Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Lee 45 tc tl

I've been casting and powder coating the lee 45 cal 230g TC tumble lube bullet. My mold throws them oversized with my alloy so I'm sizing them ti .452 after powder coat. I loved them over aa#5 and they are plenty fast and group well but aren't completely reliable in my 1911 comander r1 or my xdm full sized threaded barrel. Getting a few stove pipes or tge slide just not quite going all the way to battery.

My Blackhawk convertible shoots them great but there's some resistance the last 1/8" inserting each round to the chamber. I'm using a lee factory crimp die on my last station but it's set to just crimp a little bit. It does have a carbide ring to make sure things aren't too large. I had to seat the bullets pretty deep to pass the plunk test in all guns so I'm not sure I can go deeper. That xdm has been flawless with jacketed loads. Do I need to find a different mold than the tc shape? I'm thinking a good rounded flat nose might feed better.

Bb

BB, I ran into a problem with a 1911 in 10mm just this past weekend and failure to fully chamber the rounds and go into battery was the issue. I'd left a bit of bullet shank exposed, and that was the root cause. I'd seated the same bullet just like that in some .40 S&W loads and my XD gobbles them up, but my 1911 in 10mm don't play dat. I seated those 10mm rounds just a little deeper and now the pistol feeds and chambers them just fine. As long as you're not at max charges already I don't see why you couldn't try the same thing.

Send the barrels to cylinderhone for his 1911 package.
Throats, massages the feed ramp, works the crown over if needed for $75.00.
I just got back a Dan Wesson 1911 barrel that didn’t really like anything .452”. Now it plinks and turns with my H&G 68 loads and will nearly plunk with 230 TC’s (gonna have to go just a touch deeper with that one).
I also sent him my old Kimber barrel for S&G’s, just to see if he made any difference in accuracy (crown looks much better now, even though it always fed everything I threw at it).
Will take both to the range sometime this week.

Try seating a bit deeper till it reliably plunks. Had the same issue with two different 452 Lee molds, 200g swc and rf. Didn’t take much to get them reliable. As I remember blame was the pc thickness and or the slightly different mold design.

My issues were with a s&w 625 and a Springfield 1911. I worked up the loads as I seated deeper to be safe.

I've got them passing the plunk test and a majority of them function fine. It's just the occasional round that hangs up. The mold throws them oversized so I PC and then run them through the push through sizer. I'm wondering if up front just before the bearing surface where the sizer doesn't contact is a bit thick especially after PC.

I'm thinking if I do a round flat nose mold to spec on that steps down .010 or so just ahead of the bearing surface and then starts to round. Wondering if it would feed better and stay off the lands a bit better when loaded out?

The truncated part on this lee 230 seems to snag on the top of the chamber just enough to hang up sometimes. I'll see if I can seat any deaper and drop the charge a bit but I'm about at the end of the bearing surface already. They really group well from my 1911 and Blackhawk. I don't shoot great with the xdm but they do as well as anything else in it.

Bb

Remembering a similar issue with a SW 625. Was using a LEE 200g swc cast. Trouble was some loaded full moon clips would hang up slightly. Not enough to prevent the cylinder to close, but enough to not let it rotate once closed. I had DougGuy from over at castboolits take a look at the cylinder. He noticed some were very slightly out of round and corrected them with a hone. He also chamfered the cylinder’s entry edges for speedier loading with clips. This work helped some but the issue persisted. Tried a few other bullets with various degrees of success. Berry’s plated rn and regular jacketed hardball worked fine. The LEE swc, rf, and Berry’s hp’s still gave occasional issues. My conclusion was the cylinder lead was short and slightly catching the bullet just before it entered the case. Instead of pushing them in further I tried some different cast bullet. Lyman 452460’s worked perfectly as did an RCBS and Saeco 200g SWC. Factory loads always worked perfectly too. I concluded that the profile of the LEE and Berry’s Hps nose taper was too gradual and causing the issue. Still shoot that 625 often with a variety of bullets without issue. Avoid the LEE 200g swc, rf, and Berry’s 200g hp’s in that pistol.

Just my results and opinion. Im certainly no Smith or expert. Hope I’ve explained my situation properly and it’s of some use.

Try seating slightly deeper or some different types of cast/jacketed bullets. Eliminate possible factors. Hope you resolve the issue.

Suggestion: try crimping to .469.

I'll give that a try. I've gone pretty light on the crimp.

Thanks,
Bb