rosewood
Senior Member
honestly the feed ramp is the last thing to look at on a 1911 on feed issues
magazines and extractors are 1st on the list of most common problems
the actual feeding of the round onto the extractor's hook is the issue there..extraction is the 2nd thing it does
following that can be the barrel setback away from the feed ramp
yes polishing the feed ramp can help but not the most common issue.
Afraid to say I've seen many 1911 messed up by improper "polishing" of the feed ramp. so be careful and stay way from Dremels
I have to disagree on a Dremel. I polish the feed ramp of every handgun I own with a Dremel. It is about how you go about doing it. I take a small barrel shaped grinding stone then wrap it with 1000 grit and then 2000 grit sand paper. Gently go over the surfaces following the factory curvature with the 1000 grit then progress to the 2000 and you get a mirror finish. The trick is going slow and using a fine polishing wheel or sand paper in this case. Do not let the stone itself hit any metal, it is way too coarse for this task.
One thing to always remember on a 1911. Never, ever drop a round in the chamber and let the slide slam on it. Always load a round from the magazine. The 1911 extractor is rigid and not flexible or spring loaded like a lot of modern semi-autos. That practice will bend your extractor overtime and most definitely cause feeding/extraction issues eventually and will require you to re-tune your extractor or replace it. I had done this several times and then began having issues and no one knew what I was doing wrong. I then hit someone's post online that explained the issue. I replaced and tuned the extractor and haven't had an issue with a 1911 since.