[tpiini]

Hey all,

Long-time 1911 owner, long time forum lurker, and first time poster here.

As the title suggests, I have a P13-45 with a supply of 10-round magazines and some P.O. 13-round magazines. Until recently I've only run 230-ball through this gun with absolute 100% success. I recently bought some Cor Bon 200GR JHP. It all feeds flawlessly with the 10-round magazines, but if I load the 13-round magazines to capacity, the first two rounds simply nosedive into the base of the feeding ramp. Once I'm down to 11 rounds, they feed just fine. I had a problem with them feeding at all until I spent some time polishing my feeding ramp. I tried some different springs and followers, but I can't get this problem to go away.

After several days of E-mail correspondence with the P.O. gunsmith, my hi-cap magazines are on their way to P.O. to get checked out. I must say that their customer service is awesome. He first sent me some new springs, free of charge, to try to solve the problem. It seems to me that they are going above and beyond to straighten out a problem with a several-years-old gun.

Obviously, my problem will be solved by P.O., but I'm just curious if anyone else has had a problem feeding hollow points with the hi-caps.

Thanks, Tom

 

[bountyhunter]

A hollow point bullet's nose has a different profile (side view) than a ball round. The nice round curve of the ball's nose helps it feed better. I think the wider mouth of the HP nose is catching the bottom of the feed ramp and hanging there, where as the round nose of the ball ammo would deflect upward and feed.

You might try taking the mag spring and bending a steeper angle into the top coil to get a little more lift on the top round.

Another possibility is to very slightly widen the feed lips at the front of the mag shell which will allow the nose of the round to ride slightly higher as the slide is stripping it off coming forward. Be careful doing this, it doesn't take much. If the lips get too wide, you may get slide lockback with a round still in the mag because the follower can get high enough to bump the slide lock.

 

[tpiini]

Hey Bounty,

Thanks for the reply. I'd considered the spring-bend, but the lips of the magazines hold the bottom eleven rounds just right, so I didn't think I'd want to screw with that. Especially if P.O. is willing to do the work.

I'm more interested in knowing if anyone else has had the same problems with the Para mags.

Tom

 

[shane45-1911]

Bending the mag spring typically helps with feeding of the last round or two - not the first.

Have you put a fresh recoil spring in your pistol?

 

[tpiini]

Hmmm. Recoil spring. No, I haven't done anything to the pistol itself. Just to the magazines. I see where you're headed with that thought though. I guess I should have elaborated just a bit further on the "problem" but I was hesitant to make my first post a contender with War and Peace. But here goes: When the magazines are loaded with up to 11 rounds, the cartridges all sit snugly against the feed lips at the proper nose-up angle. As soon as #'s 12 & 13 are loaded in, it seems as if round #11 lays down into a more nose-down attitude, thus giving no support to the front end of the top two cartridges. The top round can then pivot slightly where its base rests on the back of the magazine lips. As the slide comes forward to strip it, it first pivots on the base so that its nose is no longer in line with the feed lips. The hollow point nose then rams into the base of the feed ramp and stops dead. As soon as the magazines are down to 11 rounds, all sit properly against the lips and all feed well. I have six 13-round magazines and they all do the same thing. I polished, but did not reshape my feeding ramp. Prior to that, it wouldn't take the Cor Bon's at all. Ball ammo feeds just fine regardless of the magazine selected or how fully it is loaded.

 

[baker1425]

I have some LEO 13rdrs that were a little fussy with HP ammo. A throat job on the gun helped a lot. The Mec-Gar 10 rdrs work really well with JHP and SWC. I bought them from Brownells .