Steven C Panish
Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2018
- Messages
- 5
Hi all,
I believe this issue is a feed ramp problem, but I am looking for advice on how to correct it.
This Bauer was totally non-functional when I bought it, and it was dimensionally challenged and otherwise broken. I'll spare you the irrelevant details, but I am many $$ and hours into turning this into a working piece. It is very cute. But if fails to feed about once per 10 rounds. There is never a failure to feed when manually racking the slide. Never.
The magazine is a quality replacement from PSA made by Mec-Gar. The original Bauer mag was bent up beyond my ability to repair, but was shorter than the standard Browning Baby mags by .013". Two other Bauer mags that I tried also were too long. These, and the PSA mag all would bind the slide. I replaced the floorplate of the new mag with a handmade piece that provides the corrected shorter length, the magazine now does not bind the slide. I also had to very slightly enlarge the top of the magazine well.
You can see the nature of the failure to feed from the attached photos. This occurs about once in 10 shots, and doesn't seem to relate to the order of the cartridge in the mag. The bullet nose rises too fast and passes the chamber opening, lodging either against the top of the chamber, or between the top of the barrel and the slide. The cartridge base has not yet reached the mag feed lips release point, the nose of the cartridge has spun up while still confined by the narrow part of the feed lips. This is a bit difficult to see in the pictures, but if you look carefully and maybe magnify the image, you can see that.
The feed ramp on the chamber is very smooth and uniform. The frame's feed ramp is very slightly proud to the chamber ramp. It has some circular machine marks or slight ridges which run perpendicular to the bore. I polished the frame ramp with 1200 emery paper, which makes the ramp very smooth but did not eliminate the slight ridges. You can just barely see them in the photo. I left the gun fouled for the photo so you can see some marks which may result from the impact point of the bullet nose on the frame ramp.
I think the mag feed lips look ok and hold the cartridge in the correct place, but I'm no expert. The cartridges are all handloads using either Magtech or Federal 50gr FMJ. The load is 1.2 gr Bullseye. Going down .1 gr makes it too weak to always fully work the action, going up to 1.3 is really kind of hot. Varying OAL does nothing. The cases are all very well used with beat up bases at this point and I should try some new ones. I could also try a slightly slower powder, but haven't yet.
I suspect modification of the frame ramp is in order but I haven't found anything which tells me how it should relate to the chamber ramp in this silly (but cute) little gun. It is fun (if frustrating) to shoot. Points well and surprisingly accurate.
Help will be appreciated! I can take additional photos or conduct experiments if that would help.
Steve
I believe this issue is a feed ramp problem, but I am looking for advice on how to correct it.
This Bauer was totally non-functional when I bought it, and it was dimensionally challenged and otherwise broken. I'll spare you the irrelevant details, but I am many $$ and hours into turning this into a working piece. It is very cute. But if fails to feed about once per 10 rounds. There is never a failure to feed when manually racking the slide. Never.
The magazine is a quality replacement from PSA made by Mec-Gar. The original Bauer mag was bent up beyond my ability to repair, but was shorter than the standard Browning Baby mags by .013". Two other Bauer mags that I tried also were too long. These, and the PSA mag all would bind the slide. I replaced the floorplate of the new mag with a handmade piece that provides the corrected shorter length, the magazine now does not bind the slide. I also had to very slightly enlarge the top of the magazine well.
You can see the nature of the failure to feed from the attached photos. This occurs about once in 10 shots, and doesn't seem to relate to the order of the cartridge in the mag. The bullet nose rises too fast and passes the chamber opening, lodging either against the top of the chamber, or between the top of the barrel and the slide. The cartridge base has not yet reached the mag feed lips release point, the nose of the cartridge has spun up while still confined by the narrow part of the feed lips. This is a bit difficult to see in the pictures, but if you look carefully and maybe magnify the image, you can see that.
The feed ramp on the chamber is very smooth and uniform. The frame's feed ramp is very slightly proud to the chamber ramp. It has some circular machine marks or slight ridges which run perpendicular to the bore. I polished the frame ramp with 1200 emery paper, which makes the ramp very smooth but did not eliminate the slight ridges. You can just barely see them in the photo. I left the gun fouled for the photo so you can see some marks which may result from the impact point of the bullet nose on the frame ramp.
I think the mag feed lips look ok and hold the cartridge in the correct place, but I'm no expert. The cartridges are all handloads using either Magtech or Federal 50gr FMJ. The load is 1.2 gr Bullseye. Going down .1 gr makes it too weak to always fully work the action, going up to 1.3 is really kind of hot. Varying OAL does nothing. The cases are all very well used with beat up bases at this point and I should try some new ones. I could also try a slightly slower powder, but haven't yet.
I suspect modification of the frame ramp is in order but I haven't found anything which tells me how it should relate to the chamber ramp in this silly (but cute) little gun. It is fun (if frustrating) to shoot. Points well and surprisingly accurate.
Help will be appreciated! I can take additional photos or conduct experiments if that would help.
Steve