COAL for Hornady XTP 230g JHP

[mrchongo]

I'm having trouble feeding my reloads into my 1911 Gov't model (build in 1915 and refurbed at Augusta Arsenal). They'll drop into the chamber and fire just fine, but they won't feed from the magazine. I did a lot of looking on various powder and bullet manufacturers sites, and all I could come up with was one reference to a 240 g JHP with a COAL of 1.20". Mine are at 1.25" and the nose of the JHP catches on the ramp. It hardly seems that 5 hundredths would make that big a difference, so I'm wondering if it's the 1911, not the cartridge. Can any body give me a checklist of things to run through to troubleshoot and fix this problem. My buddy with his new Glock Gen4 G21 is laughing at me telling me to give up my 97 year old boat anchor, but damned if I will. Thanks in advance for your help.

[john16443]

Hornady information indicates about 1.225 or 1.23, which pretty much splits the difference with what you found and what you load. Accuarte Arms on-line guide version 3.5 also indicates 1.23 for the 230gr XTP. Yes, that much can make a difference in some guns.

Your refurbishment may have resulted in a slight modification to your unramped barrel that may not allow feeding of other than RN or RS type bullets. Are you having trouble with loading other bullet types?

[Rubline]

Are you trying different magazines? Nose of the bullets jamming on the ramp would seem that the mag spring is too weak. Try different mags before doing anything else.

[UrbanSI]

I've loaded them all the way down to 1.195" with a healthy charge of various powders, all of them feed and shoot very accurately.

I now load them at 1.20" and they feed well in all but one of my short throat 1911's

[cololab]

With one of my .45 pistols, I've had to drop cartridge OAL down from what would otherwise run fine in the other guns. A little bit of a reduction made a huge positive difference in feeding. As long as you're not compressing the powder charge, there shouldn't be a downside.

[nevada 1911]

Load the 230gr xtp to 1.230-1.235 for my Colt 1991 NRM, 6.3-6.4gr Universal.

The most accurate load I've found, 10-15yds 7 rds 1.5'' hole, good enough.

[gorley]

According to my notes, I've loaded them at 1.235 +/- .005" with good results.

[dillehayd]

I've run about 1000 of the 230gr HAP (xtp w/o the cuts) from 1.23 to 1.24 with maybe 5 or 6 FTF's. Too many for a SD round but fine for my use (competition).

[Rifter]

The Hornady #7 manual list 1.23" as the proper length for that bullet. That should work fine, but at the very least its a good place to start.

If that pistol is really built in 1915 you ought to give it honorable retirement, and get one made from modern steel. Those old guns are not heat treated nearly as well as post-war and current commercial guns. I had one made in 1918 and you could see the wear on it because of that.

[djthemac]

Originally Posted by dillehayd

I've run about 1000 of the 230gr HAP (xtp w/o the cuts) from 1.23 to 1.24 with maybe 5 or 6 FTF's. Too many for a SD round but fine for my use (competition).

Why are you using hollow points for competition?

[FLSlim]

First off, welcome to the forum!

For reliable function out of my 1911s, I had to go down to 1.22" with Hornady 230 XTPs. At that OAL they've been great. Just 0.01 can make a huge difference with 1911s and JHP bullet designs.

It sounds like you may have as much of an issue with your mags, though. You didn't say what you were using, but one of the hybrids might help with feeding???

[dillehayd]

Originally Posted by djthemac

Why are you using hollow points for competition?

Because I'm a mad man with more money that sense.

But seriously... I've tested them vs. PD FMJRN's and gotten better groups in my gun . I do have to be a little more careful with the HAP's as any denting of the tip will can cause it to hang up and FTF.

Also, I shoot an indoor IDPA match most Mondays and the jacketed base is a little peace of mind. I don't shoot un-jacketed ammo at all. I know it's an arguable point but lead exposure is something I want to minimize to a reasonable extent.

Like I said, I don't think the reliability is good enough for a self defense round but, for me, it's more than good enough for a competition round and the accuracy trade off is more than worthwhile.

[zanthor]

In my extremely limited experience I loaded ~150 rounds at 1.25 OAL and while they worked fine from the three $10 magazines I got at cheaper than dirt, they would bind up in the stock magazine that came with my RIA. I shortened the round down to 1.23 and this behavior seemed to clear up.

[Rifter]

Originally Posted by zanthor

In my extremely limited experience I loaded ~150 rounds at 1.25 OAL and while they worked fine from the three $10 magazines I got at cheaper than dirt, they would bind up in the stock magazine that came with my RIA. I shortened the round down to 1.23 and this behavior seemed to clear up.

My RIA Tactical had teething problems when new as well. I replaced the mag catch with one that locked the mag in place higher in the mag well, and ordered a bunch of 7 rd GI type mags from Checkmate. That solved 98% of my problems.

Would've ordered the mags in any case, as I do not like 8 rd mags in the .45, but the mags that came with the gun are crap. Both of the ones I got had the notch that locks it in place cut too wide, and even with the new mag catch they were not a tight lockup. Also didn't like the junk hanging off the bottom of 'em.

[Wrightturn]

Slight change in OAL can make a difference. If you are having nose dive jams the release point on the mag can be adjusted to stop the problem. I have quite a few old mil spec mags that I adjusted with the tools from Brownells. I was shooting SWC cast bullets in near stock GI pistols without any modification. If I could have those back I would be very wealthy. I have only seen one pistol from that vintage fail. The frame cracked and the crack had been cut out. The gun was still shooting.

[zanthor]

Originally Posted by Rifter

My RIA Tactical had teething problems when new as well. I replaced the mag catch with one that locked the mag in place higher in the mag well, and ordered a bunch of 7 rd GI type mags from Checkmate. That solved 98% of my problems.

Would've ordered the mags in any case, as I do not like 8 rd mags in the .45, but the mags that came with the gun are crap. Both of the ones I got had the notch that locks it in place cut too wide, and even with the new mag catch they were not a tight lockup. Also didn't like the junk hanging off the bottom of 'em.

Apologize for the derail.

My RIA problem was the reload being too long for the magazine, not the magazine failing to feed. The 3rd or 4th round in the mag jams and causes sprint tension to be lost, if you lock the slide back and flip the pistol upside down all the rounds on top of the jammed bullet fall freely out.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread.