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 March 11 by Garrison Joe

[Tall John]

Thanks Joe,  this is great info!  

Edited March 11 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 March 17 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 March 17 by El Chapo

[Boggus Deal]

14 hours ago, El Chapo said:

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.

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.

 

 

[El Chapo]

I run a 19 pound hammer spring as I have had light strikes with CCI primers with a 17, only with large pistol though.  17 pops everything in small pistol.

[Tall John]

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?

[Garrison Joe]

3 hours ago, Tall John said:

so what might be the cause of my jamming issue

Show us a picture of the jam next time you have it happen.  That will tell us which of several types of feed jams you are having.   Jam with nose on ramp, jam from nose diving of the round,  three-point jam, etc, etc.   Get a couple of pictures for best info - one showing the nose of bullet and front half of case, and another of the rim of the case and whether it has slipped under the hook of the extractor.

Happens under what condition?   First round out of a full mag, or the last one out?  Both of these situations may point to a magazine problem, but different causes. 

Randomly?   Could be the extractor is not tuned to pick up the round real well.  In fact, that would be my first guess, especially with a lower price range gun.  The extractor is not just for ejecting a case - it controls a "controlled feed" of the round into the chamber.

What the #*@) does "dropping a round into the mag" mean?  You mean just loading a single round into the mag?  I hope so, because if you are placing a loose round on top of the mag follower (not into the mag itself) or into the chamber loosely and dropping the slide, you are putting a LOT of stress on the extractor making it snap over the rim.

As for mags, I would not trust an "unverified maker's" OEM mag from Taurus.   I would trust a Wilson or Tripp or Checkmate.  Not so much the McCormick without replacing the spring and follower.   But show us how your failure to feed occurs before you run out and buy anything! 

Your "ejection of cases" test shows your springs are about right.  

good luck, GJ

 

Edited 13 hours ago by Garrison Joe

[Tall John]

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.

[Boggus Deal]

Don’t drop the loaded round into the chamber and drop the slide. You will certainly at some point break the extractor. It’s designed for the cartridge rim to ride up the breach face under the extractor hook.

[Tall John]

Ok!  Thanks.  

[Garrison Joe]

Gun is not in battery (ready to drop hammer on firing pin) until the rear surface of slide and rear surface of frame just below the joint between them are perfectly flush. 

This is not a jam, or a failure to feed.  It's a failure to go into battery.

If you push the slide forward with a strong tap of heel of your off-hand, does this resolve the failure-to-fully-chamber problem and let it fire?  If it does, do you keep the disconnector tip lubed with a drop of oil every time you take gun apart for cleaning?

Are you using range pickup brass to reload?   If so, you really need a chamber check gauge to see if your brass has a base bulge common with loads that are hot enough to swell the case just in front of the extractor groove.  Barrel plunking probably will not find these bulged brass situations.  Spend $20 or so and get a good loaded round checker gauge!

The most common problem new .45 auto loaders have is they run into brass with bulges at the base, which the sizer die in .45 auto will not remove!   That is where the Lee bulge-buster kit comes in really handy.  This consists of a push-thru die and a push rod which install on a spare single-stage press.  Even a loaded round can be pushed through this die safely.  But the best way to use it is "bulge bust" all fired brass that you know you did not shoot from your own guns, before you reload it.   If you sometimes shoot almost +P level reload ammo, you may want to bust all your own fired brass, too.  The bulge if not removed, sometimes means the round will not fully chamber, thus will not fire.  

Second cause of failure "just short of fully chambered" is a bullet seated long enough to jam the ogive of the nose into the very short throat of the 1911.  If you find the rounds that do not chamber and inspect the exposed bullet nose for rifling marks, it should tell you if that round was over-length for your gun.  No part of the cylindrical SHANK of the bullet should be in front of the case mouth.  Only the rounded ogive of the nose can hang out in front of the mouth.

good luck, GJ

Edited 12 hours ago by Garrison Joe

[Tall John]

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.

 

 

 

 

[Garrison Joe]

A new 1911 has traditionally needed about 200 factory power FMJ rounds through it to break it in.  Loosen up the action, wear in the extractor, etc.  

The Taurus?  Would not HURT to run some through it, too.

Fire 50 or so, clean the gun.  Repeat.  Look for any failures of any sort. If a 1911 is hiccuping on factory FMJ, it for sure has problems that can get in the way of running lighter power lead bullet ammo.

Report back how the break ins go.  There COULD be a function problem with both guns, but very unlikely.  Unlikely either will malfunction with FMJ, but the object is to loosen the gun up so testing with lighter lead bullet ammo tells no lies.   So, loosen the guns up before you seriously start looking for why the reloaded ammo does not run the guns well.

The ammo you have loaded at this point looks reasonable.  Nose is a little flat-ish compared to FMJ ammo.  That should not cause a failure to feed the last 1/8" into chamber though.   Powder coating CAN cause some chambering problems.  Have the bullets been run through a sizer die AFTER being powder coated?  I have seen some coatings so thick or so non-slick that they cause a failure to feed, but mostly by sticking the nose to the feed ramp and depositing powder coat color there.

good luck, GJ

Edited 7 hours ago by Garrison Joe

[Boggus Deal]

Tall John, 

You will notice that some posts are all edited because they are originally wrong and googled based, not experience and success based.