Good results with a .45 Caliber Lee 252-SWC mold

I have used many bullet molds to make bullets for shooting in my Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt. After shooting many rounds over the years, I have determined that, for me, the Lee 90356 .45 Cal 242-SWC is the best. It is accurate, casts well, and easy to load. I use 6.0 grains of Titewad; 6.0 of Bullseye is about as good, which gives me 900 FPS. I do not use a Carbide sizer die in this caliber...I use an old RCBS steel sizer die, because it has the correct taper to size a .45 Colt case that fits the tapered cylinder in my Ruger. This requires that I lube cases to size...IMHO it is worth the extra effort. I then clean the sized cases with SS pins that also removes the gunk in primer pockets. Many like the 454190 Lyman bullet in the .45 Colt. I detest the fact that it doesn't have a crimping groove, however ...I did some Chronographing of it and found that it offers low Std deviations and low shot to shot spreads. For it, I use a "crimp by feel", using a .45 ACP TC die. The Lee .45 Cal 255 RF is also a good choice, but I have found the 252 SWC is a tad more accurate. My first .45 caliber mold for the .45 Colt was a 452424 Keith. It is also an excellent choice, however I it uses 5~10% more powder to attain the same velocity as with the others mentioned. Does anyone else find my choice a good one?

That Lee is a 2-grooved clone of the Keith 45 Colt-meant SWC, the #454424, more recent editions being the #452424. To-MAY-to/to-MAH-to. Using better lubes, the HUGE lube grooves that Elmer gave his designs are unnecessary, and in that respect the Lee grooves are an upgrade--unless you are using bear tallow for lube or black powder as propellant. It is easy to see where the "Big Lube" CAS black powder bullets got their inspiration.

The Keith design has always shot well for me if sized to fit the throats of the revolver being fired. My Uberti Cattleman liked its bullets at .452", the Ruger BisHawk likes them at .454", and now the 625-8 will get them at .452". The one attribute of these bullets that surprised me at first was their shortness relative to their width--they have a "squatty" look to them that ad copy/sketches don't show accurately.

I have one of those but never cast with it. What I did was have Accurate Molds make me a 454190 at .4525" but with a crimp groove in the correct place for SAA cylinders and standard load data internal volume.

For every hundred people who swear two lube grooves are better than one there are another hundred who swear an single groove is better and the same situation with radius grooves vs square and SWC shoulder vs RFN or flat base is better than bevel base or linotype alloy is better than wheelweights and so on. Bottom line is try them all and use what works best for YOU.

Wally I ran it for a while . Then I got the carbine I'd been lusting over for 7-8 years well the general base anyway . It wouldn't shoot past 50 yd in it . I did figure that out after the 252 went away .
I had a 454424 round groove single and stepped it up to the NOE version in a 5 cavity .
I have the RNFP Lee 255 in a 6 C that replaced the well used 2 C old style .
And ,
45-200
#130 H&G 196 SWC
452-200 Lee
454484 , 230 GC
457-201 Rapine that casts 458-250
453-350 Mountain Molds RNFP
I share them across 45 ACP , S&W , Colts , 45 Raptor and sometimes patch a few up for 45-70 which adds 4-5 more moulds that could be resized for the Raptor .

Mine has shot very well in everything I have

I just finished sizing 100 each of #452460 and #454424 @ .452". Final assembly manana.

I have strayed but always come back to the ol 454424. I have a 452424 but mine has smaller meplat and different grooves. I like my 454 best of all.
CW

It is a good choice as well....I still use it. However I am a rare breed of casters that find using a Lee DC mold is much more comfortable.

Love the Lee 452 252 swc loaded in 45 acp with 800-x for my convertible blackhawk, runs at 853fps out of 4 5/8 barrel

Looks like my 45 AR cases!! I like that look and in the rimmed case just a nice thing in a recolver!
CW

This bullets looks very interesting. But i am interested in using it in my 450 BM. Nice lg. flat point to cause tissue damage.

I also have a 240 grain .45 Cal Lee WC mold....not much difference between it and the Lee 252 SWC or the Lyman 452424 when it come to hitting power.

Kevin Stenberg said:

This bullets looks very interesting. But i am interested in using it in my 450 BM. Nice lg. flat point to cause tissue damage.

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I haven't been able to get the 252 to group well out of my Rossi 92. Your 450 might like these better, I dunno. But the Rossi loves them, left to right Lee 255 wfn, Lee 300 wfngc, Lee 340 rf (45-70 sized .454)

Damn man, that is some serious crimp

That may be the most crimp that I've ever seen on a pistol round.

Brad said:

Damn man, that is some serious crimp

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It's from a modified Lee collet crimp die.

I don't have a carbine in the .45 Colt caliber; I would guess that the Lee RNF would work better in one as it is self-centering.

I bet you don’t get to many loadings out of brass crimped like that.

Will said:

I bet you don’t get to many loadings out of brass crimped like that.

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Haven't had any split yet due to that crimp in new jagemann brass after about 5 or 6 loadings, seems to iron out just fine. I've also used my older starline and federal cases that have about 20 or so reloads on em, but those have been splitting here and there no matter what crimp I use. I have about 100 or so that have split and all they saw was a fcd. I trim them to 1.11 and use Schofield load data

It's pretty much a spitting image of a buffalo bore crimp