Tall John

CLAYS? Yeah like it’s readily available… I have: TITEWad, TrailBoss, Titegroup, W231, CFE P, HS6, N320. Not real interested in adding yet another powder.

Chapo, it seems you are correct about my assumptions from last night! I spent the afternoon at the range again and frankly, now I think the main problem is Limp Wrist syndrome. today, both handguns locked up on me multiple times using my reloads. But Wait it happened again when I used the commercial rounds and I noticed a more significant muzzle flip. As I’ve said in earlier posts, the 1911 is a brand new platform for me and getting data on my reloads led me to use a pistol rest such that I could position my Athlon chrono right under the muzzle. So I reloaded all of the bad rounds into a mag and assumed the correct position and my Ruger and then my Taurus ate every round and 150 more without another issue. As such, I apparently wasn’t necessarily supporting the pistol properly and noticed how much my wrist was flexing with the heavier recoil from the commercial loadsIt seems that this recoil operated monster can’t handle a limp wrist

Chapo, I also 100% case check all of my reloads as well with different checkers (Armanov, Lyman, EGW, Bear Metal Design, etc). depending upon the caliber. As mentioned previously I ALSO chamber checked 100% of the rounds used in my testing. in the end, I believe that the combination of the bullet shape, imperfections in my PC finish, insufficient crimp and lack of proper lubrication of my Taurus PT1911 and my Ruger SR1911 being brand new and not fully broken in all were-contributing factors. my next range day will be dedicated to putting a bunch of OEM fMJ ammo through the Ruger to limber it up.

I cleaned & lubed, and polished the feed ramp of my Taurus PT1911 and loaded up another 24 rounds with an added 1/4 turn of crimp and I had zero problems! 3.7 grns of TiteGroup under my Home cast/PC’d MP mould 227gr RNFP NLG .452 sized bullets with WRE LP primers. 740fps, 168PF, STD Dev 11.4 MAXXTECH 230grn FMJ 769fps, 176PF, std dev 25.0 I’ll take the Ruger SR1911 out next time now that the FEDEX guy showed up…. (Note I ordered 2! 🤪)

could the fact that the bullets were sized to .4520-.4525” vs .4510-.4515” be the issue? I did not notice any grooves on the failed rounds but will look when it happens again. I’ll have to pay closer attention to the slide position but there was nothing noticeably different between shots. I’ll try giving it a tap.the guns are new to me. The Sr1911 is brand new and came straight from Ruger to my FFL in March with less than 100 rounds thru it. Not sure the age of the Taurus but it’s slide is way easier to rack than the Ruger. the guns are new to me. The Sr1911 is brand new and came straight from Ruger to my FFL in March with less than 100 rounds thru it. Not sure the age of the Taurus but it’s slide is way easier to rack than the Ruger. these rounds’ OAL are 1.185-1.190”, well below max. 100% chamber/case checked in a 100 round case checker. 100% plunk tested using the bbl from the SR1911 Yes it is range brass that was wet tumbled with pins & chips, separated by head stamp AND run thru a Lee bulge buster die on a Lee APP. These were USA head stamped. attached is a random round pulled from my reloads with a bullet for comparison. I think I’ve got it seated properly but wondering if more crimp might help. thanks for all your help? Just trying to apply your coaching with every batch.

Ok! Thanks.

Dropping the bullet into the chamber not on top of the mag. Maybe “Jam” may not be the right word. And it happened 4 times out of 75 rounds. The round feeds, appears to chamber as the slide/bolt appears to fully closes so I don’t see a malfunction but the gun will not fire. Requires manual ejection. Occurs mid way thru 7 round mag. Not beginning or end. the Chip McCormick mags are standard 1911 mags recommended by a WB competitor but I do u derstand that the Wilson mags are much better. Note that this has happened with both firearms so it seems that it is an ammo problem. I’ll get pics on my next outing.

So I took my PC’d & home cast 225-230 grain. .452 sized 45acp 118.5-119.0 OAL TightGroup reloads to the range and got the following results out of my stock Taurus PT1911. Note each load test had 14 rounds fired. Load PF FPS Std Dev 3.5-3.6. 157. 692 20.3 3.8. 168. 740 17.3 3.9. 171. 752 17.2 4.0. 174. 768 12.3 4.1 177. 780. 13.8 4.2. 184. 813. 19.1 I know min PF for WB is 150 and most like to load to 160 just to be sure but my std dev was the lowest on my 4.0grn loads which were still snappy. I did not separate by projo’s by precise weight thus the wide SD(?) but I’m gonna try another batch at 3.7grns one issue I experienced was that while 100% of my rounds passed a case check AND a bbl plunk test, I still had 4-5 that wouldn’t feed from the mag but afterward they chambered fine when manually dropped into the mag and fired one-at-a time. BTW all fired/ejected cases flew 10-15’ away regardless of my powder load. so what might be the cause of my jamming issue. Mags are all OEM or new Chip McCormick std 7rnd mags. not enough crimp? Not perfect powder coated finish? Residual case lube?

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?

Thanks Joe, this is great info!

Hi, Ive been reading old posts on loading 45ACP. I don’t WB yet but want to load to be compliant. I have a brand new Ruger SR1911 (won at the CT Bushwackers Buzzard Boil) so I need to get comfortable with this platform before showing up at a match. I’m setting up to reload, just bulge busted 1600 cases that I need sort by HS (Discarding Amerc) and have a lot of Titegroup, and a couple pounds of W231 so not really wanting to buy more powder right now. I also have two coated .4515-.4520 cast bullet profiles. The one on the left is my 225-229 grain (I haven’t sorted by weight yet) and the one on the right is a 200grn HT coated commercial bullet. It seems like there is no benefit of using the lighter weight bullet due to the 150 PF min so I’m inclined to go with the heavier bullet since they are essentially free to me. Relative to powder choice it seems like a 4.0-4.2 grn TiteGroup load or 5.0grn w231 load would meet the min Power Factor. Hodgdon lists the OAL at 1.20” for a 230 grn LRN. I’ve seen the good advice to only load a few at a time until i find what works best… so anything else I should consider here? Anyone loading for an SR1911 and can share anything about OAL issues I should know about?

What’s the most popular front sight and where do I get one?

Thanks guys!

Are either or both of these 1911’s legal for WB? black is a Taurus PT1911 stainless is a Ruger SR1911 #6700 and I have two MDL 12’s one has an adjustable choke and the other a bright red fibre optic front sight. Would I have to remove/replace them with a brass bead to use? TIA