War Grizzly

My die setup is very close to yours. Rcbs 45 Colt sizer, rcbs 45 acp expander, rcbs 45 Colt to seat bullet, Lee 45 Colt die trimmed off the bottom to crimp. I use 180 gr bullets and I'm able to get away with a 45 Colt die to seat with the die body screwed all the way down to the shell plate and the seater plug almost bottomed out. All this in a Hornady progressive. I put very little thought into this setup and it happened to work so I leave it set. I run 3.2 grn of Clays under the 180 grn bullet. I have loaded lighter but my times did not improve and I felt that they were on the verge of a squib. I have recently switched over to running them though my rifle for a quick reload and that gives me another reason to not run on the fringes of failure. They are nonetheless much lighter in recoil than any 45 Colt case loading I have tried that actually burns clean.

I've had success with a heavy charge of Unique under 200gr XTP. I consider it an ethical hunting cartridge out to 140yds. After that accuracy falls apart and energy drops too low for bullet performance.