Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns reloading 45ACP - I have a problem

Loading 45ACP with a single stage press using Lee dies, including a Lee FCD.

So, first time loading for the new 1911 (RIA). I am loading 185gr Speer GDHP. I loaded them to OAL of 1.265 (.01 under max) to start with and found that they were hanging in both of the magazines I have. when I say they hang I mean I can't load 2 rounds in the mag without the first one getting stuck. So I seated the bullet to 1.250 and that fixed the magazine problem, but as soon as tried releasing the slide catch on a loaded mag, the top round jammed against the front of the mag well. I freed it and the second round fed, but I ejected it and found the bullet was now seated to 1.230. I cycled the rest of the rounds in the magazine by pulling back the slide and letting it slam the next round forward. Every round was seated .02 to .03" deeper than when I loaded them.

Now, I should say I've loaded lots of 9mm with Lee dies and a Lee FCD without ever having a problem, but I'll admit I've never measured a round of 9 before and after they have been cycled. I've never had a FTF with either 9 I reload for so it's never been an issue.

I read and reread the instructions for setting the FCD. I've set the crimp down a full 1 1/2 turns which SHOULD give me a pretty serious crimp, but apparently not enough to keep the bullets from getting shoved back in the case.

What an I doing wrong here? I realize some of it may be the design of the feed ramp on the gun vs shape of the bullet, but is there something else I'm missing? I've run 200+ rounds of Win white box 230 FMJ through the gun without a problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Put a good chamfer inside and out on your brass and use a medium pressure taper crimp, i have had to seat to 1.200 in some 45 ACP's to get repeat reliability.

Gunner

Oh yeah, the gold dots have a pretty big meplat, one pistol would not feed them, I switched to the XTP in the same weight and the problem went away.

Gunner

Your expander plug may need to be turned down to .446 dia or smaller, to get a tight bullet fit in the case. A tight crimp can not replace a tight fit.

I prefer the Redding dies, especially the Competition Seating Die, to get a good accurate seating of the bullet. Then I firmly taper crimp.

Hollowpoint .45's I would wager you need a OAL of 1.200 to 1.230" to get it to work well.

Have you checked one of your loaded rounds in the chamber of your pistol? If not take the barrel out, drop a loaded round in and see if the base of the case sticks up above the barrel hood. If it does then the lead in the barrel is too short for the ojive of your bullet.

The lengths of cartridges in the loading manuals are only suggestions//recommended starting points. Each one is going to be different.

Bob

Back off your FCD. You are putting too much crimp which is expanding your case neck.

The purpose of the crimp with 45acp is to smooth out the case edge for better feeding.

Neck tension is the only thing holding your bullet. After you reduce your FCD to where it just smooths things out, then try the chambering test again. If you are still getting bullet setback then you might look into a couple thou smaller sizing die.

What's an FCD? Does every die maker have one?

Not trying to be smart thinking of rolling my own .45 Auto.

It is a Factory Crimp Die. I use the standard seating & crimp die from Lee and have had zero problems with my loads.

What TLee said except I use one. It full length resizes and crimps. It irons out any bulges from seating and crimping. In my case I am using bullets cast from a Lee tumble lube die and not sizing them. The FCD makes sure those bullets will not prevent the cast bullet from interfering with chambering. It is worth the extra step on my case.

Thanks guys.

As I think about it it seems logical that making up a dummy case and bullet that will fit the barrel and magazine for a given bullet seems the way to go for OAL. It seems logical that if one case bullet fits the barrel and magazine that all cases with the same bullet should also fit. I don't know if I'm explaining myself here properly.

I understood. Don't know if that make it out that you were clear in your statement of than I equally warped.

Load some heavier bullets and I'd bet you would fix problem.

What do you load for, precision or to save a buck?

I plan to load for precision and a hunting load for predators and varmints which hopefully will include pigs in the future.

Speaking of pigs I see Washington has pigs. Are the pigs classified as big game or varmints?

Yes.

I cast and load my own so that I can afford to shoot and to try to improve my accuracy. I think, don't know for sure but think my hard lead truncated cone bullets do a better job on both bowling pins and for hunting than conventional round nose.

I do not believe we have feral pigs in my part of WA. Probably in Central or Eastern WA. Have not looked into hunting them but would love to give it a try.

Did it once in Texas. It would have been a lot more successful in bringing home the meat if my friend and I had bothered to carry a gun. Would have been easier on the old heart too but that is a story for another day.

The Lee Factory Crimp Die is a "better mousetrap", i.e. better design. I use it on 45-70, 30-30, 270W and 44mag. The rifle versions use a collet that pinches into the brass. The 44 mag version uses a modified version of a roll crimp. I've never used anything that can crimp as hard as the FCD without regard to brass length. It is truly a better design.

The Lee FCD can easily apply too much crimp. You can also overcrimp with some other crimp dies. The excessive crimp can actually undo some of what the sizing die did and your bullet will slip.

Some jacketed bullets are a little small for the sizing die (185gr XTPs were .4505"). You don't hear much about setback with cast bullets because they are almost always .452". You might have to go a bit smaller with the resizing for best results. But first, ease up on the FCD. The 45acp works best with a noticeable taper crimp, but you don't want to over do it.

Nice to know there's hogs in Eastern Washington. Might have to put that on the bucket list and look into that in the future.

Thanks for clearing that up. I haven't decided what dies I'm going to go with yet. I've got to take an inventory of what I got and what I need.

To the OP: I hope I don't sound too simple, but after you seated your rounds to 1.250" did you actually SHOOT loaded rounds? Hand feeding dummies doesn't always produce the same results as shooting the loaded ammo. From my experience, boolits being seated slightly deeper in 1911's during the feed cycle is not abnormal. BTW, I also have an RIA 1911 and OAL of loaded rounds with certain boolit profiles is fairly critical. 225 gr. TC lead boolits feed like butter. This was a pleasant surprise.

It can be kind of tricky so I think it is best to pick one bullet and adjust the die for it then stick with that bullet.
Unless you like having feeding problems.

I had a chance to play with this some more today. I started from scratch and set my expander so it JUST opened the case mouth enough to allow bullets to be seated without crushing the case. I set the bullets to 1.215 and then used the FCD set at 1/2 turn per the instructions.

first 2 rounds I tried feeding into the chamber got stuck against the feed ramp like this.



I tried it with both mags that I have and got the same result. It also pushed the bullet back into the case to between 1.18 and 1.19.

The rounds seem to go into battery and cycle OK if I keep 5 or less in the mag, but obviously that's not acceptable. So, any other suggestions?