Taurus PT 1911 I finally shot it.

[dennishoddy]

My 1911 Kimber Stainless Target II has shot thousands of lead SWC with no issues after finding out the right depth to seat the bullet.
The story on the street is that the thickness of a thumbnail of the shoulder above the case is the sweet spot. That may be different thicknesses depending if your a knuckle dragger but that would probably relate to about .020 in real world measurements.

 

[swampratt]

You are probably right on the distance the SWC should protrude from the case I had some of my rounds show marks where the round was seated too long.
I did have one case hook the case mouth upon entry and jam that way.
An ever so slight bevel around the entrance of the chamber will be all i would do.
Something that can be done with a very fine file or cratex.

 

[swampratt]

I slightly beveled the upper chamber entry 10:00 and 2:00 as it was flat and would slightly hook the case mouth.

Now I was only using the Lee Carbide factory crimp die without crimping.
You can run the loaded case into the caebide ring and remove the case mouth flare.

But I ended up with another issue.
Bullet set back.

If i chambered a round the bullet would get set back into the case and each time i would chamber it again it would get set back deeper and deeper into the case.

Case ID is .006" smaller than bullet OD.
OK so I decide to add a slight crimp to the mouth .001" then .002" then .003"
Now the bullet does not get set back more than .0005" upon entry.

It seems the factory carbide crimp die leaves a slight bit of flare in the case mouth ..probably due to spring back.
The amount of crimp I added makes the case mouth measurement the same as middle of the bullet area in the case.


I also noticed the nose of the bullet gets a flat spot on the edge as the entry angle is very abrupt and the soft powder coated bullet hits the top of the chamber hard upon entry and then must straighten out to go fully into the chamber.

Hi-Point did not follow the entry angle of the 1911.
Their entry angle is much less and allows the bullet to enter the chamber without having the nose hammer the top of the chamber.
I took the same round without a crimp and chambered it in my Hi-Point 3 times and the bullet never set back.
One time chambered in the Taurus PT1911 and I got a dink on the case mouth and bullet set back .003" and dented the bullet nose.

There is a learning curve I suppose for a new gun.

 

[panayoti]

The operative word is POLISH not grind.
You can also polish the feedramp on the frame.
Do not try to remove the gap between the frame and barrel ramp John B designed it that way.
take the barrel out of the gun and see if the loaded rounds drop in and out freely.
Also for the lee tumble lube cast bullets did you size after casting and lubing?
Lee instructs to cast lube and shoot. This has caused me reliability issues with after market barrels with tighter chambers.

 

[swampratt]

The feed ramp on barrel and frame is polished from factory like chrome. It is beautiful..I am not messing with that at all.
The gap is a non issue to me that is not where things hang up.
10 and 2 o'clock on the chamber was the issue.

did you size after casting and lubing

Yes I sized these after casting then lubed them with alox and then removed all the alox after a year of sitting and powder coated them and then sized them again.
.452"
I built some loads to try and I did remove the barrel and drop the round into the barrel to determine what AOL was able to chamber and I went smaller shorter than that by .010" to be on the safe side and should be no rounds that do not fully chamber because of a too long bullet seating depth.

I made 15 rounds of each bullet I have.
Xtreme plated .451" 230gr.

Lee 200gr Powder coated tumble lube style bullet.
And a bullet my other 45's love the 250 gr XTP .452"

 

[panayoti]

just thought of another rabbit hole to go down.....
What kind of mags are you using? not sure what taurus fact uses. mec gar?
I like the wilson with plastic follower and base. pricy but they work well.

 

[swampratt]

The mag is the original Taurus mag.
It's all I have.
I did try it in my HI-Point just holding it up to keep it from falling out as the HP will use 1911 moded mags and it worked fine in that
I will go shoot before the weekend and see how it does with these new loads.
I have a 40 I have never shot and need to do some testing on that also.

Lexington range probably.

 

[swampratt]

I shot some rounds I made and only had 2 fails out of 70 rounds.

One fail was a 250gr XTP seated too long.
Did not go all the way into battery.
I will elaborate on that another time maybe .. 4 hole turret press.

And one 185 gr XTP the nose did not make it into the chamber as those have long flatish noses.
Seated a tick too long.

My powder coated cast rounds fed excellent now and shot the best groups.
The 230gr round nose plated Xtrems fed perfectly also.

The accuracy is not on par with my Hi-Point 45 yet.
I will get there.
My 40 HP did not shoot good groups either..And it kicked quite hard for what I am used to.
I was shooting at 50 feet away and 50 yards away.

I feel I need to reduce the charge but may need to change the spring in the gun.