Failure to Feed w/Handloads

B

brockgl

New member
I took my 1911 to the range yesterday to put some rounds through 'er after finishing some smithing on 'er. I had just fitted a new hammer, sear, trigger, and grip safety.

Since I did not change anything (other than the hammer) that might affect my gun's cycling, I didn't expect to see any problems with feeding. If I found any problems, I expected them to be with the action/trigger system.

I had no trigger or action problems at all, but I did have some FTF's.

However, yesterday was the first time that I had shot reloaded ammunition through my 1911. And it was ONLY with the reloads that I got the feed issues.

I fired about 150 rounds total, 100 of which were reloads and 50 were FMJ factory ammo.

I got 0 FTF's with the 50 rounds of Winchester FMJ hardballs, but I did get about 5 Failure to Feeds with the reloads I was using.

My reloads were loaded with a standard charge and 230gr Lead Round Nose ammunition. The lead balls are a bit rougher and 'grabbier' than the FMJ's since the lead is soft. So, I figured that this was causing the issue. But I wanted the advice of those here to be sure.

Each of the failures were identical. One round would fire and the next bullet would load ALMOST all the way. In fact, the barrel looked like it was seated and in battery, but you could tell that it wasn't, because the slide failed to shut all the way by about 1/4 of an inch.

Any suggestions for what to look for?
 
Pull your barrel and drop in a factory round, see how it sits.
Turn barrel upside down, round should pretty much drop out.

Drop in your reload, see how it sits (should look like the factory round).
Turn barrel upside down, round should pretty much drop out.

Now if it's not seating all the way I've found one of two things that usually help.

1) You don't have enough crimp and the rim of your reload is too wide to fit all the way into your chamber.

or

2) You have too much crimp (this one especially applies to all lead bullets) and the rim has "squeezed" the lead up and out like toothpaste from a tube thus obscuring the rim of the round.

overcrimp.jpg


I made 100 rounds like #2 before I figured out what I was doing wrong. The lead bullets I used were ruined but once I backed off on my crimp all new rounds worked great. Oh and seating a lead bullet too deep can have this effect as well sometimes.
 
Couple things:

1) Build-up of bullet lube/residue in the chamber, common with lead bullets using a grease groove
2) Bullet seated out to far/improper Over All Length (OAL)
3) Insufficient taper crimp/to much bell at the case mouth
4) Recoil spring to light
 
This is common with reloading lead bullets and is a simple fix. I wont go into what causes it, as the post above pretty much covered it. The best fix I found was the Lee Carbide crimp die. This die should be used in conjunction with the standard taper crip die used on straight wall pistol cased.

The Lee die has a carbide ring on the botton, that allows, on the up stroke of the press, the removal of all rings, wrinkes, or other deformities of the brass cause by belling, seating or crimping the die. It works slick, its cheap, and you reloads will fit any normal chamber. I found this out when 38 WC loads that worked in my revolvers wouldnt work in my Smith 52 WC gun. Now I use it for all my pistols, revolvers, and straight walled rifle cases.

Here is the link, page down until you find the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die
You dont have to use the roll crimp feature.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1229110322.3022=/html/catalog/dies-crimp.html
 
Another interesting topic!

Yes, I too found this to be a common problem; especially with the 1911 types pistols. My experience has been with reloading both jacketed, and lead bullets however.

I cast most of my own bullets; always running them through my Redding lube/sizer; so, I know my lead bullets are consistent.

One thing I've done, exclusively for 45acp is not to use any rim type crimp whatsoever. I use only a taper crimp die; as my last stage of reloading. I find my reloads feed best when I have a .470 diameter at the rim of my brass once reloading is completed.

Hope it helps!
GRB
 
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