.45 ACP OAL?

[titan14]

Anybody care to share their Min and max OAL lengths with me?

I've been using an OAL length of 1.275" with a 4.7gr charge of bullseye using 230gr FMJ's.

I just bought 1000 230gr JHP.

Will my OAL be the same?

Thanks

[gregintenn]

I would suggest you trim the cases to length, and seat the bullet to the point where the crimping groove is at the mouth of the case. Assuming the bullets are designed for the 45 ACP, this should give you the correct OAL.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

1.24 OAL, .898 case length, trim as needed. I haven't trimmed any, yet. I haven't made

any adjustments for JHP as opposed to FMJ, shouldn't matter. If you load them long, you

will get into feeding problems. I use 8.4 grains of Accurate #5 with Remington Golden Saber

hollow points Burns clean, loads fine in all our .45's

[j2flan]

You are real close to just right with your load. As far as OAL, you are a little long. 45 ACP fmj do not have crimp groves, I have been reloading and shooting the 45 ACP for a great many years, 200 to 300 rounds, once or twice a week and have NEVER trimed the first case, there is no need. Your TAPER crimp should be at .469/ 470 just enough to take the "bell" out of the brass.

The OAL can change with the bullet profile, some will be at 1.20 to factory FMJ somewhare at 1.265,

BTW I have shot 1000s of the load you are loading ( 1.25 oal) with very good results, thinking that you are talking about the 230gr FMJ.

Edited September 21, 2010 by j2flan

[gregintenn]

45 ACP fmj do not have crimp groves

Not normally.

I just bought 1000 230gr JHP.

Will my OAL be the same?

These usually do, don't they?

[LngRngShtr]

Going to sound crazy but,...

OAL is as long as the magazine will allow then back off a couple thou. look at the Factory 230's in a mag ( probably the std. 1.260" OAL )... Hmmm yep about that long there's your profile to work with the JHPs will be shorter OAL but the round still has to feed up that tube into the other chamber my 240 JPHs for Pins are shorter but if held next to each other they hide behind one another keep any other bullet design inside of the FMJ profile and it should feed fine.. if you can see the other bullet, your JHP, behind a factory 230 then shorten it up until it hides.

and I crimp to .003 below resized so resize a case, measure and subtract .003 for final crimp, I am not getting into the argument about case mouth and headspace here, the extractor does the job of holding case to breechface and the length of cartridge keeps it square to the breechface I have fired overtrimmed cases in my 1911 to the point they look like a .45GAP round ( downloaded to Bullseye power levels in the shorter cases of course) and .40S&W in my 10mm to prove this is a valid point with no ill effects..

The only Pistol brass I trim are for my S&W M-52 and that is because crimp in a .38SPL wadcutter gun affects accuracy

several thousand rounds IPSC and Bullseye have proven this to be a winning combination in my world

Don't dream of carrying hand loads for protection,.. Your R&D budget is no match for the folks that do ammo for a living...

[j2flan]

gregintenn

There are 45acp bullets made, that are for revolvers that DO HAVE crimp groves brcause of bullet run-out (like in +loads) Some how I was thinking the OP was talking pistol not revolver. Sorry for not being more clear

[titan14]

You are real close to just right with your load. As far as OAL, you are a little long. 45 ACP fmj do not have crimp groves, I have been reloading and shooting the 45 ACP for a great many years, 200 to 300 rounds, once or twice a week and have NEVER trimed the first case, there is no need. Your TAPER crimp should be at .469/ 470 just enough to take the "bell" out of the brass.

The OAL can change with the bullet profile, some will be at 1.20 to factory FMJ somewhare at 1.265,

BTW I have shot 1000s of the load you are loading ( 1.25 oal) with very good results, thinking that you are talking about the 230gr FMJ.

Sooooo....you are saying that the Hollow points should have the same OAL as the round noses?...maybe I am thinking TOO hard...the OAL has to be close to the same.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Are you thinking since the end of the bullet is chopped off some, that you should

make the OAL a bit longer? Or shorter? Consider this:

Take a manufactured bullet and measure its OAL. Take it and put it in your die plate

and adjust the seating die out enough so that you won't hit it when you lower it on to

the loaded cartridge. Adjust it to where it snugs on to the bullet. When you have it

lowered for a round nose FMJ, it should be okay for a JHP seating depth, or you may

lower it slightly to get a better feed. That's how I set my seating for Golden Sabers.

If you are using the round seating die that should work fine.

If you are using Hornady XTP HP's, I had bad luck seating those and keeping

the head of the bullets uniform. I had to use the flat seating die head to load them and

was never satisfied with my results.

I just measured one out of a recent batch of GS's and it was 1.244"

The only problem I have had is when I loaded them too long, and there is no reason

to do that. I'm sure others do it differently, but that has worked for me.

[titan14]

Are you thinking since the end of the bullet is chopped off some, that you should

make the OAL a bit longer? Or shorter? Consider this:

Take a manufactured bullet and measure its OAL. Take it and put it in your die plate

and adjust the seating die out enough so that you won't hit it when you lower it on to

the loaded cartridge. Adjust it to where it snugs on to the bullet. When you have it

lowered for a round nose FMJ, it should be okay for a JHP seating depth, or you may

lower it slightly to get a better feed. That's how I set my seating for Golden Sabers.

If you are using the round seating die that should work fine.

If you are using Hornady XTP HP's, I had bad luck seating those and keeping

the head of the bullets uniform. I had to use the flat seating die head to load them and

was never satisfied with my results.

I just measured one out of a recent batch of GS's and it was 1.244"

The only problem I have had is when I loaded them too long, and there is no reason

to do that. I'm sure others do it differently, but that has worked for me.

Thanks 6.8...I guess I am just over thinking this...and I think you're right about me thinking that it should be longer.....I dunno...

Huge brain fart i guess...lol

[tnhawk]

The Hornady reloading manual shows 1.230 for both, RN and HP 230 grain bullets.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Thanks 6.8...I guess I am just over thinking this...and I think you're right about me thinking that it should be longer.....I dunno...

Huge brain fart i guess...lol

No problem. I did the heavy lifting with

my brain and it's still sore. Might not be

the best way to do it, but it works. You

can tweak your loads from there.

Have fun!

[rstandley]

On my zero .45's, I set my seating die to the desired height with FMJ and leave it the same for the JHP. The profile is the same but with the tip cut off. the OAL is shorter, however the seating depth is the same.