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Old October 12, 2012, 01:30 PM   #1
rebs
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45 acp 185 gr hollow point ?

I loaded 10 rounds of 45 acp 185 gr hollow point and loaded to the recommended oal. They drop right in the chamber with the barrel out of the gun, but will not fit in the magazine. It seems the hollow points are thicker at the nose and the nose will not fit in the mag.
Do you guys have any recommendations ?
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Old October 12, 2012, 01:55 PM   #2
mmc205
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load them to a shorter OAL. unless you made a mistake measuring the OAL on them, it may be bad data. Seat them deeper until they fit the mags, back off to min loads and work up the load from there.

Or, get different bullets.
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Old October 12, 2012, 03:20 PM   #3
Jim Watson
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Now tell us the truth, was that the recommended OAL for THAT BRAND of 185 gr hollowpoints or a generic number which is really meant for hardball?
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Old October 12, 2012, 04:05 PM   #4
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That's the same question I had. The hollw points and flat points are shorter than the regular 230gr RN. You need oal specs for HP bullets. For the FP that I load, I measured the length of the FP to the round nose. I subtracted that difference from the oal to get my starting point. Still had to load a little shorter to get propper fit though.
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Old October 12, 2012, 05:26 PM   #5
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Quote:
Now tell us the truth, was that the recommended OAL for THAT BRAND of 185 gr hollowpoints or a generic number which is really meant for hardball?
yes the truth is that I measured the oal length of a 230 gr Remington jacket round nose and loaded the hollow points to the same length. Where would I find the oal data for a 185 gr hollow point ?
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Old October 12, 2012, 05:42 PM   #6
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Your magazine will most likely determine the OAL you need. I load 185 grain JHP bullets from Montana Gold and use between 1.200 and 1.220 OAL. Put in 5.2 grains of WST and I'm good. Seating bullets deeper in the case will raise pressures. If you don't already have a good load to use, start at the low end and work up slowly. I don't normally load more than 10 rounds for my starting load then 10 more with .1 grains of additional powder. I do this until I get up to the upper mid range. I hate pulling bullets so I don't make very many of a new load. Once I get what I'm looking for I might try some that have no more than .2 grains more powder so long as I'm in a safe range. High speeds generally gives me worse accuracy. I test in 5 round groups. 10 rounds will give me two different groups of a given load to test. I generally get 3 or 4 loads that will work pretty good and I take the one in the middle. An example is 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 grains work well. I load with 5.2 grains of powder.

When checking the OAL in your magazine make sure you fill it to capacity. The first few might work but when too long they might not work when you fill it up.
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Old October 12, 2012, 08:26 PM   #7
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Try 1.210 as a good starting point. Years ago I couldn't find any OAL data on 185s either, so I measured a bunch of different brand factory rounds. OALs clustered around 1.205-1.210.
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Old October 12, 2012, 08:34 PM   #8
rebs
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Thank you for the replies. I have them loaded with 5.3 gr of unique, Ibelieve that is middle of the road for 185 gr.

With the bullets already loaded can I just put them in the seater die and seat them a little deeper ?

Last edited by rebs; October 13, 2012 at 04:57 AM.
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Old October 12, 2012, 09:33 PM   #9
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Old October 13, 2012, 10:49 AM   #10
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Yes you should be able to seat them a little deeper as is.

One way to extrapolate seating depth without data for the exact bullet is to measure the OAL for the hardball, then measure the length of the hardball slug itself, and the length of your bullet and subtract the difference in length. HP's are always shorter than the non-HP's.

Or you can seat them to Mag length as suggested. Do try them with a full Mag, good point.
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