Remington 1911 r1 hollow point question

[birddog2]

After reading all of the glowing reviews about them, I bought one ( maybe the only one) that won't eat hollow points of any kind. My question is, has anyone else ran into this. I know the manual says 230 fmj 850 fps Blah Blah Blah. Just seeing if anyone found a hollow point that fed well. without buying and trying a bunch of ammo. I also reload 45's and if anyone has a pet load, I would all ears. OAL doesn't seem to make difference either or different magazines. Will probably carry with FMJ's just for reliability reason, don't think it really matters with a 45 anyway. Ball ammo has been knocking people down for a really long time. Great gun otherwise!
Thanks

 

[NOLAEMT]

does it have a throated barrel? Most 1911's with GI style unramped barrels do not do well with hollowpoints.

 

[Skylerbone]

Without a long discussion on why, suffice it to say that Remington's R1 does not follow spec. and by all examples I've seen to date has either a mis-cut frame ramp or a mis-cut barrel leaving almost no gap between the two. If it will not feed HP correctly I would contact Remington and see what they say. No offense (and I'm a Remington fan) but the R1 is one to avoid.

 

[Casefull]

I would cut a feed ramp in it if it does not have one...no reason to have a 1911 that will not shoot any ammo well. I shoot 185 hp handloads on top of 7g of unique.

 

[PRM]

Had my R1 for close to a year now and it has been flawless. But, all I shoot is ball ammo.

I know the manual says 230 fmj 850 fps

I guess if that bothers you - it would be easy enough to fix. Thats the big plus with a 1911 platform - options are endless. I'm personally not a big fan of HPs. In fact, I rarely shoot it in any of my guns. I'm not convinced they always work as advertised and its pretty much a given there are no guaranteed one shot stops with any hand gun cartridge. I'll take the most reliable as far as function any day.

No offense (and I'm a Remington fan) but the R1 is one to avoid.-Skylerbone

Don't agree on that one. I've been shooting 1911s since the 70s (Colts). And, to me a Colt is the 1911. My R1 out of the box has far out-classed my other guns in its stock configuration. But, in all fairness, it comes standard with options that were after market on my older guns.

 

[Skylerbone]

It comes with a feed ramp, don't cut anything!

Have a look-see at the VIS and tell me what's missing PRM. I own several Remington firearms and had fully intended to add the R1 to my list just because. I was not impressed with the early samples, saw some improvement in fit and finish but could not overlook the egregious errors made in machining. I've verified in person what I saw online and can only comment that it is neither a safe nor reliable 1911 for extensive use.

I'm not a "mine is perfect" kind of guy, I address what needs addressing and so far as the R1 is concerned in my book the cost to work around its faults is far greater than the price of many other brands in that initial price point.

If you'd like to humor a request, post a few pics of the VIS and of the barrel/frame relation. Those you may trust more than me will verify what's been said.

 

[madwell]

Birddog,

I have a R1 and I ran Winchester PDX 230gr hollow points through mine without any problems.

Cheers

 

[PRM]

Skylerbone - my post has nothing to do with trust, and wasn't meant as a personal attack. Having spent time on the range with one, I just have a different point of view. To date mine has run close to 1000 rounds of FMJ without any problems. That has been done with Remington, Colt, Wilson, and an assortment of other after-market mags. Accuracy on mine is what I wanted and I am satisfied with the Novak sights.

The only two areas where I have had any thoughts at all have been.

1. Initially, the trigger was gritty feeling when I bought it. I was going to change it out, but it has since smoothed out. I may still do that at some point. Although acceptable, its not a crisp as what I'm used to on my other 1911s.

2. I would like to have had a traditional blue finish - but that is not a deal breaker. I am waiting on the SS version to become more available. I saw a few months ago where that is in the works.

The R1 has enough of a following that the 1911 Forum has added a sub-forum for it - I think its safe to say it has its share of happy users. http://forums.1911forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=73

 

[Skylerbone]

I leave the judgement to others with a link to the description and pics: http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=354434.

For the record I'm also a big S&W fan but do not recommend at present the E-Series, yes I own one and at present its deficiencies are being corrected. Even with reasonable rates for the custom shop I'm using it will be costly and I note my precautions to others. As a community member I have a responsibility (I feel) to note such problems.

 

[gym]

I owned one and it never had a problem with any ammo, It ate hydoshock and every other JHP I put in it. One thing though, I totally polished the ramp and around the area where the bullet sits. That makes a huge difference. I traded mine for an EMP, I had done some other work on it, burled wood grips front strap etc, the guy and I remained friends. His cousin put a different barrel with a supressor on it, and it still fired flawleslly 3 mags .He agrees it is one of the most accurate 45's he has. And he has quite a few high dollar ones.I think they changed the angle during production, "I read that someware". So it depends if you have a newer one or an older one. Most guys who have them also agree that they feed anything. Did you polish the feed ramp? just by hand, no tools. My EMP that I got in trade, supposedlly didn't feed JHP's either, 2 hrs with the polish and it feeds anything now, 4 boxes later not a hicup. He told me it was stovepiping every mag, halfway through, and last round. I haven't had it happen once.I also tried all 3 mags, they all feed perfect. Get some "mass" it's on Ebay for 10 dollars, a pink cream, I know a lot of guys use flitz, but trust me, get some cotton balls, and dab it on the slide, and watch tv, no preassure, just follow the exhisiting groove, it fits you finger perfectlly, you will see it turn black right away, when there are no machine marks left, stop, you can do it in stages also, do 5 minutes, shoot the gun, if it works stop, if it works sometimes do a little more. just don't change the angle, and do it with the barrell out of the gun. Utube shows how Wilson does this, they have 4 video's on the subject, but it's a little much for the amature gunsmith. They use a dremmel, and regular bits, so it ain't rockrt science, but they really cut into it, I don't recommend that at this point.
Another thing, I bought chip McCormick mags for my gun, those remington mags are not great, it sends the round up at a different angle, try that first, I got the stainless shooting star 8 rounders with bumper pads.

 

[Drail]

90% of the time you see this it's the magazine, not the gun. The few Remingtons that I examined all had perfectly good throated barrels installed. I haven't seen a factory built 1911 in quite a few years with the old military style ramp and throat. The magaines though may very well be built to mil spic and will have problems releasing shorter than ball rounds to feed smoothly. If the round is released too early or too late it won't hit the ramp properly. Don't touch the ramp yet. The solution is to try some McCormick or Wilson magazines that use a feed lip design suitable for short rounds.

 

[JR24]

It's been too freaking cold here to shoot much but I did manage to find one 20 degree day to run a few through my new R1 and it ate about 50 JHPs just fine (UMC 230 gr), including 10 that were too long for my p220's mag.