what's the concensus on C.O.L for .45acp w/ 230gr coated lead bullet?

Detritus

Detritus

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looking to get an idea of what overall length others are loading their .45s at.

looking in load books there seems no real consistency on what OAL should be used. Hodgdon lists/tested all of their data a 1.20" (pretty much seen as weirdly/abnormally short from what I hear), while all of Alliant's data lists 1.27 (therefore closer to max OAL), and others have OAL all over the place and don't get me started on the various "What's YOUR pet load?" list out there.

I mean IS there a general consensus as to where to set your OAL? beyond the issue of "will your individual gun eat it" that is. and if so what is it?

past year or so I've been loading to around 1.26" and have been thinking about bumping that back to 1.25.

But like I said I wanted to get a feel for what others were actually doing.
 
I load them to around 1.25" and have never had an issue. 1.275" is max so I think 0.025" less is surely acceptable.

I've seen some bullets where loading to 1.20" like @Mike Overlay showed seemed a bit short. The bullet had started to taper towards the point and I didn't like crimping the brass that hard...other bullets it's not an issue.
 
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Mike Overlay said:
230 gr cast and powder coated

View attachment 12785
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230 Lee truncated cone?
That's a different animal if it is.

Which brings us to why they vary. The ogives vary dramatically among different designs, even RN to RN. And vary to a lesser extent mold to mold and cavity to cavity. When playing with cast you either load short or you plunk test and load where it fits, I prefer the latter. If what you were doing worked with those bullets I wouldn't mess with it.
I'm not home, I believe I was loading the cast RN I had at 1.25, and my Lee TC a couple hundreths shorter than above to feed a couple .45s

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Round nose or hollow points feel well in my STI at 1.25". Truncated cones gave me a danged fit until I shortened them to 1.19".
 
It is impossible to answer the COL question unless talking about a specific bullet, and even then it may depend on a specific gun as well.

@Beef15 is spot on about "plunking" the bullet to find out the possible COL limits.

For example, there are two different 230gn plated bullets that I like to use in my 45s, Xtreme 230 RN and RMR 230 HM (hardcore match). If I seat the Xtreme shorter than about 1.225, the ogive starts to recess inside the case mouth, so I generally like to seat those about 1.245-1.250". I can seat them all the way to SAAMI max of 1.275" and they will plunk in all of my guns. The RMR bullets, if I seat them longer than 1.220, they will not plunk and will sometimes not go into battery in one of my guns, so I generally seat those at 1.200".

 
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