Loading 45Acp in Ruger SR1911

[Tall John]

Well, I got my SR1911 back from Ruger Today after stripping two of the grip panel screws because they were too tight from the factory.  They also replaced the ejector and ejector pin, presumably bent from my early jamming issues.

I took it to the range today and put all 58 of my most recent reloads through it without a hitch.  What changed?

1) met a guy at our club shooting a Taurus PT1911 like mine and when we compared loads I noticed that he had way less crimp than mine.  When I backed off the crimp,  my next set of reloads shot thru my Taurus w/out a hitch.

2) I switched to a 200 grain LNRFP from Slippery bullets with a longer ogive.

3) today as I was case checking my rounds, in my 100 round checker.  They all fit just fine but when I flipped the checker over I noticed that about 1/2 didn’t fall out.  Same thing when I plunk tested then in the bbl.  They dropped in but not out without shaking them out.  Soooo…I reduced the amount of crimp a bit further to get the diameter to 0.470” and shortened the OAL to 1.210”.  The rounds then gave me that metallic plunk noise when dropped in the bbl and fell right out when the bbl was turned over.

The load that appears to be working?

S&B brass W/ S&B LPP’s, 4.4 grains of WST powder under a Slippery 200gr LRNFP set at 1.210” OAL.  

Avg FPS 773 with a 159.9 power factor and a std dev of 34.0

now I’ll go load up several hundred and see if my luck holds! 🤪

[Garrison Joe]

Glad you got things to work, and I see you ended up with a fairly conventional powder and a proper crimp diameter. 

In the long run you might want another tenth of a grain of powder just to make sure in all weather you exceed power factor. 

Clean gun every match and practice session - it's the key to keeping a good load and a good gun running.

The OAL that works for a bullet design is highly dependent upon the nose shape.  For example, my 200 grain truncated cone nose loads feed perfectly at 1.180" OAL. 

Nothing beats testing - except practice and shooting matches.  So, sounds like you are ready to do both!!  good luck, GJ

[Tall John]

Now on second look at the packing slip that came back with my SR1911 and a call to Ruger’s CS,  they actually replaced the barrel as well as repairing the ejector and ejector retaining pin.  They could not tell me why the bbl was replaced so maybe it had nothing to do with my reloads?

[Garrison Joe]

I don't know how Ruger shop "repaired" the ejector retaining pin without just putting a new one in.  Straightening one or filing off burrs on one at the repair shop would be more expensive than a new pin that costs Ruger almost nothing.  Just about the same story with the ejector itself. 

They must have replaced barrel due to a manufacturing defect.  If they found damage from reloads, I expect you would have been charged.  Their shooter-unfriendly "No Reloads" policy has been around for several decades, and routinely ignored.  good luck, GJ