les baer wad pistol

I am new to the bullseye game and I am looking at a Les Baer wad pistol. Does anyone know if this pistol fires SWC or just HBWC or is it determined by velocity? Thanks.[i]

HBWC's are for revolvers. The Les Baer 1911 is for SWC, or other .45 ACP ammo....but as a "Wad" gun its set up for target loads...don't shoot store bought ammo through it without upping the recoil springs to handle the recoil!!
A 1911 can be easily and cheaply (<$20) adjusted to handle any .45ACP ammo that you want, but it's important that you shoot the gun with the ammo combination it's set up for. Too hard an ammo, the recoil will batter the gun and damage itself. Too soft an ammo and it wont cycle.
If you buy the gun, ask if the previous owner knows what load it was set up to run. If the seller isn't the original owner and doesn't know what you are talking about, ask them what ammo they have been shooting in it. If they say they were shooting storebought stuff, there are some places you will want to look for wear.

If you want some more guidance and have more questions, give me a call 6o8-445-6816

Thanks, great info.

May I suggest that you talk face-to-face with an experienced bullseye pistol shooter. I also would suggest that you get as much information about reloading ammo as you can. As a bullseye pistol shooter, it is essential that you learn to reload, unless you are very wealthy and can buy your ammo from places like www.rozedist.com You can start out reloading fairly inexpensively with a single-stage press.

I have been reloading for years and have a dillon 550B. I am not farmiliar with Bullseye loads. I am using 231 right now for 40 cal and 45 hard ball.

Yes a Les Baer wad gun will be ready to compete, as for loading for bullseye, 231 is a powder many used for bullseye back in the day, these days people mostly shoot bullseye powder, wst tightgroup and V-310 with 160, 185 and 200 gr, lead swc bullets. you can read what many top shooters are shooting for loads in the ammunition section of this forum here is a link


https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t1209-pet-loads-of-top-shooters

Great. Some favorite powders for target loads with a 185-200 gr. SWC bullet include Bullseye, Clays, Titegroup, Solo 1000 and VV-N310. I've found that American Select is a very good powder as well. You will want to look at getting a velocity of around 760 fps. The Nosler and Zero 185 gr. JHP bullets, although more expensive than the lead bullets do very well at 50 yards. They have to be driven faster than the lead bullets to get the gilt edge accuracy. Somewhere around 828 fps or so should be good.

I just bought a bottle of American Select. They were out of Bullseye and you can also use it for shotshell reloading. I was told it was similar to Bullseye. How may grains are you loading for it?

I use American Select for my light shotgun target loads. It is very similar to Bullseye, but burns cleaner (what doesn't). Try about 4.0 grains of American Select with the 185gr. or 200gr. lead swc. If your gun doesn't cycle well with it, you can bump it up a tenth of a grain or two. Try to seat your bullet so that just a little of the shoulder (1/10" or so) of the bullet sticks up above the case mouth. I like using a taper crimp die in a separate (final) operation and crimp so that the case mouth measures around .470".

BE Mike wrote:I use American Select for my light shotgun target loads. It is very similar to Bullseye, but burns cleaner (what doesn't). Try about 4.0 grains of American Select with the 185gr. or 200gr. lead swc. If your gun doesn't cycle well with it, you can bump it up a tenth of a grain or two. Try to seat your bullet so that just a little of the shoulder (1/10" or so) of the bullet sticks up above the case mouth. I like using a taper crimp die in a separate (final) operation and crimp so that the case mouth measures around .470".

Did you mean to say 1/100 of an inch?

1/10 is a lot

Virgil Kane wrote:

BE Mike wrote:I use American Select for my light shotgun target loads. It is very similar to Bullseye, but burns cleaner (what doesn't). Try about 4.0 grains of American Select with the 185gr. or 200gr. lead swc. If your gun doesn't cycle well with it, you can bump it up a tenth of a grain or two. Try to seat your bullet so that just a little of the shoulder (1/10" or so) of the bullet sticks up above the case mouth. I like using a taper crimp die in a separate (final) operation and crimp so that the case mouth measures around .470".

Did you mean to say 1/100 of an inch?

1/10 is a lot

Yes, 1/10th is too much shoulder to leave out. It should be more like .05". The finished round should look sort of like this:

.032 is what most use, much less than whats in that picture, the old timers say about the thickness of a thumbnail

DavidR wrote:.032 is what most use, much less than whats in that picture, the old timers say about the thickness of a thumbnail

I never measure how much it sticks out to the thousands of an inch. I do use a seater that seats the bullet using the shoulder only. I think I bought it from a fellow named Steve Bathje on e-bay. I don't think it matters how much is sticking out as long as the gun and magazines function well with the cartridge. Accuracy seems unaffected by how deeply the bullet is seated. I don't have malfunctions with this cartridge profile. Your mileage may vary.

Depth of the bullet does effect pressures and velocities, enough to make a difference in accuracy could only be judged by testing. Slightly higher Pressures cased by seating deeper in bullseye loads are not that much of a concern being they are mostly all well below the maximum. The main concern first is function, accuracy is second.

BE Mike wrote:

DavidR wrote:.032 is what most use, much less than whats in that picture, the old timers say about the thickness of a thumbnail

I never measure how much it sticks out to the thousands of an inch. I do use a seater that seats the bullet using the shoulder only. I think I bought it from a fellow named Steve Bathje on e-bay. I don't think it matters how much is sticking out as long as the gun and magazines function well with the cartridge. Accuracy seems unaffected by how deeply the bullet is seated. I don't have malfunctions with this cartridge profile. Your mileage may vary.

I seat mine very similar to you BE Mike. I use the barrel to let me know when the shoulder is just touching the rifling and seat them to that depth. I have never had a lead ring buildup or any other problems seating them out that far. I have however had accuracy issues when I seat them deeper or deep like DavidR states "a thickness of a thumb nail". Perhaps it's like DavidR says and it's from a pressure change more so that the depth of seating and I loose that magic velocity that my barrel performs best at.

Virgil

DavidR wrote:Depth of the bullet does effect pressures and velocities, enough to make a difference in accuracy could only be judged by testing. Slightly higher Pressures cased by seating deeper in bullseye loads are not that much of a concern being they are mostly all well below the maximum. The main concern first is function, accuracy is second.

I agree that pressures and velocity are affected by the depth the bullet is seated. I doubt that the differences we are talking about (a little over a hundredth of an inch) makes any practical difference in bullseye pistol target ammo. David Salyer and Al Dorman developed the "Marine Corps Load". David told me a long time ago that they discovered that when seating the Nosler bullet they didn't notice any appreciable difference in seating depth as far as accuracy is concerned.

Dave S. and others did a lot of testing and ive read what they posted which ive found to be true, as to loading them long into the rifling ive read where that is not effective on a 45 like it is on a rifle round and can cause funtioning issues if the chamber gets too dirty. but what ever works in your gun and provides the 100% functioning and desired accuracy is what you should be using.