I have a Rock Island 1911 in 45 ACP that will not reliably feed 230gr ball ammunition (I have not tried anything else). The problem seems to be that the bullet tip catches on the edge of the chamber. It will leave marks on the tip of the bullet "knicks". This does not happen all of the time, maybe 20% of the time it will feed properly. You cannot tap the back of the slide & make it feed the rest of the way. I would like to try some of the simple solutions before giving up & taking it to a smith.

Take a Dremel tool with a fine rubberized abrasive wheel and LIGHTLY polish the edge of the barrel where it is hanging up. I assume that it is hanging on the 12 o'clock edge of the chamber and not the six. Be very careful not to polish a lot of metal away at the six o'clock point because the 1911 has bare minimum support for the cartridge head.

It is hanging at the 6:00 position, just as the bullet enters the chamber from the magazine. Compared to other 45's the machine work on the barrel seems rough.

quote:

LIGHTLY polish

Pay very close attention to that term. Do not remove or grind metal on the ramp, if you get to grinding on the ramp, it is very easy to turn your frame into taost. Polishing is what you want.

First thing I would change out your magazines. Are your magazines the factory ones? Anyway get a chip McCormick Shooting Star 8 round magazine and go back to the range. Wilson also makes good mags and the other excellent mag has a snake associated with it ( cobra, viper ? too early in the AM right now ) but both of those will run more than the Shooting Star mags.

If a light polish and a new mag won't resolve your issues, the next step is recoil springs, and timing issues, but until the above is tried I don't want to go there.

Another question that needs to be asked do you have shock buffs installed? If so remove them, before your test.

Edit: "Compared to other 45's the machine work on the barrel seems rough."

Rock ISland are not my favorite psitols, they have issues, I didn't want to go there, but since you said it first yes thats a fair statement. But don't despair the usually can be made to work well ( ocassionally one will pop up that the frame isn't drilled straight and those are problem frames ) But generally with some fiddling they can be made to function good don't get wrapped around that, think simple fixes first cause most of the time on 1911's its simple problems.

Another thing to consider is that different brands bullets are loaded to a different Overall Length. Try a different brand. Most of my 1911's like slightly longer bullets for best reliability. A bullet that is too short can rise at too steep an angle before entering into the chamber and get caught.

I second the opinion of getting either Chip McCormick Mags or Wilson Mags. Quality mags make a huge difference in reliable feeding. Mark each of your mags in order to determine if your feeding problems cna be traced to a single mag. If so either reserve that one for training to help with immediate action drills or pitch it in the trash. If all the feeding problem is associated with all the mags you may need to send it off to get some work done.

rather than spending a bunch of time and $$ f__king with it I'd just trade it off on a kimber or springy that would work right & have something when I'm done

Just because it is a Kimber or some other make does not mean it will shoot all ammo without a problem. I have several Kimbers. One shoots everything, One will feed Hornady 230 grain XTP, Winchester 230 Harball and Hollow point just fine butt chokes on Remington 230 grain Harball with every mag. Remingtons Ogive is a different shape and this gun does not like it. Third Kimber does not like the Remington Harball at all either and only feeds the Winchester Hollow point OK for the first couple mags before having trouble. This gun will feed the Hornady stuff with zero trouble for well in excess of 300 rounds.

This is why you must try several brands of ammo and bullet styles with a semi-auto and feed it what functions properly through it. This is most important for a self defence gun but is still more fun to shoot for a plinking gun as well. You want to spend their entire range session clearing jams.

Field strip the pistol and place just the barrel back onto the frame with the slide stop inserted through the frame and the link in the barrel. Let the barrel drop back as it would when the slide is racked back. The barrel must be in firm contact with the frame and lined up straight. Run a fingernail up the ramp on the frame and check if it hooks under the bottom edge of the barrel ramp, indicating that the barrel overhangs the frame into the mag well. If it does, this has to be fixed otherwise the thing will never be reliable with any ammo.

To decide the course of action you must determine whether the frame ramp has been modified and the top edge has perhaps been contoured too far forwards. If you can find another 1911 that is positively known to be unmodified, check your barrel in the same manner on that frame.

If your frame has been modified to the present "barrel overhang" condition, my first instinct is to junk it. Someone who has no clue has probably worked on it and there is no telling what else has been done wrong. If junking it is not an option, the ramp has to be welded up and reprofiled. This has to be done by someone who is up to the job and would probably cost close to the price of an aftermarket replacement frame.

If the barrel does not overhang the frame with the barrel in the rearmost position, put a mag with a couple of dummy rounds in the mag well and feed a dummy forwards as though the slide is pushing it. It should be obvious where it is catching and the rough spot can then be polished smooth. Under no circumstances must you remove any metal from the top edge of the frame ramp where the bullet nose will pass over the joint between frame ramp and barrel ramp. The barrel ramp can be profiled forwards marginally and polished. The bottom edge of the barrel ramp can be broken to a smooth round edge but no more.

Let us know how you go.