Does anyone use Red Dot/Promo w/Lee 225gr. TCs?

[Kosh75287]

A chronograph has been on my list of things to get for a while, and it's getting ridiculous to reload without one. Until then, I'd like to hear from anyone using Red Dot or Promo in .45 ACP with the 225(ish)gr. Lee TC projectile. By interpolation, I'm presuming that 4.6/Promo/225 will make major. Anyone who has tried this combination near their chronograph is welcome to share their results with me.

[JD45]

Until you get a chrono, just stick with charges in your manual.

Red dot is known to be really accurate in light .45 Colt loads.

Most fast powders will work for these sports fairly well.

[Kosh75287]

Thanks, JD45. I agree that Red Dot/Promo works well in .45 ACP and .45 Colt, though I hesitate to use it in the latter for fear of double-charging the larger case. As you mention, I have had outstanding accuracy and very clean burning with it in .45 ACP, and routinely pat myself on the back for having bought 8# of it before prices went out of sight so long ago.

I may be "gaming" this too much, but I'd like to get my actual average velocities closer to minimum necessary, without dipping below it. Assuming an exact projectile weight of 225 grains, the minimum velocity to make major is 734 f/s. I'd like to exceed this by a margin of 5% (770 f/s), to compensate for Murphy's law, temp change, calibration differences between the match chronograph and my (future) chronograph, moon-phase, and other random posterior-biting factors.

If I knew of a load that would consistently give me 770 + 20 f/s under all circumstances, I'd settle on it and never look back. But recoil is a factor in this competition, and I'll be doing myself no great service by using a load that exceeds needed velocities by larger-than-needed margins. My 1911A1 is a fairly stock Springfield Armoury National Match, and won't be found near any "unlimited" competition echelons.

I also know that a given load's performance in someone else's pistol may or may not reflect its performance in mine, but ANY comparison I get is more than what I am working with, at the moment.

[wgj3]

The only way to know PF for sure is to use a chrono. Eapecially when you want to get as close to min PF as possible.

Promo been a great powder for me in both .45ACP and 9mm minor.

[mannparks]

Here are some red dot / lee bullet loads that I use

Lee 230 rn 3.7 689 fps

Lee 211 fp 3.7 732 fps

My chronograph

[Kosh75287]

Thanks! That's a beginning! Did you increase the charge with the 230, at all?

[mannparks]

Both are 3.7 red dot, I'm trying to find slowest velocity that will work action reliably .in g41

[njl]

A chronograph has been on my list of things to get for a while, and it's getting ridiculous to reload without one. Until then, I'd like to hear from anyone using Red Dot or Promo in .45 ACP with the 225(ish)gr. Lee TC projectile. By interpolation, I'm presuming that 4.6/Promo/225 will make major. Anyone who has tried this combination near their chronograph is welcome to share their results with me.

That's probably way more than enough. Using MBC coated 225gr TC with 4.2gr Promo, I got an avg of 787fps from a Glock 21.

[Kosh75287]

Thank you for sharing your results! I think you're probably right that 4.6/Promo/225 exceeds the minimum velocity by a lot too much, but it's difficult to know how to much to reduce the load without making a sub-major load. I'll make a batch of 4.2/Promo/225 and 4.4/Promo/225 and test-drive them. Again, thanks for chiming in!

[njl]

Different bullets and different guns...you're really not going to know what velocity you're getting until you chronograph. 4.6gr would be quite a margin of safety (if you're worried about going minor), and you'd still be well under the max load Alliant gives for 230gr LRN.

[Kosh75287]

I had "quite a margin of safety" in mind when deciding on 4.6/Promo/225LTC, but it sounds like I obtained "wretched excess" instead. I have 4 increments of titration with which to work. I can probably get closer to to the mark without going minor. I agree that different pistols will develop different velocities, but I think I'm safe to drop the charge weight 0.1 - 0.2 gr. If I drop too close to the margin, perhaps the slightly longer barrel length will mitigate the loss. Defo time for a chrono.

Fellas, I can't thank you all enough for your input.

[Kosh75287]

For a while, there was a flurry of .45 G.A.P. (Glock Automatic Pistol) brass that kept getting in my range pick-ups, but I'm guessing that the round's on the way out. .45 GAP brass IS shorter, and may vary in other ways, so getting it in your brass feed can cause problems, I would think. I doubt that you'll get a fully loaded .45 G.A.P. all the way through your Dillon and into your pistol without knowing it, but any .45 ACP load stuffed into the smaller .45 G.A.P. case can give rise to an over-pressure situation, so exercise due caution.