1911 9mm feed problems

[cernstus]

I'll know more come wednesday. I ordered one of wilson's etm magazines. I talked to matt at wilson about the lack of front skirt on the metalform magazines. I will also have a much lighter recoil spring. Is there anyone out there with a unramped 9mm who could give me some hope? I'm pretty fired up about shooting 9mm single stack. Virtually no muzzle flip, It should shave volumes off my time with follow up shots.

 

[Traxxis]

Hmm.... for me, I would worry about not having enough support for the chamber with the higher psi of the 9mm.

Atleast, this is what Larry at Nighthawk said to me when I inquired about a 9mm slide for my GRP.

 

[grwd]

Hmm.... for me, I would worry about not having enough support for the chamber with the higher psi of the 9mm.

Atleast, this is what Larry at Nighthawk said to me when I inquired about a 9mm slide for my GRP.

Dont worry. There is a bit of truth there, but unramped 9mm barrels are fine for brass support if they are built right. They, on the other hand, like we've been saying, are not the most inherently reliable. Do you think Nighthawk would rather build a ramped or unramped 9mm gun?
He certainly wasnt going to tell you that he didnt want to make a unramped 9mm top end because they couldnt guarantee it will work and it wasnt worth their time to do. Which is closer to the whole truth, Im sure.

 

[cernstus]

I have also been trying to run 147 flat nose bevel base bullets, think i'll switch to round nose and give those a try.

 

[Rob72]

Ouch. It's gonna have to be ball, or a pretty truncated HP, if it isn't almost a direct feed. Wilson mags built their rep for reliability by essentially free-floating the round into the chamber- from a Wilson, the round is unlikely to touch the throat much, if at all. Find a high-sitting mag (I suspect what you ordered will be) and go from there.

Edit: I would say you're going the wrong direction on your spring, as well. Stay with whatever # STI or Springer list as stock on their comparable frame 9mms. STI uses right beastly springs in their LS/BLS, but they do run.

 

[Buzzdraw]

A recoil spring in the 11-14# range should be good for a 5" 1911 9mm.

The guys that get into trouble with blown cases in a 9mm 1911 with a non-ramped barrel often have over-relieved the feed portion of the barrel. If a standard pressure 9mm factory round is bulging in the case head area, that's usually the cause. A non-ramp 9mm barrel, properly installed, will be perfectly safe firing factory pressure ammo.

Best of luck finding a mag/bullet combo that will run 100% with the .45 ramp frame and non-ramp 9mm barrel. The FMJ suggestion is certainly a good one.

 

[cernstus]

Well, heres an update. I have given up on the flat nose bullets and switched to 125gr round nosers and those with a 9lb recoil spring run great! I'm now gonna play with powder charges to get just the right amount of recoil vs. power factor. I could probably bump up to a 10 0r 11lb spring.

 

[Rob72]

Is this a sporting gun...? Hornady XTPs or their new poly-tipped whatchamacallits would probably feed well, and deliver all the power you could want.

 

[cernstus]

this is just a gun i'm using for some uspsa shooting fun. I finally got the thing running like a charm. Had to switch to the 125gn round nose bullets and i'm running about an 11 pound recoil spring. Feeds fine out of all the metal form magazines and the one wilson ETM mag I bought. Now it's just balancing the load to meet power factor. Right now its 4.2 of w-231 over the lead round noses pushing around 1050 fps. Mild recoil, fun to shoot!

 

[cernstus]

Shot the match at H&H this weekend, no problems, think I got it worked out. I will definately be doing a ramped barrel in the future though.