.45acp 185 Grain West Coast Bullets Will Not Feed?

[PistolPete]

I bought a few thousand bullet heads from West Coast Bullets a few years ago and never had any luck with them. I bought the 185 grain plated bullets and they just wouldn't feed at all in any of my 1911's. I put them aside as I haven't been shooting .45 any more. Well I stumbled across the boxes of these and thought I would try some target loads for my new Para 1911. Well the loads are great using Clays and the recoil is so soft BUT the rounds will NOT feed at all. Is this because the short length and flat nose of these bullets?

I'm looking for some nice steel target loads prob. using Clays or something easy to get a hold of. I'm save my N320 for my SV. Should I be experimenting with 200 grain bullets or should I even go to 230's? What recomendations do you have on OAL bullet weight and powders for nice soft target loads? When I was shooting .45's a lot I was running a 200 grain Master Blaster bullet with good results but I want to stick with Montana Gold bullets.

Thanks in advance,

Pete

[TONY BARONE]

If the 185 has the same profile as the 200gr bullet it is a copy of the Hornady c/t which is a bad feeder. The Montana Gold 200gr jfp is an excellent feeder.

[rick_in_lb]

Well at least I am not the only one who had problems with this one. What I finally did was set the OAL to 1.20. It took me a while to work this one out. I like the 185's...now. On the light loads, this depends on your gun. Some light loads are too light to cycle some guns. I also know this by experience. For a light load I use 4.7 gr of W231 and actually have went down to 4.5 gr without a problem. When trying to figure out a light load, load only load 1 mags worth(10) so you will not waste your time, also speaking from experience. It is a pain to cycle your gun by hand because a load it to light and you reloaded 50...ouch.

Good Luck

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[BOGA]

I use 185 swc's, but had a hard time to feed it well until I saw a picture of a magazine article showing a factory bullet with box on side. The load was very short and seated almost to the shoulder or to the fore end of the widest part of the bullet. I copied it and lessen the amount of powder to get the PF i want and since then I didnt have any problem with feeding.

[Canuck-IL]

Longtime Bullseye wisdom - you load SWCs to a thumbnail thickness of the shoulder above the case.

/Bryan