Looking to list all things that effect reliable feeding, hopefully

[Strtspdlx]

I have been struggling to find out why km having feeding issues in my 10mm 1911, itll feed factory ammo aside from armscor junk without missing a beat, cast lead is a little more quirky. So im curious if people wouldnt .ind starting a "list" of things that could effect feeding and how you may work around them.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

A bad feed ramp, either rough or over polished. A barrel chamber, un-throated or over throated. A recoil spring of improper weight.

[RU shooter]

Your cast bullet nose shape and OAL can effect feeding

[JSnover]

Your cast bullet nose shape and OAL can effect feeding

I'd look at those too, if it doesn't choke on factory loads.

[Dusty Bannister]

In addition to the nose form and diameter of the cast bullet, you might compare the pressure/velocity of the loaded round. If the load it too light, it might not fully cycle the slide and the slide return force might not be sufficient to over come magazine tension to strip the cartridge and feed it properly. If the area of the case mouth is too large, or the chamber is tight, there might be more resistance in allowing the round to chamber. Are those measurments of the factory and reloaded round nearly the same?

[redhawk0]

In no particular order:

type and speed of powder....increase/decrease powder charge load, switch powders.
Shape of bullet/boolit....try RN or TC....could be an issue with HP shape.
Feed Ramp...Check for contamination, polish if necessary
Magazine spring weak...try another magazine
Magazine bent....try another magazine
Weak/Strong slide spring...obtain a replacement
Oversized boolits...check with calipers make sure cases are not bulged.
Check overall length...play with seating depth.

I'm sure there are more...but this is where I'd start.

redhawk

[gwpercle]

What manufacture of 1911 , new from maker or second hand from someone who may or may not have "customized" the feed ramp, changed springs etc. all these things makes a difference .
Some semi-autos are just fussy about what they work with .
What factory ammo works.

[murf205]

I have been struggling to find out why km having feeding issues in my 10mm 1911, itll feed factory ammo aside from armscor junk without missing a beat, cast lead is a little more quirky. So im curious if people wouldnt .ind starting a "list" of things that could effect feeding and how you may work around them.
Do you powder coat? My 10mm 1911 feeds Lee 175's like a charm and they are slick as snot when the "cooking" is done. That coating is hard as woodpecker lips so maybe that is helping them slide up the ramp. I have not tried uncoated boolits in it, mainly because of the success of the coated ones. If you are casting a soft mix, your boolits could be trying to cling to the ramp instead of sliding. What caliber is it? If it is a 45, try a round nose if you haven't already. In my experience, the old Lyman 452374 225 gr boolit will feed in about anything.

[reddog81]

It'd be a lot easier to list the problems you're having and let people trouble shoot those problems rather than list every possible issue and all possible solutions.

[murf205]

My bad, I didn't read close enough, I see that it is a 10mm 1911. Did you get the problem solved?

[35remington]

Feed ramp “polishing” has probably caused far more problems than anything else you can do. Unless you understand exactly what not to do leave it alone.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If factory ammo feeds good, then COAL is probably the largest factor. Meplat size is probably second. If the FTF is caused by the shoulder of a SWC or case mouth...then changing boolit style and/or crimping the case mouth a little more, should help.

[WheelgunConvert]

Do not polish or lube the top surface of the magazine follower.

[Dieselhorses]

Do you powder coat? My 10mm 1911 feeds Lee 175's like a charm and they are slick as snot when the "cooking" is done. That coating is hard as woodpecker lips so maybe that is helping them slide up the ramp. I have not tried uncoated boolits in it, mainly because of the success of the coated ones. If you are casting a soft mix, your boolits could be trying to cling to the ramp instead of sliding. What caliber is it? If it is a 45, try a round nose if you haven't already. In my experience, the old Lyman 452374 225 gr boolit will feed in about anything.

I'm with Murf205. Although my 45 is an older Ruger P90, ANYTHING I powder coat feeds easy. All 4 molds I use are Lee and range from 185-255 gr. SWC, TC, 2R and RF

[Gtek]

Plunk test the first few off press with all new off the path loads?

[Bazoo]

If factory ammo has a different shape or different OAL than the cast reloads then the angle at which the round feeds up off the ramp can change enough that it'll may
bind on the extractor if its not tuned
hit the top edge of the chamber hood
not jump over the feed throats edge
snag on the firing pin hole if it has a sharp edge

Only things I can think of that will cause a 1911 to be ammo sensitive. Im not familiar with the 10mm versions mags, but feed lip design is an issue with 45 mags.

I have 2 mags that have GI feed lips. Both feed ball, of any variety or HPs reliably, but only 1 will feed my truncated lee cast reloads. The other 2 mags I have have, a wadcutter lip and a wilson, feed whatever whenever, just like the 1 GI lip mag. I compared the angles on the 2 gi lip mags, the angle is slightly different, but it makes all the difference.

[mdi]

All my feeding "problems" especially in my 45 ACP handguns has been due to bullet shape. My stock RIA 1911 will feed anything that has a bullet in it, but my Ruger P90 is finiky, won't feed any SWC and a few RNFP will hang up. My Puma can be made to feed SWC, but not without fiddling with OAL/case length, etc. but Ranch Dog design RNFP slip into the chamber easily. Similar results with my other semi-autos. I prefer to get my stock guns to feed by tailoring the ammo for it, mostly bullet profile...

My "just in case" ammo, with JHP bullets, will feed in any gun it's chambered for (2 in 45 ACP and 4 in 9mm). I have tested my JIC handloads in all my guns extensively and have about 1,000 rounds handy in my go-bags...

[jmort]

I have two P90s
Never tried a semi-wadcutter
Eat everthing else no FTF/FTE

[wv109323]

The things I would compare are: bullet deformation- are your lead bullets being deformed whenot they hit and slide up the feed ramp? Also are you getting bullet setback? Look at a few rounds that have been feed into the chamber.
Next is where the cast bullet strikes the feed ramp. This is affected by bullet nose profile , cartridge oal, magazine spring force,and velocity of the slide. The lower the nose on the feed ramp the more force that is needed to slide the bullet up the ramp. Also the lower the bullet hits the more likely of a nose dive.
Next is where the bullet is when the magazine lips release the cartridge. Also the angle of the round when the magazine lips release the rim of the case. The more transition the round has to make to enter the chamber the more likely of a stove pipe.
There are several other things. Like they they say a picture.......

[Bigslug]

Insufficient taper crimp on the case mouth has been my number one item for failure to fully chamber on .45 1911's. Check your diameter there to see if it flares above cartridge blueprint spec. If you're seating and crimping in the same operation, you might need to back the seating stem out and run the die body deeper in the press to get the proper crimp with the same COAL.

The weirdest 1911 malfunction I've seen was about 10-11 years ago with Winchester's Winclean .45, which wraps its jacket around from the back (no exposed lead against powder gasses) and has a bit of exposed soft lead (maybe 1% antimony) at the tip. In Springfields with their house magazines, the stuff would go about three mags and start choking. Turned out the lead tip was hitting the top of the chamber before it nosed down, leaving a smudge. After 20-30 rounds, the smudge got bad enough to hang up feeding. Probably less of an issue with the shallower angles 10mm will be feeding at, but it's something to checklist.

Check how your gun feels when you manually extract a fully chambered round. If it takes a little bit of force to get the gun to unlock, either the bullet is getting jammed into the lands (which you should see on the bullet), or you've got some of those taper crimp issues I already mentioned. My favorite autoloader bullet designs start tapering right at the case mouth, so you don't really have to worry about throat spec.

[BD]

The first thing I do when working on feeding issues in any 1911 pattern pistol is to load up 10 dummy rounds of each style boolit you'd like to use, take the recoil spring out of the pistol, and then cycle full mags through the gun by hand while watching what happens, and when. You should be able to feed all of the rounds using just thumb pressure on the back of the slide. You will also notice that the feed angle varies considerably between the first round, the rounds in the middle of the mag and the last round. Depending on what you observe, you may , or may not, address issues with the boolit sizing, crimp and/or COAL. It's not time to mess with the powder and charge weight until you have the geometry correct so you can easily feed rounds by hand. And, its not time for any gunsmithing unless you find that you cannot achieve the desired results by correcting the ammo dimensions. I have only seen two instances in the last 30 years where the condition of the feed ramp in a 1911 was part of the issue, and one of those was due to a way over done "polish" job. Lack of a proper throat is the much more common mechanical problem.