Questions on .45 military brass

1917watercooled

Have a quantity of WWII .45 from the lend/lease program. After firing some of the orginials, want to reload the cases. The headstamps are a mix of FA, WCC, RA, and a small amount of others. I have noted that the RA is not primer crimped at all. The crimp on the WCC is 'normal'. The FA has no crimp that I can see but processing with a Dillion 600 and others, I can't get a new primer to seat so am tossing all the FA's. But on to my head scratcher. Loaded up a bunch with a 230 grain FMJ with no problem. Went on to load a lead 230 grain round nose sized .452. The complete bullet sticks in my case gauge about 3/4 to 7/8 of the way in. Checked all the specs. and they are just under factory specs. What am I missing? Could WWII brass be thicker that factory like the 30.06? Thanks

243winxb

Taper crimp just a little more till rounds fall freely into the chamber. Thicker or different case length can have an effect on die settings.

perry shooter

Hello I agree Taper crimp until the very mouth of the loaded round is .469. +or- .oo1. the case wall thickness between who made the case may vary as much as .003 per side for total of .006 . On top of this most 230 jacketed bullets may be as small as .449 - .451. almost never see 230 grain jacketed Ball bullets at .452.EDIT you also might want to look at the sticky on the top of this forum CRIMPING Straight walled semi auto loads.

Pistollero1050

I agree with the above, but I also had this problem and the fix was to bell the cartridge case a little more because the lead bullet is .452, the jacketed is .451, the result is the case is getting a bulge in it from seating the larger bullet. Another remedy is to get a Lee taper crimp die that also resizes the case after the bullet is seated and crimped. That is what I ended up doing. I dont have anymore feed problems. JMO[;)]

Hawk Carse

quote:The FA has no crimp that I can see but processing with a Dillion 600 and others, I can't get a new primer to seat so am tossing all the FA's.

Just as well.
FA .45 ACP likely has their unique .204" primer.
The Armory loaded both rifle and pistol ammunition and they did not want to risk getting pistol primers in rifle ammo with risk of blown primers, or rifle primers in pistol ammo with the chance of misfires.
So they used an odd size, big enough to hold plenty of then standard priming compound but not interchangeable with 210" large rifle primers.

1917watercooled

Thanks "Hawk Carse". I didn't know that. The FA brass is less than 1% of the total so no big deal. I have many thousands of WWII ('42/'43) 30.06 once fired cases and have reloaded several thousand of that orginial mixed lot. I have never had many problems with the 30.06 cases of which I sure many are FA's. Don't know why. Tighten down the crimp die and it helped. Noticed the lead bullet seems to be 'cocked' in the case slightly as there is a slight bulge in the case where the bullet ends but only on one side. Trying to figure out how to align the die so it is true vertical. BTW, the machine is an old Dillion RL550B. Thanks

perry shooter

The bulge Is there because the case wall is so thick that when the sizing die sizes the case before loading with the bullet That the out side is the correct diameter. But the inside of this just sized case is MUCH to small for the .452new lead bullet you are trying to load in the case. The reason it only shows up on one side is That side is slightly thinner.00001 then the other side and the metal has to stretch somewhere The seating die does not support the case when the bullet is being seated. This is NOT a fault of your Dies or reloading press. It IS a function of thick case walls and large but within spec. lead bullets.

1917watercooled

Again, thanks for the information. I'm going to put aside the military brass for now and switch to commercial cases. I've loaded this same lot of lead bullets into commercial cases in the past with no problems that I can remember. Will update shortly on this thread with results. Boy, "the devil is in the details".

1917watercooled

Well, I put up the mil. brass until I score some FMJ bullets. Got out my ready to go commerical brass to reload it. Still having probems. The rim will not drop into the Midway case gauge like there is a burr on the rim which there isn't. I'm almost sure its got something to do with the lead bullet, just not sure what. Knowing these case gauges are tight I loaded one of the "bad" bullets into a US property marked 45. No problem what so ever. Turned the crimp die down till I hear each bullet cough when I pull the handle. Any more ideas? Thanks

Pistollero1050

If they run in the gun who cares what your case gauge says. Get a new case gauge that reflects your chamber.[:D][8D][}:)]Don't over crimp a 45. Just crimp enough so they don't hang up when you feed.

1917watercooled

The mystery is solved. The answer is...get ready for it...operator error. In my feeble attempt to build the .45 to factory specs of 1.275" overall I was leaving about 0.030" of the 0.452" section above the rim. The upper section or bullet part of the case gauge is 0.250". So when I dropped the completed round in the gauge it hung up on this exposed section of lead. When I seat the bullet to where the crimp just hits the top of the 0.452" section everything is OK, even with the mil. brass. The overall length of round is 1.240". I really appreciate all the help I've gotten on this problem. If I could figure out a way to have Scotty beam you guys to my reloading bench, it would save you and I alot of key pounding. Thanks again.