Handloading 45 acp

[DaleA]

Yeah, wheel weights...and don't forget linotype although that might be a little before most folks time here...when all 'modern' newspapers went to offset printing my local newspaper saw a bargain in all the hot type equipment being sold off and stayed with that technology much longer than other newspapers.

I never thought much about it but I suppose with all the big daily newspapers moving away from hot type that maybe put a glut of lead out on the market back then.

(You don't see it today...check out this ad for 7 1/2 lead shot...$190 for two 25 pound bags. My father, a trap shooter, would be rolling in his grave.)

https://www.amazon.com/Magnum-Lead-...d=1655852652&sprefix=lead+shot,aps,534&sr=8-3

 

[dahermit]

Wheel weights, bearing and babbit metal and some others can be used for many shooting applications, as it (for alloy content) and Lyman has extensive information available in the manual and books about alloying such sources for specific applications.

There is much less relevance in regard to blending specific alloys now that the source for such raw materials has all but dried up. In short, lead of any kind is getting very hard to find with prices skyrocketing (a Facebook Marketplace search for lead shows lead offered at $2.00 per pound). What once I found in junk yards, they will no longer sell to a private party. Radioactive Isotope medicine containers were once free for the asking but now are returned to the shipper for reuse.

 

[101combatvet]

Planning to to use faster powers for this loading. Do I need to worry about leading? I will be using HS6, Bullseye, Unique and Clay's. Probably a 200 grain swc at least at first.

I've shot thousands of lead cast bullets, and you always get some leading.

 

[totaldla]

With the last lead smelter in the U.S. closed down, less availability of lead alloys (type metals, bearings, wheel weights, etc.), I have scrounged any available lead whatsoever, with no consideration to alloy hardness. In short, if I can get it, I cast it and shoot it including in the .45 ACP. With such lack of concern for hardness, I have found that powder coating in combination of the .45 ACP being an easy round to handload, leading has never been a problem despite using fast or slow powders.

Why no shoulder?

 

[dahermit]

Why no shoulder?

The powder coating was a little heavy on that batch. The shoulder is there, but hard to see. Other than that, I do not need a shoulder inasmuch as all my bullets are shot at steel plates, not paper... don't care they would not cut a sharp hole in a paper target.

 

[Unclenick]

The leading issue in 45 Auto came to a great extent from the fact 1911 tolerances allow a good portion of guns to headspace on the extractor hook, the rim reaching it before the case mouth reaches the end of the chamber. When this happens, the firing pin force pivots the front of the cartridge toward the extractor side of the chamber, so the bullet leaves while shaving lead by scraping against the end of the chamber that the case mouth is supposed to be resting on. Because 45 Auto brass shortens around half a thousandth per load cycle, if you reload your cases many times, even if they headspaced as designed when new, eventually that will stop. Loading as I described, to headspace on the bullet, that stops. You get less leading and better bullet symmetry for better accuracy.

I don't know whether the polymer coatings will prevent the scraping problem or not. I haven't trie the experiment, but I will at some point. Jacketed bullets were not affected by it that I could ever tell, because they are hard enough not to be shaved appreciably and can therefore line themselves back up when they arrive at the throat.

 

[mudlark]

Linker,

SA mil spec 1911. Lee 200gr SWC tumble lubed home cast bullet (wheel weights), sized to .452. 4.5 gr Red Dot.

Excellent results with this combination.

Red Dot is up there with the fast ones and I get zero to sometimes extremely minimal leading just ahead of the chamber. When I do, soak, set aside, swab. I've given up vigorous brushing in my old age.

Use the powder/bullet combination that gets you the groups you want. Don't get in a funk over a bit of leading. Remove what you can and keep the bore coated with a light coat of oil till next use.

This all said, my humble opinion is that a properly sized bullet is the best way to avoid leading.

 

[MSD Mike]

Interestingly, I almost always get leading with commercially cast bullets. And yes they are properly sized. Home cast with COWW and tumble or traditional lube and leading is always minimal. Powder coating always eliminates it completely, even with dead soft SOWW’s.
For what it’s worth, a 200 Gr. SWC is always my most accurate 45ACP load. 1911 or revolver.

Mike

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

I get a bit of leading from non-powdercoated bullets. it brushes out.