What’s your WST charge in your 45?

Is anyone here using WST in their 45? If so what has been your experience and powder charges? I usually load 200 grain LSWC with Bullseye but I also have some 185 LSWC on hand to try. If you’d be willing please share your Bullseye (185 gr LSWC) or WST (185 or 200 gr LSWC) powder charges. I’m looking for a good place to start and don’t want to burn too many primers too fast in the load testing.

Bullseye - 3.8gr with 185, 4.0gr with 200

WST - 4.1 grs 185 LSWCHP - slide mounted red dot, 11# recoil spring

4.5 w either 185 or 200 lead.  1.5” out of three different Eulette builds.  That load is for 50 yards, 4.2 for 25.

3.9 wst for 200G
4.0 wst for 185G
4.3 wst for 160G
slide mounted optic.

For the Zero 185 LSWCHP I run 4.0 Bullseye. When I did some ransom testing 3.9-4.1 grouped similarly so I split the difference and went with 4.0.

I’ve shown this target before, so bear with me.

180 Brazos SWC
4.3 Bullseye
Mixed Small primer brass.  (Mostly Blazer, Federal and some WIN NT)
WSP primers

I have not loaded much with WST, but I’d try the same load to start with up or down a couple of tenth’s maybe.  

Not hard to like.

Iron sights -  Ransom Rest -  4.0 WST - 200 LSWC   Ten shots @ 50 yards




I have had good luck with WST in my Autos from 4.0 to 4.5 grains.  The heavier loads were used on my slide mounted optics 1911s.

Zero 185 gr SWCHP with WST @ 25 yards from Ransom Rest.

Tired 4.0 grains of WST with a 200 grain LSWC. Definitely not the right load but I’ll try another.

Hiya,
4.55g WST, WCC cases, REM LP . I use one powder charge so I don’t have to deal with changing the adjustment. I find it takes about 50 cycles for the Dillon measure to hit its sweet spot of consistency. The charge figure is an average of 30 drops after the charges settle in to negate the .1g tolerance of powder scales.
160g lead flat base w/ sharp shoulder for 25yds, 875 fps
185g lead flat base w/ sharp shoulder for 50 yds, 820.5 fps
The above ave velocity figures are from 4 different 1911’s with a Kart, Bar-Sto, GI bag NM, and a no name from the Springfield custom shop.

Tom

3.9 of WST shot MUCH better but it was soft shooting and the brass is not clearing gun with much room for error. The slide does lock back on the last shot though so the slide is moving rearward enough. I’m not sure I’ll bother trying anything below 3.9. I believe it’ll be too slow for reliable function. So I guess next I’ll try 4.1 maybe.. 3.9 shot well enough though that I have no problem just loading ammo and training / competing with it.

Tim:H11 wrote:Tired 4.0 grains of WST with a 200 grain LSWC. Definitely not the right load but I’ll try another.

I'm curious as to what happened, since 3.9 is OK.

Thanks!

DA/SA wrote:

Tim:H11 wrote:Tired 4.0 grains of WST with a 200 grain LSWC. Definitely not the right load but I’ll try another.

I'm curious as to what happened, since 3.9 is OK.

Thanks!

Idk scientifically.. but it shot tighter

Thanks!

I like 3.9 WST ,185 zero with a 9lb recoil spring. shoots  great.

4.0gr WST with 200 SWC, iron sights

Does crimp seem to make a difference in accuracy with WST? How about complete powder burn?

My experience with WST has been with 4.2grs for reliable function with a slide mounted Ultra Dot 4 dot with a 12.5lb recoil spring and a 19lb hammer spring. The crimp I use is a .465" tapered crimp shooting 185gr Zero LSWCHP bullets. At Perry I have to increase the powder charge .1grs or drop the recoil spring to 11lbs. The super tight barrel fit from a Eulette build that snaps in and out of battery can be balky since the gun still needs some more break in so I stick with a heavier powder charge with the 12.5lb recoil spring.

I started out with .463 crimp and have recently eased up to .466. It also has a slide mounted UD. I like the WST its a lot cleaner than BE. Also a bulkier powder so I find it easier to load. I switched back to BE couple weeks ago and had some trouble so thats enough of that. Dont really know how to check for unburnt powder so I  can't speak to that..

3.7 grains of WST with 185g LSWC (frame mounted optic)

popchevy wrote:I started out with .463 crimp and have recently eased up to .466

Hey popchevy, any particular reason why? Did you notice a difference afterward, positive or negative?

I was concerned about that much crimp, but did some tests with the Redding micro adjustable taper crimp down to 0.463" and found the bases still measured 0.452" so have felt comfortable with the heavy crimp as recommended by some of the experienced reloaders on this forum and at Atterbury. Using Zeros

I am using starline brass and have had trouble with the cases splitting, so I eased up on the crimp. However the brass has been reloaded many ,many times. I think it's time to retire them. With that crimp the gun still shoots fine.