[MoreIsLess]

My 1911 doesn't seem to like flat nose bullets. I read in my Lymans 49 book that this is fairly common for 1911's unless they have had the barrel "worked on" (wish I had known this before I bought 500 of them). Someone at the LGS told me that you can do the work yourself with a dremel or a wooden dowel with a piece of fine grit sandpaper wrapped around it. He said there are videos that show how to do this.

Anyone ever done this sort of thing or seen the videos?

[Hungry1]

I polished the feed ramp on my Champion with a Dremel and and some compound.

Is your 1911 broken in? Be very cautious removing material from the ramp.

Good Luck

EDIT: Dremel with the fabric wheel.

[Sport45]

Could be the magazine. Do the feed lips on yours taper smoothly outward or have an abrupt step?

Don't start polishing or heaven forbid, sanding on the frame unless you've exhausted the other possibilities.

As for the flat nose bullets, are you talking about semi-wadcutters or truncated round or tapered bullets? What weight bullet?

What 1911 do you have? What magazines?

[angus6]

MoreIsLess going through the same thing now , should get to talk with a great 1911 smith tomorrow, I'll pass on to you what I findout, I'm got a ramped barrel in 38 super

[JerZsquid]

Before messing with a barrel I would try at least one other magazine as well as change the oal a little. Try seating the bullet shorter/deeper to see how it affects chambering.

Also, be more specific- what bullet? What coal?

[918v]

It does like FN. Have you tried different OALs and powder charges and maybe even recoil spring weights?

[steveno]

what 1911 do you have? I just started shooting flat point bullets in my Springfield Range Officer and it has a shorter throat than the Kimber and S & W 1911's I use to have so there has been a little trial and error. now it shoots them just fine. this is the Missouri Bullet 225 gr. flat point bullet

[mljdeckard]

Be SO careful. Dremels in the hands of amateurs keep gunsmiths in business. If it was me, I would at least ask for the help and advice of a smith who knows how to work on 1911s.

[SASS#23149]

I shoot rn fp cast bullets all the time in my Norinco .I set the oal at 1.238 ,a number given to me by a friend that also shoots the cast lead,round nose flat point bullets.

mine are 200 grain,made by a local caster.

[Walkalong]

the LGS told me that you can do the work yourself with a dremel or a wooden dowel with a piece of fine grit sandpaper wrapped around it. This is an outstanding way to mess up.

If the 1911 "ramp" is in the right place, and at the right angle, and the mouth of the barrel is made properly, you might be surprised at what a 1911 can feed with good mags, whether the "ramp" is polished or not. The bullet should just glance off the ramp on the way to the chamber, not ride up the ramp.

The barrel "throat" can also be ruined quite easily.

Let a gunsmith look at it.

That said, a different OAL may feed, or better mags may feed. I used to shoot the Magnus #807 "Bowling Pin" bullet (http://magnusbullets.com/store/page8.html) with no issues in the two 1911's I had at the time. (A Colt and a Springfield. I still have them)

[steveno]

if the 1911 has been made in the last 15 to 20 years the throating should accept any bullets style

[Drail]

Most problems with feeding blunt nosed bullets are caused by the magazine releasing the cartridge too early or too late. Polishing the feed ramp is not going to solve that problem and can cause new problems. Unless you know what you're doing leave the feed ramp alone. 1911s built before about 1980 generally have barrels that have already been throated to feed non-ball ammunition. You really only see the original narrow feed ramp on older G.I. guns. What type of bullets did you buy?

[rdhood]

My 1911 has trouble feeding the 200 Grain SWC from Missouri Bullet. No problem at all with round nose.

It might very well be an oal problem, but since it feeds the 230 Grain RN just fine (and I mean 100% perfectly) I never pursued the problem further.

[MoreIsLess]

what 1911 do you have? I just started shooting flat point bullets in my Springfield Range Officer and it has a shorter throat than the Kimber and S & W 1911's I use to have so there has been a little trial and error. now it shoots them just fine. this is the Missouri Bullet 225 gr. flat point bullet
I also have a SA Range Officer and I also am using 225gr flat points (lead). The gun is fairly new, probably around 1000 rounds through it so maybe it just needs broken in some more.

I've tried several different magazines with the same problem (Springfield stock mags and Chip McCormick). I reseated the bullets from 1.20 to 1.185 using 4.6gr Win 231 and re-crimped them a little tighter. I'm going to try them out tonight and see if that helps.

[ATLDave]

For an unbelieveably thorough and well-written explanation of how 1911's feed, how different bullet shapes interact with the gun, and (most of all) how the magazine influences the above, check this out: http://how-i-did-it.org/magazines/index.html

And also this: http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=9178

And this: http://how-i-did-it.org/magazines2/read-my-lips.html

[918v]

I've tried several different magazines with the same problem (Springfield stock mags and Chip McCormick). I reseated the bullets from 1.20 to 1.185 using 4.6gr Win 231 and re-crimped them a little tighter. I'm going to try them out tonight and see if that helps.

The OAL range you are working with is too short. Try 2.225" to 2.240".

[MoreIsLess]

The OAL range you are working with is too short. Try 2.225" to 2.240".
Did you actually mean 1.225 to 1.240? Hodgdon website shows suggested OAL of 1.200 for 230gr using 231 (I am using 225gr). I have connsistently loaded 230gr with 231 @ 1.235 without issues.

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

Assuming that is what you meant, then, are you saying that the OAL should be the same for FP as RN. The FP bullets are .05 shorter than RN. Seems like the pressure would be lower for FP bullets loaded at the same OAL and powder charge as RN.

[918v]

Yes, I meant 1.225". Yes, the pressure will be lower, so increase the powder charge a little.

Make a few dummy rounds to establish the longest OAL your chamber will accept. Then see if they fit your mag. They should because they're FP. Work up a load using the longest OAL. 1911s work best with longer OALs. Disregard the plunk test. Use the finger pressure test instead. Lead bullets are bigger, they fit the throat tighter, and don't plunk all that well.

[steveno]

I ended up with the oal of 1.210 for the 225 grain Missouri flat point in the range officer. I'm sure with the Kimber or S & W 1911's the oal could be .020 longer

[bds]

1911 doesn't like FN ... SA Range Officer ... using 225gr flat points (lead) ... I've tried several different magazines with the same problem (Springfield stock mags and Chip McCormick)
Even with my Sig 1911 barrel that has very quick start of rifling (almost no leade/free bore) and very tight chamber, Missouri 225 gr TC (Flathead) seated to 1.200" with .473" taper crimp will fall into the chamber freely with a "plonk" and reliably feed from factory/Chip McCormick magazines. Longer 1.220"+ OAL has worked with other 45 pistols with slower start of rifling.
The FP bullets are .05 shorter than RN. Seems like the pressure would be lower for FP bullets loaded at the same OAL and powder charge as RN.
The bullet nose may be shorter, but the bearing surface length is comparable and the bullet base will be seated to similar depth in the case neck. If you compare the lengths of bearing surface below, you'll see that the bearing surface of the TC bullet is slightly shorter and the bullet base will probably be seated a little shallower.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=174141&stc=1&d=1351904965

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=174142&stc=1&d=1351904965

[Sport45]

I load my 200gr SWC at 1.250 +/-.005 to work in my 1991a1 and Springer Mil-Spec.

[mljdeckard]

I used a box of those 200 gr SWCs, fun, easy, nice shooting, and they filled my gun with goop from the lube. I'm sticking with (at the least) copper-plated bullets from now on.

[MoreIsLess]

I've tried seating the bullets from 1.125 all they way down to 1.118 and even the 1.118 wouldn't feed. I kept seating them deeper and deeper until I got something to work which was 1.114. I know that is really short but they work flawlessly at 1.114 and if I go any higher they won't feed properly

[thump_rrr]

I wouldn't mess around with a Dremel on a feed ramp to avoid getting rid of $50-$75 worth of bullets if it came to that.

If the bullet is a truncated cone it should be seated so that just a thumbnails thickness of the ledge sticks up above the case height.
As others have said your mags may also be the culprit.
The first thing I do if something doesn't feed in a 1911 is to try either a Wilson Combat 500 Elite (or 47D) or a Chip McCormack mag.

[918v]

If the bullet is a truncated cone it should be seated so that just a thumbnails thickness of the ledge sticks up above the case height.

No. It should be seated to an OAL where the edge of the flat point contacts the top of the chamber in the same spot as a FMJ. This may result in a thumb nail thickness or five times that. Different OALs need to be experimented with.