Great forum and plenty of good information being offered, thanks to all of you for such a great site.

My problem is that I have a SA 1911 'loaded' target 45 ACP that shoots jacketed round nose ammo flawlessly. My problem is with reloaded lead bullets. After 5-6 rounds, lead will build up before the rifling in the chamber and cause the next round to not go fully into battery. The slide will hang open approx. 1/16", however with a slight push on the back of the slide, most of the time the slide will close and allow the round to be fired.

I have adjusted the OAL of the round to where the lead is seated to the shoulder of the brass, no shoulder exposed. My bullets drop in the removed barrel and fall out without any hang-ups. I have sized them down to .470, adjusted the powder charge from min up to a mid-range charge.

I am shooting 200 gr. Lee SWC and 185 gr. SWC from H & G moulds, all cast from wheel weights and sized to .451 dia. I have purchased 230 gr. Spear brand lead round nose and experienced the same lead build up with the same FTF results.

The gun has been stripped and throughly cleaned after each range visit. Anyone care to offer a suggestion, at this point I am whipped....

Without the benefit of actually looking at the gun, I would suggest looking at a couple of areas. First, would be to make sure the round feeds into the chamber without any drag. That means under the extractor and up the face of the slide.

I would clean and smoke the chamber and hand feed a couple of dummies to make sure all the areas along the track were smooth and drag free. Lead being what it is, I would look for anything that could "peel" it, like tool marks on the feed ramp/throat, the chamber walls, the hood, anyplace the bullet goes.

I would look to see how the bullet hits and rides up the feed ramp or enters the feed throat. Ramp angle can cause problems. Too steep an angle can deform the lead which can lead to shaving as it enters the throat. Too sharp of a transition from the ramp/throat to the chamber can shave lead as well. I would also check to make sure the barrel bushing, or, cone had enough clearance to allow the lugs a smooth and stress free ride into battery. I would start there.

Guns built and used for target work are usually much tighter than those used for regular carry. They are notoriously finicky about what they eat. Bullets may be too soft. You may have to change your recipe to make the bullets a bit tougher. Seek the advise of those who are into casting hard lead bullets.

Thank you Westpac for the tips. I will give them a try over the next few days, I have another SA loaded (not a target model) that will shoot anything I put in it so the comment about the 'target' model being more finicky makes sense. I will try the smoke advice and chamber a few to see what might show up...Thanks again!

Tom

Westpac has some good tips.

A couple more......... We bullseye shooters use a taper crimp die, never a roll crimp. We usually shoot 200 and 185 grain SWC soft swaged lead bullets with an H&G 68 shape. Bullets are seated so you have 1/16" lead shoulder exposed. We use match grade barrels with tight chambers and achieve 100 percent reliability for 90 to 180 round matches.

If you are casting your bullets relatively hard beware of a problem encountered when shooting low velocity loads. If velocity is too low with hard bullets, they will not upset and seal completely in the bore, allowing gas to blow by and actually melting the bullet and causing a soldering effect and terrible leading problems.

If still not solved, contact a good bullseye or IPSC gunsmith, not the local guy and have him put a bore scope in the barrel and look for burrs or tool damage.

First off you can make your bullets very hard by dropping them into a bucket of water straight out of the mold. Run your pot a little hold and try to hold a very consistent casting technique and make sure you don't splash water into your pot. Size and lube them asap or they will start age hardening and will be harder to size.

Taper crimp versus roll crimp is a myth dispelled by the NRA. A good read up on it is in NRA's cast bullet book. If your bullets are undersized now, taper crimping will undersize them a little more.

What lube are you using? Have you put enough jacketed rounds through it to smooth up the barrel any?

Most reloading manuals I've seen say seat a semi wadcutter so only 1/32 inch of the shoulder is ahead of the case mouth. I know of many match barrels that would chamber a round where the bullet is seated 1/16 inch out of the case.

One final thing, I size all my 45acp to .452 and have had zero problems.

Are you sure it lead?. I have had bullet lube
collect on the chamber and preventing the case mouth to enter all the way. If you scrape off
excess lube in front of the case it could be a cure.
good luck!

Thank you all, as far as leading goes, I shot 200 rounds last trip to the range and had zero leading in the barrel. I took a small flat tip screwdriver and cleaned the lip of the chamber where the riffling begins. There was a wax and lead build up each time I cleaned it when jamming would occur.

I am using a 50/50 beeswax and alox lube it is doing a good job preventing barrel leading but it does make the bullets sticky. I did notice that some of my reloads could have been wiped down a little cleaner before shooting. I had not considered that might create a problem, in fact I thought it might help in preventing a problem. I will clean them up before the next range trip and see how it goes.

I am water quenching my lead when casting but again, no leading in the barrel. I have fired 300-jacketed bullets through the gun and approx. 500 lead rounds. I am also full length sizing with RCBS dies, no roll crimp. I am experimenting with the amount of crimp for the next range trip. I did notice some lead smearing while seating a few experimental rounds last night so now I’m seating the bullet and sizing in two operations. Hopefully I’ll hit on the correct formula after a while.

Thanks for all the suggestions I truly appreciate the help.

my cheap easy solution for leading was to go to plated bullets

quote:

my cheap easy solution for leading was to go to plated bullets

Shooting a Glock 23, that is my solution also.

Butchloc, certainly a solution but not so sure about cheap although considering what it has cost to get into casting and reloading...maybe your right, but what about the money for therapy that I have saved, had I not found this new hobby!

Masterifleman, I can appreciate your solution, my carry gun is a Glock 23 but nothing feels as good in my hand or shooting as does a good running 1911 and that is what I had until switching to lead. I have not given up, only motivated to find the cure to my problem.

Success!

Reducing the oal to 1.160 and not crimping too much, .471 as opposed to .469, the lead build up is gone. Only problem now is the lube is building (gumming) up in the chamber. Maybe next few loads I will try a little harder lube. Thanks for the help folks!