Loading 45Acp in Ruger SR1911

[Tall John]

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?

 

[Garrison Joe]

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

Edited Wednesday at 09:56 PM by Garrison Joe

[Tall John]

Thanks Joe,  this is great info!  

Edited Wednesday at 08:24 PM by Tall John

[Deacon KC]

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. 

[Tall John]

On 3/11/2026 at 2:07 PM, Garrison Joe said:

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

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?

[Garrison Joe]

You have a rolled crimp on group "A."   Most taper-crimp dies if set too far down on the case will force the crimp to change from taper to a roll crimp.

The length / seating position looks great on "B".  I would tighten the crimp slightly on that and try to see half the wall thickness of the case show when you look down on it.  Kinda surprised "B" will plunk into the chamber fully with a mouth diameter at 0.475"+, as 0.473" would be the "straight wall" diameter for a .45 AUTO load.  But, if it will chamber 100%, shoot 'em.   

For comparison, my loads are averaging a 1.180" OAL, but I shoot a truncated cone bullet that has a shorter ogive nose than your rounded nose slug.  And the mouth of the crimped case runs right at 0.472" and there is no roll to the crimp shape and half the case wall is visible from above.

good luck, GJ

[Tall John]

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.

[Totes Magoats]

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

[El Chapo]

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.

[Boggus Deal]

1 hour ago, El Chapo said:

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.

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. 

[Boggus Deal]

2 hours ago, El Chapo said:

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.

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.

[El Chapo]

6 hours ago, Boggus Deal said:

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. 

Both of those are much hotter than I will be loading.  That's about where I am now with my current load, I run a 14 pound spring with that.

6 hours ago, Boggus Deal said:

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.

Most everyone was running 12.5 and even 10 pound springs in .40 S&W limited guns 20+ years ago with 180s at 950+.  My slide was lightened, many are not though.  I have been running a 14 pound spring with 170+ PF ammo for 40,000 rounds through my .45 without breaking anything.  Basically nobody in IPSC or USPSA is running a 16 pound spring, that is the spring for factory 195 pf ammo.  Going down from a 14 to a 12.5 is a small jump for me.  I run a 10 pound in a 9mm with 130 pf ammo, 12.5 is the next step up from there.

A 16-17 pound spring is massive overkill for 150 PF ammo.  Maybe not enough to cause the gun to short stroke (but maybe), but like most factory guns, massively oversprung.  Literally the first thing I do when I get a 1911 is remove all the springs and replace them with lighter ones.  A stiffer spring stores more energy in both directions, which goes right into your wrists in recoil and slams the front sight down when the slide closes.

Edited 13 hours ago by El Chapo

[Boggus Deal]

6 minutes ago, El Chapo said:

Both of those are much hotter than I will be loading.  That's about where I am now with my current load, I run a 14 pound spring with that.

Most everyone was running 12.5 and even 10 pound springs in .40 S&W limited guns 20+ years ago with 180s at 950+.  My slide was lightened, many are not though.  I have been running a 14 pound spring with 170+ PF ammo for 40,000 rounds through my .45 without breaking anything.  Basically nobody in IPSC or USPSA is running a 16 pound spring, that is the spring for factory 195 pf ammo.  Going down from a 14 to a 12.5 is a small jump for me.  I run a 10 pound in a 9mm with 130 pf ammo, 12.5 is the next step up from there.

A 16-17 pound spring is massive overkill for 150 PF ammo.  Maybe not enough to cause the gun to short stroke (but maybe), but like most factory guns, massively oversprung.  Literally the first thing I do when I get a 1911 is remove all the springs and replace them with lighter ones.  A stiffer spring stores more energy in both directions, which goes right into your wrists in recoil and slams the front sight down when the slide closes.

I just speak from experience and results. These combinations have won dozens of state, regional, national and world Wild Bunch championships. 
Your combinations? How did they do at EOT this year?

[El Chapo]

7 minutes ago, Boggus Deal said:

I just speak from experience and results. These combinations have won dozens of state, regional, national and world Wild Bunch championships. 
Your combinations? How did they do at EOT this year?

My combinations are the choice of Single Stack and IPSC Classic division shooters in something like 60 countries.  There were something like 230 shooters at the (all 1911) match I was at in Mesa the weekend before EoT, I would be willing to bet that not a single one of them had a 16 pound recoil spring in their gun.  And the PF there is 165 for major (USPSA) and 170 in IPSC.

Edited 13 hours ago by El Chapo