I recently had a thread about the 45ACP/AR loads I was developing. One of our illustrious forum members donated some bullets for those tests, again I need to say THANKS Paul!

One of the bullets that I wanted to try though was more of a target load with a lighter bullet. I am a "caliber heavy" kind of guy usually but have let that down a little this time!

The 200gr bullet is still in the middle of the range of usable bullets for the caliber though.

Well, I had a bad run with the last Lee mold I purchased, a 228gr LRN. It just won't cast like I want it to. I took a chance though and bought a Lee 6 cavity mold that is a replica of the H&G #68 which is a venerable bullet for Bullseye shooters. I experienced some better results with this mold though and thought I would post about it.

I am going to be casting these in a harder metal as well as driving them to +P velocities from both my PT1911 and M625JM in the future.

I just thought I would post some pictures of the first casting and post later about some of the ballistic results.

So here goes:




Not necessarily cleaned up for the photographer!



These are lubed with my 50/50 (Liquid Xlox/Paraffin) mixture. It is rather soft and really works quite well, plus, paraffin is much cheaper than beeswax. I shot this in my 44mag rifle up to 1800fps last night with no leading so....... I think it will work well for these sub-sonic loads.

If you have some pet loads feel free to share them!

By far, my most used bullets for .45 ACP and Auto Rim are 185-200 gr SWC.

I have two Saeco four cavity #68 moulds and an H&G #130 four cavity mould. I actually kind of prefer that #68 Saeco (a modified copy of H&G's #68) to the H&G #130 (the #68 uses less case capacity at normal seating depths than the H&G #130) so is superior at full power loads (higher velocity at less pressure). However, I nearly always reach for the H&G #130 mould as it is the easiest, fastest, BEST mould I have ever owned. Since I shoot these at target velocities (nominally 750 fps) and the #130 gives me match accuracy (as does the #68) I load the #130 mostly.

My Saeco moulds are VERY nice moulds. The H&G is just a BIT nicer to use, so I go with that as the determining factor.

I have been using Lars Red Carnauba lube for some time. It appears from my experience that Red Carnauba smokes noticeably less than NRA 50/50 Beeswax/alox and it shoots just as well. So, I am a Red Carnauba fan. Keep in mind, that it is easy to eliminate leading but using a lube that will give you "X" ring + accuracy may be a bit harder to discover.

Dale53

Where does one obtain "Lars Red Carnauba"? Does it need to be heated?

To get Red Carnauba go to:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

Scroll down the page to the end. Under Shooting Links you will find "Lar45s LsStuff". Click on that and THERE YOU ARE. Lars is a genuinely nice person that is really nice to do business with. He has an excellent range of lube products at REALLY good prices.

The Red Carnauba DOES require heat. However, as a result, is has a higher melting point than NRA 50/50 Beeswax/Alox and seems to smoke less. I consider these all positive virtues...

Dale53

Skip, you're in AA7 country. 45acp/200lswc is one of those combos where I easily beat AA's book. I normally load 10.7 (max 11.5) with a Fed primer at 1.225. Gives from 900fps in my 2" to 1008fps in the 5" gun. Max is worth about 80fps more, and WLP's give another 30. These are standard pressure, published loads. Hard to do better.

They also sell it on ebay. Look up White Label Lube.

I'll have to get some of that or some of their BAC concoction.

pinky,
I'll give AA#7 a try. I have a pound that I have had for months that is begging to be opened!

I did take some of these to the indoor range tonight to shoot them. I used WST for the powder. It was well below the listed amount but cycled my PT1911 just fine. Out of the M625JM it was a real pussy cat to shoot. Probably in the neighborhood of 650fps I am guessing. If I do my part and watch the front sight it is a tack driver of a load. No failure to feeds or fire from either firearm. One hole groups out to 10yrds. Fast follow up shots.

I will load some with the variety of Accurate Arms powders and see what I get. From AA#2 to AA#9. Just when I thought I was running out of things to test!