Starting smokeless with .45 ACP

[Doc Hoy]

Mike,

Tnx,

[Unclenick]

Doc,

The others have covered things pretty well. I add that the load Slamfire put up of 5.0 grains of Bullseye under a 230 grain FMJ is an old standard early military load and is the rough equivalent of commercial hardball today. Modern military is loaded about 50 fps higher, using a powder not available to reloaders, but very close in performance to Vihtavuori N320. Normal practice is to fire these loads in a 1911 with a 16 lb recoil spring.

That said, I've never had trouble with any 200 grain bullet, cast or jacketed, that had anything from 4.2 grains to 5.5 grains of Bullseye functioning a 1911 with a 16 lb recoil spring. 200 grains is the original bullet weight Browning designed the gun for, but the Army changed it to 230 grains later.

If you go to still lighter 185 grain SWC bullets and the 3.5 to 4.2 grain loads of Bullseye, you may find you need a 12-14 lb recoil spring for reliability. I always shot 3.8 grains with 185 grain cast bullets as gallery through 25 yard loads in matches. 3.8 grains proved noticeably more accurate in my Goldcup than the 3.5 grains.

4.2 grains of Bullseye under a 185 grain jacketed SWC was generally suggested as an equivalent to commercial .45 Match target ammunition. It works fine, but I found the 200 grain Hornady 45157B JSWC to be more accurate. Unfortunately is now only available in bulk boxes of 1700, so it's a little hard to try without committing to it. It is closer to the H&G #68 shape than their 185 grain JSWC (see next paragraph).

Probably the most popular bullet ever made for target shooting in the 1911, starting with its first magazine reviews in 1940, has been the Hensley and Gibbs #68 200 grain SWC design. This is a longish nose 200 grain bullet. It came in both flat and bevel base. The latter seat a little more easily and is the most commonly copied form. Examples would be NEI #289A or Lee #452-200-SWC. Many copies of this shape are also available from commercial casters today. I'll leave it to you to shop around for it or a copy of it, now that you know its name. That said, I also find the Lee Tumble Lube designs shoot very well, and would not steer you away from them.

Much lighter bullets have been offered by some casters for achieving higher power factors, but I've never found any that shot worth a darn. I think the short bearing surfaces may be the problem.

Cast bullets are more sensitive to alignment with the bore than jacketed bullets. I find the latter can line themselves up pretty well without distortion at .45 Auto pressures. But cast bullets that enter the throat crooked tend to stay crooked. I've had cast bullet groups reduce by over 40% and leading reduce with it by seating to headspace on the bullet touching the throat before the case mouth even gets to the end of the chamber. This sticks the bullet out a little further than normal, so you have check that it still fits your magazines and that it feeds well. But usually it works out. Just use your gun's barrel as a gauge to set your seating depth as shown third from left, below.

Before getting to the image, note that there are more powders than Bullseye around. It's just the one with the most history and known standard loadings. It does, however, spread graphite around is is not exactly squeaky clean. I have been using Hodgdon Universal more recently because it is cleaner burning. I have not gone back to try it in the very light loads, though. Running it for ball gun practice it takes about 5% more Universal than Bullseye to get similar results.

[Doc Hoy]

I thank you for your comments on the recoil spring.

I prolly won't go below 200 grains and now that numerous folks have waded in, I may opt for the heavier bullet.

Don't know what spring comes in the RIA but I can tell you it is stiff with a capital "S".

Tnx agn

[schmellba99]

The RIA should have a 16 lb recoil spring.

Run a few hundred rounds through it and the gun will break in nicely. You'll see a lot of that stiffnes work itself out, and the slide will run smoother.

Get some grease in the chase of the slide as well. Something like Slide Glide, the Hoppes Gun Grease, or even a light coat of some lithium grease.

[Unclenick]

Doc,

If the RIA is, as I assumed at the price, their full-size 1911 (5" barrel) it should have the 16 lb spring if it hasn't been changed to accommodate heavier loads. If it's a shorter barrel version, the springs will be stiffer. Assuming you have no extended recoil spring guide rod (it doesn't stick out under the muzzle with the gun in counter-battery) but rather has the GI style guide and closed-end recoil spring plug, you can check the spring weight on a bathroom scale. Just set a scrap piece of 2×4 on edge on the scale, clear the gun, cock the hammer, then press the recoil spring plug and lower half of the bushing down against the block and scale so this pushes the slide back but allows the barrel to clear the wood block. Right at the point the wood block is about to touch the front end of frame (dust cover/slide tunnel), read the scale.

I prefer to start with a light mineral oil, like honing oil, for break-in. That way the lube doesn't over-protect the parts that need to rub down. I shoot hardball, cleaning and re-lubricating the rubbing surfaces at the range every 3 or 4 magazines full. Ideally, I want to see no feed failure in the last 200 rounds before I feel comfortable with the gun's reliability. If you're lucky, that'll be the first 200, but if you are not lucky and it still hasn't achieved that goal after 500 rounds, figure something more needs to be done. Most often it turns out the issue is associated with a particular magazine, and just avoiding that one magazine gets you to the goal line.

A friend of mine likes to lube the gun with JB Bore compound (I prefer Iosso Bore Cleaner for this) and cycle it manually fifty to a hundred times, then cleaning it out and lubing as I've described for the first range session. He feels that stops a lot of early failures to cycle properly that aren't caused by the magazines.

Once you're past the initial stage, there are a number of good lubes to choose from. Board member Hummer90 says a lot of the AMU is just using Mobil 1 5W-20 synthetic motor oil for everything now. I've had good luck with Machine Gunner's Lube (bottom of this page). But there will be almost as many opinions on lubes as there are shooters. Just be sure to use something reputable.

[Doc Hoy]

Thanks for the posts.

It is indeed the GI model full size RIA 1911.

I am prolly going to run about 500 rounds of factory loads through it before I use reloads.