Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 45 acp guru's chime in please

I'm new to reloading 45 ACP ammunition. A couple of weeks back I bought a new FN FNX 45 ACP Tactical, and the pistol runs awesome with factory ammo with zero issues.

Half of my reloads suck however. Failure to feed and/or eject.

I'm shooting Berry's 230gr FMJ's, Remington 230gr MC bullets as of now. I'm loading these all with Vihtavuori N310 powder. 4gr charge to be exact. Federal 150 primer.

I think my issue is crimping, or lack there of, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Like I said, I'm new to pistol reloading.

Also, I'm using RCBS dies. With the 4gr powder charge, the pistol recoils hardly at all it seems when shooting the 230gr bullets.

Are my loads too weak or what? Not enough power to let the slide go back all the way?

Is the slide locking back after the last round?
Every time I've run too light a powder charge the slide won't lock back on the last round.
I won't crimp with the seating die at all for the 45 acp ,screw the seating die out more so it doesn't crimp and screw down the seating plug to get the right oal.
Use a lee crimp die and just crimp enough to take out the flare and chamber smooth.

Make sure to full length resize, make sure your die is adjusted correctly? Lee Carbides Dies and Lee Crimp Die is what I started with and continue to use. Make sure it it adjusted correctly as well. Check your powder charge also? I don't use Viht powders but would recommend working up a little more load if you have not exceeded recommended max loading per the reloading manual? Do not exceed the recommended Max!! Check your COAl as well. WSF or WST are common powders for the 45ACP.

I want to say the slide locks back only 50% of the time, maybe less. Thanks for bringing that up as I forgot to add that in my original post.

The way I went about "crimping", I was backing the seater stem back a few turns and just screwing down the die body down onto the bullet until I couldn't turn the die body down anymore with my fingers. I was just going off the directions that RCBS supplied with the die set.

4.2 is the max charge and I loaded a few of them up and had the same problem.

My coal is right around 1.620

Sound like you need a taper crimping die. You don't want to roll crimp 45 ACP because the case headspaces on the mouth.
35WN

I would definitely try crimping with a Lee Crimp die. It definitely improved the functioning of my reloads.

it's evident the gun is no dang good


since I like you I'll give you $300 for it


good luck Mark, hope you get er figgered out....and you will

would like to see a pic of that .45 if it ain't too much trouble

Sounds to me as if you aren't generating enough recoil. I'd bet the farm on it.

I took a look at my VV manual, looks like 4.2 gr of N310 only gives 770 fps. Find a slower burning powder, HP38/231, Unique, Universal, Herco, Power Pistol, WSF and probably 20 others will allow you to get close to the 830 - 850 fps that is the GI standard for the .45 ACP.

I'd also give them a slight taper crimp. If your RCBS dies were made in the last 30 years they should do taper, not roll so use them, just adjust the crimp die down a bit more. If that fails, buy a Lee die, they do indeed work well.

Certainly not a guru, and I might be misunderstanding, but the Coal for .45ACP should be 1.23-1.25, I think? My 1911 prefers them a bit short, nearer to 1.230. 1.6 is the length for a .45LC.

This ^^^^^^ (in addition to getting enough umph in your loads to consistently run the slide back to slide lock.) Get a taper crimp die and crimp your loads to a specific dimension across the case mouth (without looking, I think I crimp my .45's to .470 or .471, somewhere around there.)

Good pickup! That could be a major reason.

For sure!

Spring could also need loosening since it is new but the COAL is wrong from the sounds of it, that may be the issue and get a different crimp die.

Better measure that OAL again.

Your loads are NOT 1.620"

C.O.A.L. varies greatly depending on the shape of the bullet. As such there is no "one size fits all" o.a.l. for the 45 ACP. Of far greater importance is how much bullet is IN the case, rather than how much is OUT.

Use the c.o.a.l. dictated by the bullet manufacturer.

35 WN

Sherloch -- It Ain't 1.620" for a 45 ACP

thanks Dan


that's some star wars uber cool lookin hardware right there!

Sorry guys, the COAL is 1.260, had it backwards.