7kings

Awesome information - thanks for the help! LOL - it does make me feel a little better. I've since shot these from my Colt GCT and Les Baer P2 and they feel a little closer to normal (and are very accurate and pleasant to shoot). I think the heavier recoil spring of the RIA combined with the weight of the full railed dust cover just accentuated the recoil difference between the 200gr SWC and the 230gr slugs I was shooting before.

I tried Blue Bullets and had a great experience with them, so I think I've found my new range load... Thanks guys!

Thanks! I probably will end up putting one on my list (I wasn't arguing against one - just trying to learn what I could about the reasoning and criticality of having one).

Just to clarify - I'm not looking to develop loads. I'm looking to use a load that has already been tested and is within published parameters. How is that dangerous? I'm well below Hodgdon's maximum load weights for this bullet. I'm not saying that a chronograph isn't valuable, but I don't believe that it's impossible to reload safely without one, especially using load data that has been tested and proven over many years and countless shooters. Are my 5" 1911s so much different from everyone else's that a proven mid-range load on yours will be dangerous when used in mine? Yes, you are developing loads. You are trying to find a load suited to your purpose, using another's set of data. Using someone else's data IS dangerous, because you cannot be 100% certain you are DUPLICATING the other load.I fail to understand the reasoning for avoiding the borrow or purchase of a Crono. It is a great tool, not the end all answer, but a great tool that will help. Visual inspection of fired brass and primers are more tools. Like I have said before, if you can buy guns, powder, brass, bullets, primers, and reloading equipment, you can afford to buy a $100 Crono...it's just as important to have as a press is. I am done here... jj I won't pretend to know as much about reloading as you clearly do, and I absolutely appreciate your input, but I just don't understand how following published data load parameters from a manufacturer is the same as developing my own load. I'm sorry if you feel that I've offended you somehow.

Just to clarify - I'm not looking to develop loads. I'm looking to use a load that has already been tested and is within published parameters. How is that dangerous? I'm well below Hodgdon's maximum load weights for this bullet. I'm not saying that a chronograph isn't valuable, but I don't believe that it's impossible to reload safely without one, especially using load data that has been tested and proven over many years and countless shooters. Are my 5" 1911s so much different from everyone else's that a proven mid-range load on yours will be dangerous when used in mine?

I usually shoot at an indoor range with fluorescent lighting, which I understood doesn't mix well with chronographs. If you know otherwise, please let me know. The other thing to keep in mind is that I'm not looking to load match-grade ammunition. I typically find a load that works well for me and stick with it. I'm not nearly as sophisticated in my needs as many folks around here. I did try the plunk and twist test and have no issues with the OAL that I can tell. The round drops in easily and twists without any resistance. I didn't want to lead-up my Colt GCT while testing these bullets, but if the Blue Bullets fire without fouling, I'll probably swap in the lighter recoil spring for the Colt and see how they perform with that setup.

Thanks guys - great input. When I get the Blue Bullets in (already ordered a sample pack of 200gr coated SWC), I'm going to load them at 5.2 again and see how it works. I'm not shooting for competition, so if I experience FTF issues, I'll try another bullet profile, as suggested by zzt.

Okay, so I loaded up my first batch of 200gr SWC and took it to the range with me yesterday (some of you may have seen my other post on the results), and I have a total neophyte question. I have been shooting for 25 years, all makes and models from .22 up to and including .500 S&W. In that time, my .45 shooting has been generally limited to either 185gr SD loads or 230gr FMJ loads, both factory. When I began reloading .45 recently, I took the advice of all of you more experienced folks and selected a 200gr SWC as a target bullet with these specs: 200gr LSWC (Precision Bullets coated) 5.2gr HP-38 1.250" WLPP I've read a TON of posts on several different forums where folks indicate that this should be a pretty tried-and-true plinking load, and many folks actually prefer more in the 5.0gr range with this powder. Now for the question. When I fired these rounds at the range yesterday, I found them to have an extremely light recoil. It was light enough that the brass didn't throw very far and I felt that the slide may not even be reaching full actuation, since I had a few FTF that were corrected simply by pushing the slide forward into battery. Now, I had been firing 150 rounds of 230gr WWB FMJ just before that, so I'm sure that part of it was that I had grown accustomed to the heavier slug during my session, but I'm wondering if that's all there is to it. Is it normal that a 200gr SWC on top of 5.2gr of HP-38 should feel so light in the recoil department? Although I wasn't using it yesterday (I was running these test rounds through an RIA 2011 Tac), my Colt GCT came with a lighter recoil spring to accommodate lighter loads, but I thought that was primarily for 185gr cowboy loads. Am I way off base here? Is my recipe somehow completely wrong?

Yeah, that's what I did. With any luck, I'll receive them this week and can load and try them this weekend. I'm wondering if anyone has a "pet load" they like for 200gr coated SWC with HP-38 for plinking? Like I said above, I loaded them with 5.2gr, but that seemed very light.

I'll let you guys know how the Blue Bullets work out for me. Thanks again!

Precisions are still using the older moly coating I believe? The moly is hard to get out too sometimes. I just checked their website and they say: "We use a proprietary solid dry film lubricant. This is similar to the moly/poly coatings on the market but is much tougher." I notice that bullets like The Blue Bullets use a polymer coating (and seem to have pretty good reviews generally). Maybe I'll give them a try and see how they perform. Blue bullets are pretty good bullets. They almost look like they are wrapped in a thin layer of painters tape. All the other major players in coated bullets pretty much use the high tech coating. BBI's are some awesome bullets! That's what I would try. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to grab one of their 250 sample packs of the 200gr SWC and see how it goes.

Precisions are still using the older moly coating I believe? The moly is hard to get out too sometimes. I just checked their website and they say: "We use a proprietary solid dry film lubricant. This is similar to the moly/poly coatings on the market but is much tougher." I notice that bullets like The Blue Bullets use a polymer coating (and seem to have pretty good reviews generally). Maybe I'll give them a try and see how they perform.

These coated bullets are only available at .4515 from Precision Bullets, so I might have to try another manufacturer.

I finally got the chance to take my Precision Bullets loads to the range to test a batch of 50. The results were far less than satisfactory. I opened a thread about it here: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=219721#entry2445857

Hey guys. I loaded 50 rounds of Precision Bullets 200gr SWC coated, trying to find a new bullet for general range use. These are the details of the load: Dillon 550b Dillon carbide dies Bullet: .4515" SWC coated bullets Bul. Wt: 200gr Primer: Winchester LPP Powder: HP-38 Wt.: 5.2gr OAL - 1.250" I only crimped enough to remove the bell, and no scarring or marks of any sort were present on the bullet after being pulled from a cartridge during die setup. I took these to the range today and ran them through an RIA 2011 Tactical (I was there primarily breaking in my new Les Baer, but I didn't want to run these through the Baer until I knew how they would perform). I found the accuracy to be generally satisfactory and there wasn't an excessive amount of smoke or flash (more smoke than FMJ, but that's to be expected). The first thing I noticed was that the load I was using seemed VERY light. Recoil was minimal and the brass wasn't exactly rocketing out of the ejection port, but that's to be expected since I started with a light recipe. I had a few FTF, but I attribute this mostly to the recoil impulse being so light that the slide may not have had enough return velocity to strip and chamber the next round consistently. When I got home, I broke out the cleaning supplies and got to work. I ran a mop with Hoppes through the bore and let it sit while I cleaned the rest of the gun and then came back to it afterwards. I then ran a bronze brush through the bore several times, followed by several patches, so that I could properly inspect the bore without worrying about carbon or copper fouling. The patches kept coming out dirty, but it should have been good enough to get a good look at the bore. What I saw amazed me; there was a significant amount of leading present, streaking the length of the barrel. I spent the better part of the next hour alternating between bronze brushes and patches of lead remover cloth. I was shocked by the amount of lead that was being removed by the patches - there were actually shiny flecks of lead that were being pushed out of the muzzle. In the end, I was able to get the bore back to looking good again, but now I'm scratching my head. The entire reason I went with coated bullets was to avoid leading altogether, but my experience was even worse than I would ever expect to experience even with uncoated hard-cast lead. I know it wasn't a matter of loading these rounds too hot and I know that I wasn't breaking the coating during the loading process, so I'm at a loss. I'm definitely not interested in dealing with this sort of experience moving forward and won't be loading the rest of these bullets unless I can figure out what's going on. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I've seen a couple of videos on YouTube while researching this today where folks have had similar experiences, but there was nothing concrete. Thanks for the help.