in your gun(s) and remember the COL in loading manuals is always a minimum that you should not go below without knocking off several 1/10ths of a grain.

[cybin]

I started loading .45 and 9mm this past winter--(been reloading for over 40 years-but other calibers) I expected a few problems--only problem I had was with 185 grain wad cutters in .45---I wasn't seating them deep enough--other than that--peice of cake. Enjoy.
 
cybin

[av-doctor]

i use green dot for my cast loads 4.0gr 230gr LRN,crimp enough to remove the bell,i seat mine to mag lenght then go deeper by .010 till they feed reliably soon as you can rack a full mag through by hand with no misfeeds your done

[Land_Owner]

15) Learn how to determine the COL that works best in your gun(s) and remember the COL in loading manuals is always a minimum that you should not go below without knocking off several 1/10ths of a grain.

The Lyman Cast Bullet Manual (among many) say a maximum C.O.L. of 1.275".  Some resources indicate that 1.260" is "to specification" for the 45 ACP.  I find that the magazines for my Colt Defender without binding will only accept Lyman 180 grain cast Devastator Hollow Points at a C.O.L. of 1.250".  I am loading IMR 700X, a fast burning shotgun powder within the mid-range of recommended charge weight and the slight reduction in case volume due to seating the bullet base deeper (see quote above) remains below the maximum powder weight.  The round is quite energetic.

[shot1]

Get you a set of Lee Carbide dies with the Factory Crimp Die. The Lee seater die in 45 ACP has a taper crimp built into it but the Factory Crimp Die is really great. It will give the cartridge a factory profile and has turned my 45 ACP loading into ZERO malfunctions. Pay attention to the cases you use with Jacketed bullets. Some like Remington are a bit thinner than say Winchester and don't grip the .541 diameter jacketed bullets really well but will do fine with the cast bullets that are .452 diameter. I have probably shot a truck load of Bullseye and Unique in a 45 ACP mainly with 200 gr SWC. I used to kill quite a few deer with a 200 gr SWC and 7 grs Unique. It will put a 45 cal. hole through their lungs about every time 50 yards and under.