Lee Loader

Hi!

I just bought a 1911 (Norinco copy), that I plan to use in the "Wild Bunch" branch of Cowboy Action Shooting.

We shoot at steel plates, so we need non jacketed lead bullets. I know that this gun is picky with different bullet nose designs, but I don't have any experience by myself.

I won't cast my own boolits, so I need either factory ammo or bullets to buy.

Factory ammo in .45ACP with lead bullets I only found MagTech with a semi wadcutter bullets. Has anybody tried these from a 1911 and can tell me if they feed well?

What nose design would be better suitable? I can easily get bullets from these suppliers:
- http://www.laue-geschosse.de/ (click on "Die Geschosse" to see bullet data)
- http://www.pjp-bullets.de/maschine.htm

Both offer a 230gr round nose bullet. Would that be suitable?

But that still leaves me with the problem that I need cases first. Would the MagTech SWC mentioned above work?

Some 1911s will run with SWC and some won't, buy a sample and try them and if they work then buy more. A round nose would be your best bet.

If that is a box stock Norinco then I wouldn't bother trying to shoot a SWC bullet in it. Stick with anything round nose and it should feed them. There is no way other than trying a box of each which will work better for you. Make sure to find a couple of good magazines though as the bulk of 1911 issues are magazine related. Most companies will make a decent 1911 clone only to pack it with the cheapest crummiest magazines they can find and then people think the gun is junk.

I started accuiring every magazine I can get my hands on (for a decent price) a while ago. So I already got 12 mags from different decades and makers to choose the best ones. And I still go on with buying everything I can get for a good price.

The ones that don't work well I will use for another project of mine. I just yesterday registered a small business for things like that... I'll post pictures as soon as the first sample is available. That won't be before I got to test all of them in my gun, I don't want to accidently use good mags.

The 1911 is a unique creature. Any of them will feed any 230 FMJ ,most will shoot 200 RN most of the time. 3/4 will shoot most HPand some SWC 185-230,the RCBS 45-200 SWC was designed specifically for this.
New production guns ''generally'' will fall into the above. About 25% will only ,w/o some fussing w/loads and feed polishing,feed the FMJ and Ball type RN w/minimum driving bands. You may also encounter some that will run fine for a while w/cast and the begin to fail to battery because of the nose bump lead smear (normal by design). The only way to know is to try a few of what you want to shoot, generally but not always if it will run large cavity HPs it'll be among 50% that run 90%,90%. Feed ramp and bbl breech face polishing and sometimes edge breaking are needed in the most ''pure'' GI reproductions . There are also a handfull that take a bbl/slide reworks to run . I think ,based on a lot of reading , that the Norincos generally fall into 2 groups ''hard baller'',200-230 FMJ period or the bump smear, maybe it'll run SWC maybe it won't,some HPs most of the time . The 2nd group is usually made pretty happy w/ feed ramp polish and a little slide polish in the bump spot.

The bump spot is that copper spot on the left inside of the slide that shows up plainly after 20-30 rounds. W/cast it gets ''sticky''.

Also if you will be shooting light lead loads you will in most cases need different weight recoil springs. My kimber even did i have 4different recoil springs for different loads.

By the rule of the game I'm not allowed to use different than standard springs, so I'll have to load accordingly.

Oh I didnt know that. either way keep us posted.

You couldn't know, it's the German rules ;-)

Just curious.... In "Wild Bunch Cowboy Action Shooting" do the loads you shoot have to be a cetain power factor like in practical pistol shooting? Example _ Major power factor is (velocity X bullet weight / 1000 = 165 minimum.)