Getting a 1911 to feed hollow points

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This is why I get the willies when people start messing with barrel length, bullet size, bullet shape, pressure, etc. I see no reason to deviate from how it was designed.
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Fine, if you're satisfied with the limited terminal ballistics and over penetration of ball. Me, I want hollowpoints. .45 ball is pretty pathetic as a performer in flesh compared to a good expanding bullet regardless of what Jeff Cooper had to say about it blowing Japanese off their feet.

But, this is another reason I don't own a 1911. It was designed for ball. I'd rather have a modern design built to feed modern ammo.
 
Ball or Hollowpoints really don't make much difference in .45ACP. Mine feed both equally well and do the same job.
 
Holy crap, I wasn't expecting this much feedback. I just wanted to know that IF there were any issues with MY 1911 feeding hollow points, what could be done about it?

For those who gave the tips of throating and polishing and all that, thanks.
 
Some time back I had a Thompson and a AMT Hardballer that were picky about ammo, especially hollow points. Never could get them to function properly so away they went.

My recent guns have been Colt and Rock Island, multiple examples of each and none has had any problems feeding Winchester or Remington hollow points.

Those are the only two brands of ammo I use so I can't say they fwould eed all hollow points acceptably but, for what it's worth, thats my two cents
 
The military never had much of a problem using FMJ .45ACP rounds. Heck it was designed to knock down drugged up tribesmen when the .38 long Colt wasn't doing the job.


I never really get much into the ammo debate, IMHO any bullet will do as long as you hit what your shooting at. Right now my 1911 is loaded with 230gr FMJ ball, and my Sig M193.
 
Is there anything that a gunsmith can do (a "reliability package", perhaps?) to ensure 100% hollow point feeding reliability?
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Here is my method, in two easy steps:

1) Load pistols with JHPs
2) Shoot them!

The only 1911 I had that was picky with ammo was an AMT Hardballer. The other eight or so from other manufactures (Kimber, Para, Colt, SA) didn't have any issues.
 
Hatterasguy said:
....45ACP rounds. Heck it was designed to knock down drugged up tribesmen when the .38 long Colt wasn't doing the job....
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But when they tried it out in real life they found that even the .45 ACP often didn't do the job. In fact, sometimes the Krag didn't do the job.
 
It is true that the 1911 was designed for ball ammo. Due to it's unique feed pattern a wide JHP can cause problems for some of the older 1911's. Almost all of the newer guns come throated, with a feed ramp that is usually highly polished, and so on. These modifications make the 1911 much more friendly to JHP's. Most every 1911 I've ever owned was fine with JHP's. Some guns didn't like certain hollowpoints. But that can even be true of modern guns designed from the ground up to shoot JHP's.
So the general advice of shooting a fair amount (the number varies depending on who you ask) of your preferred JHP is good advice for all guns. But especially if you have one of the older guns you really need to shoot enough of your chosen JHP to assure reliable feeding. Even if you have an older gun that doesn't like anything but ball their are better options. Cor Bon's Pow-r-Ball has a ball profile to feed reliably even in guns that won't normally shoot JHP's. Federal makes it's EFMJ (expanding full metal jacket round) that has a ball style load profile yet expands nicely. Ball is fine for target practice. But with any ball ammo you can often get overpenetration,
rounds skipping off hard surfaces (including human heads surprisingly often),
and no expansion. In spite of the old "they all fall to ball" b.s. for the above mentioned reasons you are better off with one of the modern expanding bullets. If you need extra penetration the modern bonded rounds penetrate as well as the ball and still expand.
 
To add to fiddletown's comments the only gun the troops really trusted to put down the drugged up Moro's was the Winchester model 1897 shotgun. They did bring back some of the old .45 Long Colt revolvers to help. Contrary to modern myth they didn't do much if any better than the other pistol rounds at stopping the Moro's. No pistol round is a very effective manstopper. We carry them because it would be hard to tote an AR, AK, or shotgun around day to day. Would upset alot of folks (especially LEO's) if we tried. Pistols are easy to carry. That's why we as civilians usually carry them. Not because they are a good choice as far as terminal ballistics. As far as "stopping power" the best definition is "hitting the target in the right place as often as is necessary".
 
EddieNFL said:
Shot placement.
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Shot placement is of course king.

But a well placed shot with a .45 is better than a similarly well placed shot with a .22 lr. And with a given cartridge, most of the time a well placed shot with a JHP is better than a similarly well placed shot with an FMJ. And my ability to get good shot placement with my .45 isn't going to suffer if I use JHPs rather than FMJs.
 
My point was that your better off picking a round that works in your gun, and is cheap enough that you can shoot a lot of. So you get used to how it shoots and where it lands. Shot placement is even more important with 1911's since their capacity is pretty limited by modern standards.

A box of FMJ rounds is about half the cost of hollow points.
 
But a well placed shot with a .45 is better than a similarly well placed shot with a .22 lr.
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And a hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .45.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I believe in carrying the biggest, baddest bullet you can shoot well. Golden Sabers for me. And contrary to the myth spouted above , they feed
properly in all my non-modified 1911s.
 
How much hollow point jacketed ammunition was around when the 1911 was designed? Of course it's initial design, feed ramp and barrel, were to feed ball ammo. As has been pointed out modern 1911's have been adjusted to feed modern ammo. As far as guns failing at IDPA matches, I've seen all different types and manufacturers fail including a glock that split it's barrel at last years California IDPA championship. In most cases I don't know if it was ammo, gun design, mags or what the problems were, but I've seen lot's of guys have their guns turn into single shots, mostly with other than 1911's. Mark
 
It was originally designed to feed ball, and HP's arent the problem if you gun will feed wadcutters it'll feed hp's my taurus (yes taurus 1911, so what?) feed everything and 2 thousand rounds later still functions without a single hiccup ever. SWC HP's Ball jacketed, lead everything and its a taurus!
 
What?

1911's don't feed hollow points...:scrutiny:

All 6 of mine do. with boring regularity. Even my WWI era Colt feeds hollow points fine. like any auto loading gun (pistol or rifle) 99% of the time, the weak link is magazine. Good quality mags + good ammo = a happy 1911 (or any other auto for that matter... within reason, of course)
 
Second that FTS cheap mags will ruin your day, I have three that wont lock my slide back on empty although they only cost 6 dollars a piece ;)
 
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