Just dug out some excellent reference books on reloading to supplement the standard run of reloading manuals. Thought I'd post these in case the OP might find them helpful:

The Practical Guide to Reloading by Nathan Foster
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/shop/The+Practical+Guide+to+Reloading.html

Metallic Cartridge Handloading by Mic McPherson
https://www.amazon.com/Metallic-Cartridge-Handloading-Pursuit-Perfect/dp/1571573712/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530308166&sr=8-1&keywords=metallic+cartridge+handloading

OMG!!! This is awesome materials for beginner! Thank tou so much.

Didnt get chance to start reloading yet ( too busy with work and side job (

My brother who i helping with some stuff is gone to Russia for world cup for a month. So hopefully ill find time to organize my reloading bench and make some rounds of 45.

Thank you all so much for your input.

Thanks for the reading recommendations. How about doing some digging and post a pdf on the .45acp recipes, specifically using 230 bullet with Accurate #5 or comparable powder. Fast burning.

Alright smartass. Just trying to share some materials I have found helpful. I think the OP is capable of deciding whether they are helpful for him as well.

Hornady 9th Edition has a section for jacketed 230gr. Accurate #5 list for:
6.5gr for 700 fps
7.0gr for 750 fps
7.4gr for 800 fps

There's also recipes for a variety of other powders and also different recipes for 230gr LRN.

I'm pretty sure there's a newer version Hornady 10th Edition available now.

God bless you kind sir, jeesh. Cheers! :)

My apologies benchmark for my snarky response yesterday. I mistakenly read your post as a sarcastic criticism of the reference book recommendations and was a little hot under the collar. Sorry for misreading your post and please accept my apology for my response.

On the topic of recommending specific reloading recipes, I'm usually a bit hesitant to post up specific recipes online, especially hotter loads. It's always best for a new reloader to start very cautious at the low end of the powder charges in one of the published reloading manuals and work slowly up towards max load taking into consideration their particular firearm and reloading goals. Best approach is to recommend one of the modern edition reloading manuals for a new reloader to review for their desired powder type to figure out an easy starting load for experimentation at the range with chronograph.

I'm pretty partial to the Hornady reloading manual for straight wall pistol/revolver cartridges although there's lots of good rifle data in there too. The manual contains excellent work ups for the 45 Auto and 10mm referenced by the OP as well as many other pistol, revolver, and bottleneck rifle cartridges as well.

The Lee manual is also a very good reference for revolver and pistol cartridges, particularly if looking for load recipes for lead bullets.

My reloading centers around 38 Special using Unique and 9mm using Power Pistol as well as several obscure bottleneck cartridges for IHMSA competition. I can help comment on specific loads for those cartridges but would defer to MadPick on 45 ACP as he reloads fairly extensively for that cartridge.

Hello everyone.

Finally found some time to learn reloading.
Here is my first test 10 rounds.
MadPick recipe COL 1.23, 4,5grn of titegroup.

Have couple questions.
This slight variation in powder charge and COL.
Comparing to factory Remington ammo COL variations is nothing.
How crucial this slight variations?

Also have different bullet sitter “pins” one funnel like and one flat. Im using plated round nose bullets. Should i use funnel like pin?

Using powder charge that came with the press.

Out of 20 drops had couple 4,4grns and 4,6 grns but most - 16-17 charges was 4,5grns.

For round nose bullets, use the rounded seating stem that came with your die. The flat one is used for flat-nose or hollow-point bullets.

Some fluctuation in powder charge is normal with the powder drop. What you described -- a couple 4.4, a couple 4.6 and the rest 4.5 -- sounds like what I would expect to see.

Some fluctuation in OAL is also perfectly normal. I don't understand what the numbers mean that you've written on the paper so I can't comment on those, but you'll definitely see some fluctuation in OAL even when everything is tightened down. Part of this is due to differences in bullet shape from one to the next.

Remember that it's good reloading practice to start with a low charge (like the minimum charge in your book) and work your way up to a higher charge, so I would suggest finding that minimum charge, loading a couple of rounds at that, then maybe a tenth of a grain higher, then a tenth higher than that, etc. until you get to 4.5.

Thank you so much for your reply.

Sorry for the poor quality of the images - forum doesnt allow to attach big files. (((

Numbers on the paper is OAL that goes from 1.23,10 to 1,23,60 inch. And crimp measurements tagt goes from 46,75 to 47,05 where majority was 47,00.

Any suggestions on cheap chronograph?

Also by what i can find online and by measuring different brand ammo in 45acp looks like OAL is around 1.26 in most cases. Your recipe is 1.23 isn’t it short? Or its a combination of powder charge, type of powder, bullet and OAL in order to achieve specific pressure - performance characteristics of the load and the one you use if fine with OAL of 1.23?

Hi Tim one thing to keep in mind when buying a chrono is how often you'll be doing load development & testing. In my case, it turns out to be an occasional thing so I picked up a Competition Electronics Pro Chrono. This has worked pretty well for my needs. There are other models in a similar price range around $100-$125 including Shooting Chrony and Caldwell. MidwayUSA has a good selection along with buyer reviews.

A LabRadar would be awful nice but also awful expensive in the $500-$600 range. I would only drop that cash if I was doing more or less continual load development work for many calibers.

Thx. Just want to know how fast my projectiles are going. To be able to evaluate the load. Dont have knowledge/experience to just go by feel like 5grn is a weak bang lets do 12grn to get strong bang )

Most likely will set up my loader with one load and will do bunches of 1000 rounds or something. This is the reason why i got progressive reloader. Want to make ammo cheaper than in store to shoot more.

Will go with cheap chrono for sure )

Ah, I get it. The photo wasn't the issue, I just wasn't familiar with your number format.

All right, looking at the numbers they all look good to me.



Dave gave some input above on cheap chronographs.

However . . . my advice would be to either:

1) Don't buy a chronograph. If you're just reloading stuff like the .45 here and it's just for target shooting, you really don't need one. Ultimately, you really don't care whether that bullet is going 790 fps, or 840 fps, or 890 fps. Load to a safe pressure (look at the brass and use published data), make sure it functions your gun, and pay attention to the feel of the recoil.

2) Or . . . if you really need/want one, buy the Labradar. I'm serious. Don't fuck around with the cheap chronographs. While they work just fine, they have two big disadvantages:
- They require that you call a cold range, go downrange to set it up, then do a bunch of fiddling to get them set up correctly while all the other shooters are staring at you. Yeah, if you shoot by yourself in the woods then this isn't an issue. If you shoot at an indoor range, you probably can never use a regular chronograph.
- Since they're sitting downrange . . . they can be shot. Trust me on this.
The Magnetospeed doesn't have the two disadvantages above, but it has limited usefulness for pistols and some rifles.
If you're going to do it . . . do it right. Buy the Labradar.



Yes, my .45 reloads are shorter than most at 1.23. I did that because early in my reloading "career" I had some rounds that were too long to fit into my P220 magazine, so I shortened them up. The 1.23 length has worked fine for me so I've stuck with it . . . but yes, longer is more normal and works fine for most people.

There's nothing magical about my reload recipe, but for me it works fine with the 1.23 length.

In the old days, we to teach reloading classes here in Renton, and taught a lot of people here, and on SGN to reload.

Once the demand for brass and bullets became more time consuming for us, we were forced to stop classes, as the components became a full time operation for us.

Can't go wrong with all the experience here on the forum.

If you fine yourself needing supplies, feel free to check out our website. On occasion we can do local pick up, and drop off of brass and bullets.

https://sagesreloadingsupply.com/

^ Sages rocks! Definitely look them up for components.