45 Auto Rim

KeithB

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
I like SWCs but IMHO the best all around bullet for a .45 is 225-230 gr truncated cone. They drop into a revolver cylinder with no hang ups, feed in every auto I’ve tried them in, have a flat nose for maximum energy transfer, and the simple shape is easy to cast, even for folks such as me who aren’t master casters like Ben.
 
P

Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
KeithB said:
I like SWCs but IMHO the best all around bullet for a .45 is 225-230 gr truncated cone. They drop into a revolver cylinder with no hang ups, feed in every auto I’ve tried them in, have a flat nose for maximum energy transfer, and the simple shape is easy to cast, even for folks such as me who aren’t master casters like Ben.
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All good points.


The only real difference between a SWC and a truncated cone is the absence of the shoulder on a TC bullet (yeah, I know the SWC profile forward that last shoulder isn't really a cone but it's close enough)
The TC profile is an exceptionally "universal" profile when it comes to semi-auto pistols. They tend to always work, even in finicky pistols.

Having spent a lot of time sending both 230 grain and 200 grain bullets out of 45 ACP pistols, I have to say I’ve developed a bit of a preference for the 200 grain SWC variety. BUT if I was looking for a common bullet to use in both 45 ACP pistols and revolvers; the 230 grain TC type would have a lot of appeal. I like simple logistics and a common bullet is a step towards simplicity.

With a TC profile you give up that last driving band outside the casing, which in a 45 ACP casing is generally seated nearly flush to the case mouth anyway. So, that’s a pretty good compromise and you eliminate that shoulder catching on the rear edge of the chamber in a revolver (which if using speedloaders can be an annoyance).
 
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CZ93X62

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I haven't tried running the #452423 through a self-loader yet. Charles Graff and others have said that it works well in cooperative bottom-feeders; sooner or later I'll give it a show.

My heresies extended some years ago to trying cast bullets in a stock Glock 21 with OEM barrel. At the time this was considered the height of folly. The Glock KB was still uppermost in hobbyist thinking, and the use of handloaded ammunition in Glock pistols was a cardinal sin.

I'm a bit like the late P.J. O'Rourke; I have no trouble discerning Right from Wrong, but can be confused by distinctions between Wrong and Fun. Cast bullets are Fun in one of its more pristine and unsullied forms, and I would be damned if I would let some Austrian obstinance stand in the way of my recreation.

One autumn afternoon I went to one of my desert shooting sites lacking flush toilets and ZIP Code with 4 different cast bullet designs sized @ .452" and .454", a total of 200 rounds. I mixed in 3 OEM magazines randomly during the tests. Not one stoppage resulted in 200 rounds, and that weird bore form didn't lead up with either diameter. The only anomaly I noticed was with the Lee 200 grain SWC/H&G #68 plagiarism; its feed cycle had a little hitch in its get-along, but all 50 of them fed fully--I made sure with a back-tap of the slide at first. An out-of-battery Glock slide is pretty obvious, too. Didn't happen.

Since that stunt work I have run a few casting through my 40 S&W and 10mm Glocks with the Lee TC 175 grain castings. The absence of mushroom clouds and tales of nuclear holocausts in the California deserts should speak eloquently of the unremarkable outcomes. Gen 3 Glock chambers support case heads sufficiently to allow for the use of resized cases IME in the calibers.

I haven't personally tested this heresy in stock 9mm barrels yet, my only available 9mm Glock belongs to a family member that still subscribes to the Gastonesque mantra--NO CASTINGS/NO RELOADS. Her flaunting of the One True Religion is typical; had that girl been born first, she likely would have also been the last of the line. A handful--since she began to walk. Reminds me of me, the miscreant.
 
bruce381

bruce381

Active Member
the Lee 68 and the H+G 68 all jam for me in the glock other than round nose. I do now shoot only the H+G 130 with the semi round nose. I was getting a fail to feed and eject at same time the bullet coming out of the mag would get stuck on the swc rim stuck on the extracting cases rim.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
"...but can be confused by distinctions between Wrong and Fun." I like that! PJ was quite a writer.
 
358156 hp

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
I ran into a thread years ago on the Bullseye Forum about loading SWCs in 45 ACP cases. Their version is somewhat different, at least for some of the older shooters. They seat SWCs, regardless of nose length to .920 from the bottom of the case to the shoulder of the bullet. I tried it, and I liked it, or rather my guns did. I always had misgivings about the different lengths of SWC noses, and people always seeming to use H&G 68 listed seating depth with other designs. I was using dead length seating depths that gave H&G 68s the same OAL as ball ammo, and that doesn't match a lot of the data out there that I've seen so far.
 
CZ93X62

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Petrol & Powder said:
The advice I received for seating the H&G 68 and its clones was to leave about a fingernail's worth of the driving band above the case mouth (probably about .010" ) That has proven to be excellent advice.
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I use .020" on the faux Lee #68 and the Lee TCs in all three autopistol calibers.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
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