Question on OAL

[MikeACP]

I haven't been losding for awhile, started back at and I'm having an issue. I've been loading some .45acp, I'm using Falcon SWC bullets. I loaded some at a length of 1.230 and had some failure to feed. I'm thinking they might be tad long. Any thoughts?

[calvin56]

You're right in the middle of Saami's specs. 1.190 to 1.275 USGI ball tops out at 1.265, most commercial at 1.240. You should be good. More likely problem would be bullet profile with the SWC.

[JustaShooter]

Agreed, you are within the spec for OAL, but SWC profiles often don't feed well unless the OAL is within a tighter range than a round nose bullet. It might be that they are too long, and that's where I'd start.

If I recall (I don't have my load notebook handy) I load most of my SWC bullets to around 1.200 but it really depends on the profile - some have a rather long nose with small meplat and others are shorter with a wide meplat. When starting loading for a new SWC bullet profile I load so that the shoulder is about 0.025 past the case mouth and go from there. Ultimately, you may just have to play with it a bit to find where your gun likes them.

Also, be sure your powder charge is sufficient to fully cycle the slide, sometimes feeding issues are because the slide doesn't cycle fully to the rear, allowing the empty to eject but not feed the next cartridge. What powder and charge weight are you using?

[MikeACP]

Thanks for the feedback. As far as charge, Im loading 5.4gr of Win231. I'm running another caliber now so I cant check but if I think they were loading to the shoulder.

[JustaShooter]

Look slike you are just under max load according to Hodgdon's reloading data, so that should cycle pretty much any slide properly. Your OAL is right on target according to Hodgdon, they show 1.225 for LSWC 200 grain bullets - but, if you are at the shoulder, I'm thinking you may be a bit short especially with the bullet profile of the Falcon bullet, they look to be longer nose with a narrow meplat. In any case, you sure don't want the shoulder below the case mouth, you want a visible amount of bullet extending past the case mouth - I start at 0.025" which is about the thickness of 6 or 7 pieces of 20# copy paper, and I often have to go longer to get reliable feeding in all of my handguns.

[MikeACP]

Your description of the bullet profile is right on. So I should start lengthening just slightly?

[Brian D.]

We may as well explore more of the particulars, Mike: What make and model firearm is this? What magazines? Are you using 200 or 185 grain bullets? (I had assumed the former.) There are maybe other things to look at but those I mentioned are possible "culprits" to examine a bit.

[MikeACP]

As far as guns, two Kimber's and a Colt Comander. It's a 200gr bullet, and a mix of Colt and Kimpro mags. It would occur maybe once per mag.

[JustaShooter]

Assuming you don't have any feeding issues with other ammo in those guns using those magazines, yes, I'd run a couple of batches each with progressively longer OALs and test them to see how it goes. Can you duplicate with hand cycling the rounds? If so, that will make it a lot easier to diagnose - but not as much fun!

BTW, what is the failure mode? That is, describe in as much detail as you can how they fail to feed.

[MikeACP]

I did a drop in test and hand cyled without issues. I shot a hundred round nose lead couple weeks ago with any problems.
Oh, and Thank you

[dl1911]

The magazine can also be an issue with a 1911. I've had great luck with my Kimbers feeding a wide variety of bullet types with Tripp Cobramags. Wasn't so lucky when using Kimber's own magazines though.