SWC 200 gr seems to crash into feed ramp

[ZenShooter]

I've had many 1911's over the years and the one thing they had in common was a desire to have SWC bullets seated at different depths for each one. Same with my 97. That's just the way it is when you're using bullets that were never intended for use in autos.

I have to admit things can be tricky with SWC. And some bullets will simply not run reliably in a given gun and one has to give up. Sometimes it is the smart thing to do.

But please compare the following two bullets:


Both are swaged and copper plated. After plating the right one will be calibrated and the left one plastic coated with transparent material by the manufacturers. I started with the left one and tried every possible length from the shoulder just barely protruding from the case to as long as the cartridge would just fit into my magazines. My 1911 would never reliably feed this bullet. Several years later I bought some packages of the right ones because of bullet shortages. While I mentally prepared for lots of misfeeds to my utter surprise these bullets never jammed on me in the 1911 regardless of OAL. Years ago I used to experiment a lot with OAL and loads to find the perfectly precise cartridge for my gun. I could then do this without even caring for possible jams.

My 97 will shoot any RN bullet and ANYTHING in the modern hollow point defensive lines so there's just no point in fighting to make the SWC work when there are far better more reliable options.

According to your bullet preferences you seem to be reloading for self defense purposes. I do not doubt the reliability of the 97 or any other quality 1911 with those bullet shapes. If these bullets are what you prefer or what fills your needs then there is no reason to mess with the gun or fight non-existing problems.

I shot several packages of Magtech 230gr SWC cartridges through my 97. They ran without any problems while at the same time my handholds would cause huge problems. So why still use 200gr handloads?

Because my hobby is target shooting and therefore I load for maximum precision combined with moderate recoil and nice sharp precise holes as are made by (semi-) wadcutters. Why the latter? If two or more shots hit at the almost same place on the target with round nose bullets it is extremely difficult to judge if two bullets caused that slightly bigger hole or if maybe one or two shots are to be considered missing. With SWC bullets this risk goes away.

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

I fully understand the use of the SWC for target work due to the nice holes they punch in paper. I still cast the 358429 Keith style SWC for my revolvers and of course there's never a feeding issue with those. I also have an SWC mold for 9 mm that yields some very reliable bullets but it does seem the .45 can be the problem child with this style bullet.
In retrospect I did have an early Kimber years ago that would feed my cast SWC's at any length and did it very reliably but that was the only one.

[ZenShooter]

I fully understand the use of the SWC for target work due to the nice holes they punch in paper. I still cast the 358429 Keith style SWC for my revolvers and of course there's never a feeding issue with those. I also have an SWC mold for 9 mm that yields some very reliable bullets but it does seem the .45 can be the problem child with this style bullet.

Bullet casting ist what I am preparing for but did not start yet. Currently the cost for brand factory ammo in 45 ACP starts at about EUR 0,40 each. This ist about US$ 0,46 per cartridge.

I plan to cast for 45ACP only (Lee 6-Cavity Bullet Mold TL452-200-SWC 45 ACP). Maybe there will be another feeding issue surprise awaiting me.

In retrospect I did have an early Kimber years ago that would feed my cast SWC's at any length and did it very reliably but that was the only one.

Initially I expected every pistol to feed every cartridge with 100% reliability all the time. I was so naive. And I was lucky to be offered a 1911 many years ago with all the tweaking and polishing already in place out of the box. And I always shied away from modifying it.

Not long ago I bought "Gunsmithing Pistols & Revolvers"written by Patrick Sweeney.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/gunsmithing-pistols-revolvers/id1331847531?mt=11
Reading it I found out a whole lot about causes for feeding issues and how to cure them. I warmly recommend this book to every handgun owner. It is definitely worth reading even if one does not plan on becoming a kitchen table gunsmith.

I did not expect having to utilize this newly acquired knowledge with the CZ97 I had bought als "highly tuned and match ready" which it was absolutely not. So I went through all the usual steps of polishing the ramp and so on. At the end it was exactly as Sweeney stated that 80% of all feeding issues can be cured by examining and fitting / polishing the extractor hook. Of course I touched the extractor last and only after trying everything else including varying OAL and using up a lot of ammo just to confirm nothing had changed.

[ZenShooter]

Hi all,

after a while and trying out recommendations I am just back to report

I wipe mags out after each use just as I clean the gun after each use. If your gun is a 2017 model you should not be experiencing any feed issues.

At any rate I'd clean everything up real good and see how she behaves.

I haven't cleaned the inside of my mags since I've had my 97, probably 700rounds. I keep the gun clean, but I'm not obsessive about it. JoeL, a member here shoots his in Bullseye competition and doesn't clean his guns often at all, it's a bit of a running joke for him. FWIW, I load my 200gr coated swc's over Vhit N310 which in my experience leaves the gun relatively clean.

Thank you all for your hints on cleaning the mag. I disassembled the mag, inspected it and found that there are hard black crusts building up on the follower. These cannot be seen without disassembling the mag as the follower itself is black and not protruding far enough out of the mag. So I removed the crust and still found the follower not to glide as smooth as expected.

To prevent buildup of a new crust I sprayed the plastic follower with silicone oil spray and let it soak in. This also works as a lubricant but in contrast to oil does not attract dust so it can be used in mags. This turned out to work quite well for a while but I wasn't happy with the still higher friction of the follower compared the top notch 1911 mags for the Les Baer.

After thinking about it I disassembled the mags, cleaned them and removed the silicone oil. Then I rubbed the follower with graphite powder and also rubbed some on the inside of the mag housing. This made a big difference in that loading the mag is now so much easier and considerably more fun. When pushing in the first round there is no more friction to overcome only the spring has to be compressed. And the graphite has prevented buildup of a new crust also. It seems that with a clean burning powder (VV N310) a reasonable mag disassembly and cleaning period might be somewhere in between 300 to 1000 rounds.

The graphite thing seems to be the fast and easy way to go. Studying gunsmithing literature (of course after I had found the solution myself the hard way) confirmed the problem with the cartridge diving down and hitting the ramp is attributed solely to too much friction in the magazine.

Regards
Zen

PS. Of course I overreacted a little bit and modified the mags with high- end aftermarket followers. Those I will report on separately.