Milspec Deepthroat

[Zydeco76]

I originally started this thread in the ammo section as it originaly pertained to an ammo issue. Now it has turned into a gunsmithing issue.

http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=2750&page=2&pp=10

I broke my oath to my pistol and attacked it again with the dremel. I think/hope I fixed it. I removed a little bit of the lip on the barrel. The lip is now steeper than it was as I did not want to hurt the case head support.

Case head support was just added to my vocabulary. I assume this means the area at the bottom of the case just above the rim. On the top of my barrel it is fully supported. On the bottom where the feed lip is, it is not. I have no refrence as to an untouched barrel so I do not know if this is normal or more handy work from the previous owner. It is too late to fire it out back so I will have to wait till morning. The golden sabers seem to feed very smoothly out of the original mags now. Even when easing the slide forward somewhat rather than letting it slam forward. I have not modified the top of the lip at all. I now have a small gap between the ramp and the lip. It is not a whole 1/32 however as I was afraid to make the angle to high. I am now concerned about the case head support. Is it supposed to be unsupported on the bottom like that? I have put alot of rounds through this pistol already and have not noticed any bulging brass but I also hav'nt been looking for it.

[John]

The standard .45 ACP barrels (and by standard I mean those who do not have a feed ramp), never support fully the round at the bottom. This was the reason for the development of ramped barrels, which however require you to alter your frame to install them.

I would say, fire the thing and see how it works. Even if you are not at 1/32" it might work OK. To be on the safe side, do not fire any hot loads, until you check the cases of standard rounds, to see if they bulge or not. I do not think that a few .0xx" will make any difference, but do check it out.

Rgds

[Zydeco76]

It did not work. I had 3 hangups out of one mag. One of those was a failure to extract. Now I think I will polish the lip a little better as I left it rather course when I shortened the lip lastnight. Ofcourse its still feeding the ball like a champ. I am now curious about the ramped barrels. How much would this conversion cost? What are the pros and cons besides the fact that it will remove the problem I am now having. Oh and this time it'll just be an emmery cloth the dremel is done doing its damage.

[John]

Zydeco,

Don't hurry up to dismiss this gun. The failure to extract does not count, this is not what we are trying to solve right now. What were the other failures? Give us a good description of what you saw, when the pistol didn't fire. Where was the round, where was the slide, as accurate as you can.

And yes, do the polishing thing, with some cloth or the rubber thing which came with the Dremel, no stones no abrassives.

Rgds

[Zydeco76]

Well john they were failure to feed. They did not leave the magazine. I could see them stop on the transition between ramp and throat. I have exciting news though. Well for me atleast it is. I polished the heck out of the lip. I even hit the top of the throat and lowered the angle a little . This was a last resort. I just fed to mags of golden sabre and the hydra-shoks that I had left over. Now I am out of hollow points lol. I checked every case. I have no bulging so far. I have no intention of ever firing hot ammo.

I priced getting the frame converted for a fully ramped barrel. Springfields custom shop does it for $80.

The barrel is here. http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9603&title=1911+AUTO+PRE-FIT+MATCH-GRADE+ECM+BARREL+KIT

Does anyone have any input on this product or service? Would this setup make it more reliable and reverse the evil over throating that caused this mess? I am leaving now to buy 2 more boxes of hollow point and 200rnds of ball ammo. I am then going to the range. If I type funny when I get back you'll know why. Thanks for all the input so far guys. Atleast now when I am doing something risky I know its risky.

[John]

A ramped barrel will definitely cure your problem, but don't give up yet. Maybe this can be salvaged. Tell us how it works today.

Rgds

[wichaka]

Will still like to see a pic of the ramp, with the barrel in place.

[Zydeco76]

grrr I drove all the way to the range and it was closed. Thats a 45 min ride btw. They were moving the mounds back so I guess its a good thing. I picked up some more hydra-shocks as I think they will feed the easiest. I am digging around for my camera cable now.

[Zydeco76]

bah I have'nt seen that cable since I moved last time. I am off from work again tomarrow so I will have a range report and pics tomarrow.

[Zydeco76]

I am not even gonna tell you what happened to the pics. I will have them up soon though and I apologise for the delay. Range report is encouraging. 2 boxes of hydra-shoks fed fine until the last one. The slide locked back instead of returning to battery. I have no idea what that was all about. Maybe my thumb touched the slide release? I was holding on to it tighter than usual so I think that may have been it. It also ran 150 or so rounds of ball with the usual consistency. Accuracy was lousey but I think that was all me. My shoulder was sore from the 12 guage before I picked up the pistol. I will never touch a 3inch shotgun shell again. I checked all the brass I could find and found no bulging brass. I also did'nt try to run any of them with my mccormick mags as I assumed they would not work as well with the hollow points. I am still seriously considering the ramped barrel as I have yet to find any negative feedback on it. I can't afford to buy 200 rounds of hydra-shoks just to test the reliability of them in my pistol. Anyone know of a less expensive way to do the fully ramped barrel mod to my milspec for less money than I have found so far in the earlier post?

[John]

That's encouraging, so I was on the right track when I was saying don't give up. Your last hickup can be attributed to a number of reasons, including magazine springs etc.

As for the ramp barrel, the only reason one would not want to go to that route, is because you are permanently altering your frame, and can't use a standard barrel from there on. This (not being able to use standard components), is a serious problem for me, since I live in a country with no access to lots of parts. A standard barrel (if required) could be found here, but if you are looking for a ramped one, forget it.

I'll therefore leave others, more experienced than me, to answer your last question. But at least, the old thing is back in business.

Rgds

[Zydeco76]

you can't order from Brownells in Greece John? Hey if you ever need me to fedex you any parts let me know. Assuming that I am not breaking the law I would love to help. Thanks for the input Wichatka, John, and tuner. If it were'nt for your words of causion I may have hurt myself or really ruined my frame. Now I need to learn how to shoot. I have gotten pretty darn good by myself but have never had any real instruction with a pistol. I am either doing rediculously good or terrible. I have done ALOT of reading including the US army pistol marksmanship manual and a couple others. I know I am doing something wrong to account for my incosistency but I don't know what it is. I will be hanging around this forum alot in the future.

[John]

According to the Greek laws, frames, slides and barrels need for you to get an import permit, they are treated as if complete firearms. But even smaller parts are sometimes stopped in customs, because the customs people do not know how to handle them. The easiest for them, is to ask you to get a permit from the police, to import the parts.

I remember once, some years ago, I had imported some parts, thus I got to know a person in the customs office. Some months later, this person called me and told me that they had some grip panels (the wooden thingies!!) that someone had bought from abroad, and he wanted to ask me (as if I was the state rep) if he should release them to the person who was waiting for them, or to ask him for an import permit. I tried to explain to him that anyone with a little patience can make grips himself, or that he can walk in any shop which sells these things here (not more than 10 in the whole country) and buy the grips just like that. I convinced him, and the poor owner got his grips without further bureaucracy.

So for me, it is essential to use parts which I can locate easily, and ramp barrels are a big no-no, I know of no shooter here who has one in his pistol, unless that pistol came with it, and the owner didn't know better.

Rgds