Jams W/ Custom II

[SoCal Kimber]

I have taken my custom II to the range at least 5 times with no jam problems. My cousin borrowed my Kimber twice and had several jams. I had a neighbor look at my set up to see if anything was wrong. He believes my force cone needs to be polished. Is this a common issue? I see that others have had problems with jamming.

Brian

[log man]

Hi Brian, revolvers have forcing cones, I believe you where referring to the frame feed ramp, careful polishing can be of benefit. Using a dowel or other round similar radius object to the feed ramp and fine paper 400 or so to start, move up and down on the same angle so the polish marks are in line with the direction of travel and do not break the corner at the top, it needs to stay sharp so the bullet nose has a better chance of skipping into the chamber. Progressively finer paper to polish, not removing much material, just smoothing machine marks.

LOG

[Frank]

.... He believes my force cone needs to be polished. Is this a common issue? I see that others have had problems with jamming....It's unlikely that your Kimber's feed ramp needs polishing or any other attention. Most feeding problems are magazine related. After that, a feeding issue is probably related to either extractor tension or out of spec ammunition.

In any case, there are number of different types of "jams", and we'll need more information about exactly what's happening before we can begin to suggest anything.

Try shooting the gun some more yourself. If you have any problems, let us know exactly what's happening. Have a look at http://forum.m1911.org/forumdisplay.php?forumid=117, especially http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=26853 .

DVC

[niemi24s]

Hello Brian:

Might be a good idea to post a pic of your gun like this one:http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p232/niemi24s/P08C170002b.jpgClean up the chamber and magazine well really nice, but don't put any oil on it. Put the gun together except for the recoil spring, pull the slide back about like in the pic and take the shot.

Along with the pic, tell us whether your neighbor thought the polishing needed to be done to the barrel or the frame.

All this to insure we're all talking about the same thing - plus the pic'll maybe let us see if anything really needs polishing.

Many barrels & frames get ruined by inept polishing.

Regards.

[log man]

A too shallow and rough feed ramp can and often is the problem. Here's two examples of "after" done by pistolsmith Chuck Rogers, I have a sneaking suspicion that they feed quite well now! Makes my eyes water.




http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr85/logpics/4.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr85/logpics/19s.jpg

LOG

[niemi24s]

Hi Log:

Those are so shiny they border on the obscene! :D

Cheers

[Tom]

I have taken my custom II to the range at least 5 times with no jam problems. My cousin borrowed my Kimber twice and had several jams.
There's the obvious: your cousin was doing something wrong when firing the gun. Either a poor grip, or interfering with the motion of the slide, etc.

[Rick McC.]

If it worked fine for you before; clean it and shoot it yourself again before you do anything else at all to it.

If it's OK (and I bet it is) just clean it again and don't worry about it. If it does have a problem now; re-read the posts above. More pistols have been damaged by inept ramp "polishing" than any other single thing.

Take care,

Rick

Take care,

Rick

[niemi24s]

And if it's a new gun make sure you keep it well-oiled.

Kimber is not known for producing guns with ramps that need polishing.

Regards.

[log man]

I currently have three Kimbers two Eclipses, 4" and 5" and a Target Match, they all had horizontal machine marks and the Target Match looked like the mill has withdrawn without backing off, horizontal marks with diagonal marks across them, so I can't concur on that one. I've come to consider that just par for the course as my Colt Gold cup had finer, but still had horizontal machine marks also. These marks provide a good braking surface for the bullet ogive.

LOG

[John]

If you can shoot it without a jam, do not touch the gun.

[rekladan]

Was your cousin using your mags or his own?

[Kimber1121]

I have taken my custom II to the range at least 5 times with no jam problems. My cousin borrowed my Kimber twice and had several jams. I had a neighbor look at my set up to see if anything was wrong. He believes my force cone needs to be polished. Is this a common issue? I see that others have had problems with jamming.

Brian
You might want to consider your cousin as the problem. I have a TLE2 that runs great, but when I let My friend fire it, his poor grip and control caused stovepipes. I was quick to point it out, since I'm sure he thought the gun was at fault.

[SoCal Kimber]

I took my Kimber apart and gave it a good cleaning and oiled it. My cousin did a fairly good job before he returned it to me. I would hope he knows how to shoot and clean a firearm, he's a cop. He did use my mags and he said that he thought the jams were with one of them but he didn't keep track. Both of my mags are Kimber factory 7 rd.

I will try to post pictures of the feed ramp and chamber today. I am also going to my local gunsmith to see what he thinks.

Thanks for all of the comments and advise.