My new 45acp load for ESP

My wife just messaged me to let me know that my next case of Montana Gold bullets have arrived. Poor postman knocked on the door to make sure someone was home before carrying them up the driveway. Not that I have a long drive way, but the case weighs about 65lbs, so I understand.

Since I’ve switched to ESP, where the minimum power factor is 125,000, I shall be trying out a new load to take my ammo from around 170PF down to about 130PF. I’ll be using 230gr FMJ on top of 3.5gr of Clays, keeping the OAL at 1.260.

I just need to wait until my 10lb wolff spring arrives to test them out, but they should be super soft shooting.

I also have a couple hundred 180gr moly coated bullets from Billy Bullets which I wanted to try out, but I want to load up the 230s first to save me fiddling with the press twice. I have all my brass prepped, so it shouldn’t take long to crank them out after I test a batch.

With the softer recoil spring I’m a little concerned that any friction in “the system” could start to create some return to battery failures. I’d recently smoothed out the breach face and ramp, but I think I’ll also go over the bottom of the slide where it contacts the disconnecter. As well as the recoil spring, I’m also waiting on a 17lb hammer spring which should help with this.

Once I have it all together it’s going to be fun learning how the gun feels in this setup. I’d like to try running through Matt Burkett’s timing drills, as I’ve never done them before.