Polishing the feed ramp

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dondavis3

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I have several automatic handguns and I want to polish their feed ramps.

I know how to break each gun down, so that's not the advise I need.

Can anyone tell me what to use and the steps that they take to do a good job of feed ramp polishing?

i.e. do you use a dremel tool or do it by hand - what grain wet / dry sand paper do you use (or do you use wet / dry sand paper at all)

Thanks in advance for your help.

:smt1099I have several automatic handguns and I want to polish their feed ramps.

I know how to break each gun down, so that's not the advise I need.

Can anyone tell me what to use and the steps that they take to do a good job of feed ramp polishing?

i.e. do you use a dremel tool or do it by hand - what grain wet / dry sand paper do you use (or do you use wet / dry sand paper at all)

Thanks in advance for your help.

:smt1099I
 
Well THE BEST way to polish a feed ramp is to shoot about 500 rounds through it but.....

I know what you mean. I have taken a cotton swab with Mothers Mag and Wheel Polish on it to polish a few marks out of a brand new feed ramp on a pistol. Generally speaking it is not necessary but it wont hurt anything either. Just expedites the process. I know people use dremels but I would not trust myself with one unless it was with the finest possible grit.
 
I would use the dremel with a polishing PAD, not sanding stone or paper, and a good polish. I would wear some eye protection because that stuff can fly. Using the polishing pad with dremel takes all of the elbow work out of it. With the pad it's like doing it by hand, just a lot faster.
 
Dremel with a felt polishing pad is my method of choice, with jeweler's rouge or some other fine polishing compound. You can put a mirror finish on the feed ramp :)

One thing I'm not sure about though is whether this is a good idea on guns that have anodized aluminum feed ramps. What if you remove the anno? That exposes the softer aluminum underneath, is that a good idea? Or will this softer aluminum erode too quickly and shorten the life of the gun?

On a steel feed ramp though, I think you are very safe polishing it as long as you don't use anything harsher than fabric and a fine polishing compound. Should be a slam dunk.
 
If you really feel the need to polish something take the extractor out and look at it under magnification where the case rim has to slide under it. Polish that sucker. Look at the feed lips of your magazines. Polish them. Polish the tops of the follower. Your feed ramp is getting cartridges shoved into it hard enough it really doesn't matter if it polished, as long as it is relatively smooth. They really don't slide up the feed ramp, they bounce up and off of it and head for the chamber. Polishing the inside of the chamber will keep fouling from building up and slowing down feeding and extraction. Remove a minimum of metal and just smooth it.
 
Well THE BEST way to polish a feed ramp is to shoot about 500 rounds through it but.....
Click to expand...

If it ain't broke, keep fixing it until it is.
Seriously, if the guns are functioning properly I recommend leaving them alone.
Click to expand...

Your two best pieces of advice.
 
If it ain't broke-don't fix it----good advice
I had a Sig P-238 - .380 that was failing to extract.
I used a Dremel tool with 2 types of their felt polishers
#422 Felt Polishing Tip---bullet shaped
#414 1/2" Po'lishing Wheels
Using flitz polishing cream-the 422 worked fine on the ramp.
I cut down the 414 by running it on med. sandpaper until it fit inside the chamber & gave it a good polishing.
I cut plastic cotton swabs to about 1 1/2" long --Put them in a Dremel tool & polished the inside of the mag lips & the follower.
Sounds like a lot of work but I have fired approx. 400 rounds out of this weapon w/out any problems.
If your weapon don't need it--don't do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Gotta agree, if it ain't broke...

Go to the gunsmithing forum and look up 1911 feedramp polishing, think its a sticky somewhere
 
If you need to polish the feed ramp:

There are several methods. My method is to use a "SLOW" speed dremel with a "LOOSE FLAP Cotton" wheel and 'White Rouge". This will not remove a significant amount of metal, just polish the surface to a high gloss finish. Don't get in a hurry. Hold the Dremel firmly, so it won't 'climb' out of the area to be polished.

A high speed dremel can do harm to your gun. Removing metal from the feed ramp can do harm to your gun. Using the wrong type of polish can do harm to your gun. A "SEWN FLAP Wheel" will cut in addition to polish and can harm your gun.

I've read where some have success using Flitz.

YMMV. It's your gun.
 
One question. Why do you want to polish your ramps?

Are you experiencing feeding problems?

The only pistol I needed to polish the ramp on was my match 1911 and that was because we were trying to enlarge the chamber/ramp area for faster and more reliable feed/chambering (BTW, it fed and chambered fine before) - we were being taught by seasoned regional match shooters and he made us do everything.

Since then, all of my countless semi-autos shot hundreds of thousands of rounds without polishing the ramp.

If your pistol feeds/chambers fine, you don't need to polish the ramp. Also, many feed problems are due to ammunition/reload and magazine and not ramp/chamber. I would verify that it's indeed the ramp before I polish.
 
It is very seldom necessary to polish the feed ramp of a modern gun from a reputable manufacturer. If it works, certainly there's no reason to mess with it. If it doesn't work right the problem is more likely to be related to the magazine or extractor than the feed ramp.
 
why polish something you can normally only see for a fraction of a fraction of a second anyways?

Echoing the "don't fix what ain't broken" advice.

GL
 
1911Tuner said:
Your feed ramps don't likely need to be polished. Best leave'em alone.

Take the Dremel out in the street and hit it with a big hammer. 5 or 6 times oughta do the trick.
Click to expand...
...one reason I fear buying used firearms...everyone thinks polishing this and that makes it even better...yiikes...Dremel Tool...the pocket gun smith...
Bill
 
Aout 95% of my work with the 1911 platform has been in addressing functional issues. About 75% of that has been addressing failure to feed or failure to return to battery.

In about 75% of those problems, the common denominator has been a polished feed ramp. If the gun in question happens to be with the original owner, my first inquiry was why did he polish the feed ramp.

"Was it not feeding properly?"

"Oh, it fed fine. I just wanted it to feed better.

:scrutiny:

"And...then it stopped feeding?"

"Yep. I just can't figure it out."

:rolleyes:

That some can't figure it out is actually a blessing because the ones that do figure out what's happening usually attack the barrel ramp next...cutting the ramp deep into the chamber and destroying case head support. Then...they can't figure out why their cases are bulging.

Some of'em go straight for the gold and "blend" the two ramps together, eliminating the step between the top of the frame ramp and the lower edge of the barrel ramp. In most cases, those are too far gone to correct without major surgery. Since I no longer have access to a good mill...I refer'em to a custom shop that can install a ramp insert. Most of'em just trade the gun off and let it be somebody else's problem. About half of those get another pistol, and...you guessed it...the first order of business is to polish the feed ramp.
 
If you really feel the need to polish something take the extractor out and look at it under magnification where the case rim has to slide under it. Polish that sucker. Look at the feed lips of your magazines. Polish them. Polish the tops of the follower. Your feed ramp is getting cartridges shoved into it hard enough it really doesn't matter if it polished, as long as it is relatively smooth. They really don't slide up the feed ramp, they bounce up and off of it and head for the chamber. Polishing the inside of the chamber will keep fouling from building up and slowing down feeding and extraction. Remove a minimum of metal and just smooth it.
Click to expand...

+++ 10! :D

The round stripped off magazine don't really "RIDE" the ramp up. What happens is that as the round is stripped off the magazine, the ramp/ramp top "ANGLES" the round towards the chamber and as soon as bottom of case clears the magazine lips, the spring tension on the magazine follower "POPS/PUSHES" the case bottom up the extractor and "LINES" the case straight with the chamber and slide then pushes the case forward.

Slowly chamber a round watching the case bottom "HOP" up to line up with the chamber. The ramp just "BUMPS" the bullet and it really don't "RIDE" up the ramp. For some pistols, you need the ramp angle to feed properly into the chamber by angling/pointing the tip of the bullet towards the chamber. If you polish/grind down the ramp angle too much, you may have feeding problems.

If you are reloading, also check the OAL to see if the loaded round is too long or too short to cause feeding problem. Reducing the OAL to fit your magazine lips, ramp, chamber, extractor to function reliably may be the solution. Too short of OAL also causes the round to jam up against the top of chamber.

Sometimes, not taper crimping the flared bell enough also cases the case to catch on the top of ramp/chamber. Feel the neck of loaded round to see if you feel the sharp flare.
 
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Dremel with a felt bullet tip, and then spin it in a container of JB Bore paste. the nice thing about this is that while the JB Bore paste is a VERY mild abrasive, it will take the scratches out of steel and give you an absolute mirror finish if you work on it long enough. The nice thing is you can't screw things up like you can with a fine stone if you slip while your'e doing it.

I have 3 or 4 EAA's, and in general all the barrels need the breech face and feed ramp dehorned to make them feed reliably, and in some cases you have to lengthen the feed ram down into barrel lug to make everything work. For lengthening the feed ramp I may use a very fine stone, but all the cleanup id done with JB bore paste. It may take 20 minutes of working on it to bring the finish all the way up, but like I said, it's gentle enough that you really can't screw things up by overdoing it for an extra 30 seconds of polishing.
 
1911Tuner said:
"Oh, it fed fine. I just wanted it to feed better.
Click to expand...
Sometimes this is done as part of a "reliability package." I have no use for this. If the pistol is reliable, no work is needed. If it is not reliable it needs to be repaired as obviously it is not functioning as designed.
 
Sometimes this is done as part of a "reliability package." I have no use for this. If the pistol is reliable, no work is needed. If it is not reliable it needs to be repaired as obviously it is not functioning as designed.
Click to expand...

A fair number of mil-surps were designed to fire round nosed bullets, which they do quite well. They were not designed to fire hollow points. I've had 2 mil-surps that would hang up with hollow points. Polishing the feed ramp and rounding off the bottom edge slightly cured the problem. It wasn't that the pistol wasn't working as designed. It was because the designers didn't envision hollow points.
 
i used the tip of my pinkie finger and some MAAS metal polish.. mirror bright.. ;)
 
Some of'em go straight for the gold and "blend" the two ramps together, eliminating the step between the top of the frame ramp and the lower edge of the barrel ramp. In most cases, those are too far gone to correct without major surgery. Since I no longer have access to a good mill...I refer'em to a custom shop that can install a ramp insert. Most of'em just trade the gun off and let it be somebody else's problem. About half of those get another pistol, and...you guessed it...the first order of business is to polish the feed ramp.
Click to expand...

Hilarious.
 
On the 1911Forum, the OP's question was met with almost universal condemnation for wanting to polish all of those feed ramps.

I will join with the 1911Forum response group and say "DON'T DO IT"!
 
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