store bought fired brass?

[x101airborne]

Look at Midsouth Shooters Supply for "NoBull" brass. Thoroughly cleaned, bulge buster sized range brass. 45 Auto is sorted by primer size already and barely pennies over non cleaned or sized range brass from other places. Has nearly a 5 star review rating. Whenever I need bulk auto brass that will probably be lost in the pasture, I look for their stuff.

[ridenshoot]

An interesting quote from John Taffin in Guns Magazine.

"all of my .45 ACP rounds — and I do mean all — no matter what bullets I am using, are loaded the same way. First all brass is sized using the Lee Undersized Carbide Sizing Die, then case mouths are expanded just enough to accept the bullet using the Lee Universal Expanding Die. After placing the proper powder charge and seating the bullet without crimping, I then turn to the Lee Factory Crimp Die. All of this ensures reloads will function in any 1911 I happen to use."

Here is a link to the full article in case you are interested:  gunsmagazine.com/ammo/handloading-the-45-acp/

[gregs]

What size bullets? They need to be .451 or your barrels need to be throated.

[singleaction]

I have never loaded 45 ACP, but I’ve had instances with other cases where “spring back” was the issue. This is where case gauges really come in handy. The solution for me was simply counting a couple of seconds before pulling the case out of the die. I get the most spring back with military 5.56 brass. I can see where the undersizer might speed things up. The spring back after under sizing, without counting a couple of seconds, might bring your cases right where you want them.

[wheat]

Received the bulge buster set up and things are working better. Will continue to load and shoot.
The bullets I was originally trying were Berry 185 grain plated bullets. They seem to wrinkle the plating while seating if I don't expand case mouths enough. I don't know if that added to the problem.
Currently concentrating on loading Lyman 200 grain cast SWC sized to .452.
Happy New Years.