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From several thousands of rounds of testing, a 230 grain at 725 fps is faster shot to shot than a 200 grain at 800+. The gun stays down and is less snappy.

Rules written at different times by different persons? Perhaps influenced by their "home range" safety rules that they are familiar with? And perhaps because shot size is hardly important to shooting 10 yard steel knockdown targets. I have seen several WB shooters not be handicapped at all shooting #9 shot. And I shoot #8 all the time. As to exactly WHY in any of the SASS rules, perhaps developed 25 years ago and modified since then, it is almost impossible for most of us to have a real clue. But it's not like we really NEED to know WHY to play the game. Learn the rules, follow the rules - for the game you are playing. But, if you think the two rules need to be "harmonized" (made the same), suggest that to your local Territorial Governor and see if they want to "pick that hill to die on." good luck, GJ

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The short throat in a 1911 barrel catches a lot of new loaders of .45 AUTO by surprise, as they load a few hundred, go to the range, and find every one of the loads fails to go the last 1/8" into battery. Some keys to loading so they will feed well in your gun: 1 - the point on the nose where the upper end of the cylindrical section of the bullet (the shank) STARTS to narrow down (round over) to the nose ogive is the place where the case mouth should be placed during seating. If you crimp down on the shank, the nose will jam into the short throat of the barrel and round will not go fully into chamber. If you crimp out on the ogive of the bullet, you will have collapsed bullets during hard feeding. Remember that there is NO standard nose length on cast .45 AUTO bullets, because there have been hundreds of molds made to cast these slugs over the years. Regardless of what a manual may state. So, don't load to the published OAL, load to put the case mouth at the start of the ogive turn-in. 2 - apply a taper crimp that just returns the case mouth to 0.472", measured with a caliper. You are only straightening out the case from where you expanded the mouth, and just barely catching the surface of the bullet with the inside edge of the case mouth. Looking down from on top of loaded rounds, you should still see a bright ring of brass all the way around the bullet. The case mouth is the headspace location, so if you "bury" the brass case wall all the way into the bullet during crimping, the headspace mechanism is removed and rounds can chamber too deep to fire. 3 - get a loaded round checking gauge, and check EACH cartridge to make sure it chambers perfectly. Several companies make them, including Dillon and Wilson (the trimmer guys, not the gun guys, unless Bill Wilson just happens to be making them now, too). Yes, you can take the barrel out of your 1911 and drop rounds into the chamber, but it will "get old" breaking down your pistol every time you load a batch of ammo. 4 - good on you for bulge busting your "range" cases. But if a round fails the chamber check from step 3, the first thing to try is to bulge-bust that LOADED round. I've busted thousands of loaded rounds and never had a discharge. Second thing to do if you fail chamber-check is to look at the mouth of the case and find any lead finger-nails that "squirted out" during crimping. Depending upon the quality of bullet and your ability to squarely seat a bullet, you may or may not find a sliver of lead needing to be trimmed off the round. Those 2 corrections will almost always get the round to pass chamber-checking. 5 - chrono check and calculate Power Factor yourself. Not every 1911 will shoot a load from the manual at the velocity that the book shows! Sounds like you are well on the way to making great ammo. good luck, GJ

In 15 years of building Wild Bunch guns, anything less than 16# give trouble; not returning to battery, not enough force to fully chamber with a full magazine, broken firing pin springs(which lead to firing pin stops falling out), etc… 16-17# have never failed to cycle fully. Never seen a dip when the slide closed. And this is with a lot of one handed shooters of the weaker persuasion. Seen plenty of dip when some jerk the trigger. Poor videography but this is with a 230 gr at 720-725 with 17# recoil and hammer springs. IMG_0973.mov

And if you are foolish enough to go down to the 12 1/2# recoil spring, stock up on firing pin springs. You will start breaking them. Remember, if you speed up the slide in opening, you will slow its closing velocity. And vice versa. With a 230 at 725, a 16-17# spring combo is just about perfect.

The benefit to a lighter weight bullet is to get more slide speed at the same power factor. 150 pf is pretty low for 45 Auto. I am going to try some 200 grain bullets this year for that same reason. I have had much better luck with round nose bullets in my 1911s, so if my 200 grain SWCs don't have the reliability I'm hoping for, I will be shooting a true 230 grain round nose bullet, which is historically what I've shot in Wild Bunch. I am going to be backing them down a bit as the ammunition I was shooting last year was loaded to ~170 pf. I had backed it down some from my typical load but I'm going to lighter springs and a significantly lighter load this year and dropping down to a 12.5 pound recoil spring. If you're shooting a stock 1911 with a 23 pound main and 16 pound recoil spring, you're going to want to load to a higher power factor, as the 1911 is designed for 195 power factor ammunition. I recommend the fastest powder you have in inventory, in this case, Titegroup, although many people say not to use it with coated bullets. I have not ever loaded Titegroup in anything so take this advice for what you paid for it. I was using Clays powder last year, I may continue to do that if I have enough left or switch to Clean Shot or WST.

Great advice above! I would also add, only load a few rounds, then test them in your gun. If all cycle well, THEN go back and mass produce. The last thing you want is 500+ rounds loaded and realize you have a problem in that particular 1911 and have to start pulling bullets. I have a new custom 1911 that simply won't cycle the ammo I use for my older 1911's. Totes

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Thanks Joe. I’m hoping to use my Lee combination seat/taper crimp die so I can use my bullet feeder. I’ll futz with it some more this weekend.

My load….. my projectile..4520-.4525” 225-229grn cast, PC’d. two groups of dummy rounds. Both groups plunk and manually feed Group A OAL is 1.168” ; 0.473” case mouth. Looks like maybe too much crimp? or Group B OAL 1.178 case-mouth 0.4755 Thoughts?

Not really. Can't think of anything I need.

Your Ruger should feed either of those bullets with no problem, they both have a nice shape to them. Good magazines are a must for any 1911, the Ruger factory ones are good, MecGars, Wilson's [the best but expensive] . KimPro mags are good but avoid the basic Kimber ones.

Thanks Joe, this is great info!

It seems to me that, apart from deliberately choosing to wear a hair shirt, or perhaps as an exercise in willy-waving, if there is no reward/penalty for shooting Classic v. Modern, that Classic shooters are needlessly handicapping themselves with the use of larger bore rifles. I know that I am faster with a .38 than a .45 rifle. While that may be just me, in the consideration for the overall finish, I will have to consider that, moving forward. Great match, and a lot of fun! Cheers, FJT

I looked at the overall and the top cowboys and top cowboys. 8 classic shooters in the top 20 for men and 11 in the top 20 for the ladies. That doesn't appear to have made much difference, but it remains to be seen with more data.

Like Joe, I got rid of questionable brass years ago. With Wild Bunch loads, you should never have to worry about loose primer pockets. You’ll crush brass or lose it before primer pockets get loose.

I tossed out all my .45 auto brass that had a military head stamp before 1990, and commercial head stamps with the lettering almost smashed level from recoil. Because several of the old (1960 and 1970s) brass cases were splitting upon reloading or firing. Since brass recycling gets me almost half the price of new brass back, it was not all that painful. But never have I seen a primer pocket enlarge enough to start spitting out primers. Which is what I would guess the OP is worried about. good luck, GJ

Man I really like this rig!!!

Now if they colored the brass, say purple, when they had small primers - that would be fine 🙂