180 grain swc in 45 colt

D

DukeConnor

New member
I recently aquired many thousands of 180 grain lead SWC in .452. Guy just said take them, i'm done with 45. Ive run a few through the 1911 and am thinking of loading some for my S&W 25, 45 colt with 6" barrel.. I'm aware of the large throat issue on some of these. Mine slugs at .453.

Not alot of load info on 180 swc's in my books or the net. W231 is my go to powder and I am looking for any experience with this combo. Load will be for paper punching not hunting, so I am looking for accuarcy. Any help or experience will be appreciated. I got alot of these to use up. Thanks.
 
Well, the short answer is there is a reason the guy may have given them to you.

The longer answer is, the only 180 grain load I could find was for a lead 180 hollow point in my Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook under 45 Automatic.

There is a 160 grain listed under 45 Colt and a 200 as well, both have data for 231.

Depending on your skill level, one could interpolate a load based on those and use that as a starting point but since your barrel is too big for these bullets anyways, I would either melt them and reuse the lead, or just shoot them in your 45 Automatic for which they are designed.
 
There is data on the Hodgdon website.
http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol

Min of 6.0 gr, max of 8.2 gr of 231 powder with a 180 gr LRN @ 1.540"

You'll have to seat the SWC on the front edge of the bullet if it does not have a groove, and roll crimp it in place, which will be a shorter OAL than the above data, so start on the low end of the data.
 
Thanks for the help. I played around with a few test bullets last night. I really don't like the way they seat and look in the cases. On final count I have over 7000 of these.
I will probably just keep them for the 1911's and go a different route for the 45 colt loads. The upside is I am set for the 45 acp for quite awhile.
 
If I were in this situation, since I don't even have a 1911, I would take those nice little pellets and feed them into the melting pot, then cast them into proper 255 grain bullets for 45 Colt.;)

P. S. That many bullets could potentially make over 5,000 bullets @ 255 grains. If I had a 1911 like you do, and also something in 45 Colt, I would use some as is, and remelt others as needed. That's a lot of lead and a very nice gift you received.:)
 
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