Reloading 45acp. Rainier 185 FN

[brokenarrow41]

Just purchased 500 of Rainier's 185 gr. FN from Midway for a really good price.
I'm having trouble finding loading data for that bullet. Anyone with experience with either Win 231 or Red Dot? COL?

[Unclenick]

4.4 grains of 231 will mimic commercial match ammunition velocity, but you'd tweak it for your gun. If you aren't running a match gun with reduced power recoil springs and want these loads to function a standard gun with full strength recoil springs, you'll probably be at more like 5 grains to start.

[brokenarrow41]

Thanks, I've been loading Nosler's 185 grain JHP with 5.4 grains of 231 in my Springfield XD and they have shot really well. Still looking for someone loading same bullet and COL. I'm concerned about seating it too deeply or not deep enough.

[chris in va]

Just me, but I would approach it like a JHP of similar bullet length, but use lead charges. Make a dummy bullet to check for chambering reliability.

[Unclenick]

I would treat those Ranier FP's the same as a SWC shape. The usual routine with the SWC shapes it to get the shoulder where the ogive angle starts away from the bearing surface about 0.020" (about a thumbnail's thickness) north of the case mouth as a general purpose seating depth that should fit any gun. That's a starting point. If your gun will feed them, you can adjust the seating out longer until the bullet stops on the throat of the barrel when the back of the case is flush with the back of the barrel. That's called headspacing on the bullet, and with lead bullets that gives me best accuracy. As much as 40% tighter than the standard 0.020" out approach, so it's a big difference and not a small one. I haven't tried it with plated bullets, but presume something similar will happen as they are not hard like jacketed bullets. Jacketed bullets don't seem to care which way you seat them.

With the charges I mentioned you should be able to handle small seating depth variations without risk. If you are uncertain, you can always back down more. I used to shoot 3.8 grains of Bullseye under 185 grain cast lead SWC's that weight for 50 foot gallery and 25 yard timed and rapid fire. I've shot the Goldcup with reduced power recoil springs with as little as 3.5 grains, but the accuracy was significantly poorer. The most accurate load was the no longer available 200 grain Hornady JSWC over 4.2 grains of Bullseye (Win brass, Fed 150 primer). I've previously posted my Goldcup's 0.37" CTC 5-shot 25 yard group fired off sandbags using that load. That load shot 50 yard slow fire targets very well.

I find 231/HP38 loads need to be about 5% heavier than Bullseye loads to stay in the same pressure and velocity range, but YMMV with your primer choice. I was using Federal 150's for the most part. So I would multiply the above mentioned Bullseye loads by 1.05 to get the adjustment. Accuracy testing should tell you what you want to end up with.

[Loader9]

From the Rainier Loading Manual, 45ACP using the 185gr FP bullet, COL 1.275, Remington primers, loading is to average max pressure 21,000PSI. Showing max loads only in this post.
Blue Dot-13.0 grs 1062'ps
Bullseye-7.1 grs 1069'ps
Unique- 8.4 grs 1064'ps
HP-38- 7.8 grs 1059'ps
HS-6- 11.2 grs 1084'ps
231- 7.7 grs 1053'ps

If you're just looking for plinkers, I'd start by reducing these loads by 20%. If you just want to use Red Dot, my brother loads 5.0 grs under a Speer 185 RN. There's little recoil considering it's a 45ACP. Velocity is just under 900'ps. Lyman shows a max load of Red Dot under a 185 jacketed as 5.5 grs with start loads at 4.5 grs. You can use jacketed data with a 45 ACP. It doesn't have enough velocity at max loads to make a difference. As long as you keep velocities below 1300'ps, the plated bullets are good to go.

[brokenarrow41]

Thanks very much! Great information as usual, I promise to buy more reloading manuals.