1911 failure to feed question

[45crittergitter]

My 1911 .45 will not feed CCI or Remington rat shot. Typically, the round nose-dives into the feed ramp, and becomes pinched between the rear of the chamber and the breechface. The barrel is ramped, and it feeds everything else. This happens with numerous brands of magazines. I suspect I need a special magazine just for these rounds. Can anyone advise?

 

[Dave Sample]

Feed ramps are polished, barrels are throated. Magazines vary and you may find one that will work. I am afraid I can't help you on this one because I only use snake shot in revolvers. I like the way they line their little heads up and try to look down the barrel right before their head goes bye bye.

 

[Old Fuff]

Shot loads in pistols (as opposed to revolvers) often cause feeding problems. At one time the armed forces issued airman shot loads for their .45 pistols for shooting food in a survival situation, but recommended they be single loaded.

Take a round of ordinary .45 hardball and measure it against one of your shot loads to see if the latter is longer or shorter in overall length. This will determine at what point the magazine lips should release the cartridge. It could be that your present magazines are releasing the cartridge too late, and the rim is not allowed to come up under the extractor before the feed ramp kicks the nose up too high, and the slide catches it in the manner you describe. It may be necessary to modify the lips on a particular magazine used for these loads. If so, it doesn’t have to be an expensive one.

 

[45crittergitter]

The Remington roundnose shot load is significantly shorter than hardball, and the CCI flatnose shot load is a little bit shorter. I think they are "nose-diving" into the ramp. Reckon there is a factory mag made to work with these? I hate to mess up even a cheap mag when I don't know what I'm doing. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Old Fuff]

I was afraid of that. When the nose of the bullet hits the feed ramp and the cartridge starts to tilt upward the magazine lips should release the back so that the rim can come up and under the extractor. When they don’t release the round in time, the ramp kicks the cartridge up into a nearly vertical position and the slide then jams it against the barrel face.

Fieldstrip your pistol. Then load one of the “rat-shot†loads into a magazine. Insert the magazine into the frame, and push the cartridge forward until the nose touches the ramp. Mark a line on the magazine lips where the base of the cartridge is. If at this point the magazine lips release the cartridge you should be O.K. If they don’t, (and they likely won’t) the lips need to be shortened to this point. As an alternative you can try all of your magazines to see if one of them happens to work, but I suspect you’ve tried that already.

All automatic pistols are designed around a particular cartridge and configuration. Other configurations may work, but if they do that’s a bonus. Often getting a non-standard cartridge to feed requires some fiddle’n around and modifications here and there. This is one of those times.

 

[45crittergitter]

Thanks much, Fuff. I'll try that next week. I don't think it's poking them upwards; just nosediving them downward into the ramp under the chamber edge. I'll check back after I try that.