1911 - My pistol won't feed the first round. What's wrong?

[Steve in Allentown,]

The top picture below is of a fully loaded magazine locked into the magazine well. The bottom picture shows a failure-to-feed of the first round where the nose of the bullet is jammed against the frame feed ramp. This malfunction is commonly known as a nose dive stoppage.

Many folks will suggest switching magazines, switching ammo, checking the slide stop for bullet contact, or replacing the magazine catch with an EGW Higher mag catch. While one or more of these may fix the issue none of them address the underlying problem which is most often due to geometry problems with the frame feed ramp. Specifically, the feed ramp angle and/or the ramp depth are not correct.

The image below shows the correct angle of the feed ramp as specified by John Browning. Unlike most of the dimensions for the pistol, the feed ramp angle has no +/- tolerance. It is to be exactly 31.5 degrees. In practice it is a magical number. Too steep and cartridges won't feed. Not steep enough and cartridges may escape the magazine due to inertia. The Goldilocks Principle is in play here. Not too much, not too little, just right.

In addition to the correct angle the frame feed ramp must extend far enough down into the frame to make contact with cartridges that nose dive. Ideally, the ramp should extend from the top of the frame rails downward .400" which is just about at the bottom of the frame cut out for the slide stop. The longer the ramp, the better but often a ramp that is .360" is sufficient. It all depends on other dimensions within the pistol.

The barrel bed itself must not under any circumstances measure less than .246" from the top of the ramp to the VIS. Otherwise the structural integrity of the pistol will be compromised. The longer the barrel bed, the better.

Below is a collection of pictures showing bad ramps and good ramps in terms of ramp length for .45 1911s.

#1 - bad ramp. Does not extend far enough down into the mag well.
#2 - good ramp. Extends to the bottom of the slide stop frame opening.
A - good ramp.
B - good ramp.
C - bad ramp. Does not extend far enough down into the mag well.




If you want to get a rough idea of the angle of a feed ramp you can get one of these Empire protractors from Home Depot for something less than $10. You'll have to shorten the arm enough to allow it to fit in the magazine well. While it's not a highly precise machine tool, it will let you know if the angle of a feed ramp is grossly wrong. A real machinist/1911 'smith will have the right tools (expensive) to determine the exact angle and depth of a frame feed ramp. They can also correct ramps that are bad. Correcting feed ramps is a job best left to a professional.

FYI, here's how a professional 1911 'smith fixes an out-of-spec frame ramp.

[KyJim]

Thanks for the excellent post and the photos from Chuck Rogers. I immediately noticed the feed ramp did not look right to my untrained eye. A Wilson Combat magazine may have fed the pistol okay because the rounds sit higher in them. But, I don't want a 1911 that can only use one or two types of magazines.

[Geezerbiker]

I had that problem when I first got my Springfield Armory 1911 back around 1992. The problem was that the Shooting Star 8 round mags would tip the top round much further down than the 7 round mags that J.M.B. designed. So I had to either use the SS mags with military hard ball ammo only or use the standard 7 round mags.

I bought a couple good quality 7 round mags and I've never looked back.

Tony

[dahermit]

Originally Posted by Geezerbiker

I had that problem when I first got my Springfield Armory 1911 back around 1992. The problem was that the Shooting Star 8 round mags would tip the top round much further down than the 7 round mags that J.M.B. designed. So I had to either use the SS mags with military hard ball ammo only or use the standard 7 round mags.

I bought a couple good quality 7 round mags and I've never looked back.

Tony

Or you could have Kept the magazine tubes, swapped-out the followers and springs for followers and springs designed for seven rounds as JB originally designed.

[Geezerbiker]

I did keep them but I only put 7 rounds in them now. With only 7, they top round doesn't tip down as far. Also with 230g FMJ, bullets, it feeds fine but it was cramming HP's back in the case.

I used to carry it all the time. I would drop the mag, cycle the slide and then put the top round in my pocket. When I reloaded it, I'd rack the slide, drop the mag and put the round from my pocket in the mag. So the top 2 rounds got fed and ejected a couple times a week. Over a couple months it was obvious I had a problem.

I about went nuts figuring it out. I stripped the slide and then feed the round out into an empty slide so I could see what was happening. Before that I polished the frame and the feed ramp area on the barrel and a few things I don't remember any more. Anyway I figured it was worth sharing...

Funny story, I was teaching my daughter to shoot mu 1911 about then and she was very good with a 9mm. She's a tall girl and at 9, was as tall as most 12 year olds so, I figured the .45 wasn't to much more so I let her fire it. Bad decision. She became so recoil shy of it the gun became more wild with ever retelling of the story. When she was 12 I told her that if she would try it again and didn't like it, I'd never bring it up again. She shot 400 rounds out of it that day... Now as an adult, she's just shy of 6 feet tall and a hell of a good shot.

Tony