1911 Feed Ramp Angle

[feederic]

I've been on a foray for 1911 reliability information lately and one thing I've been wondering about is the optimum feed ramp angle on a ramped 1911 barrel. I read about the angle to set on the frame for non-ramped barrels, but I wonder if the angle changes due to a barrel with an integral feed ramp? And are the differences between a ramped and non-ramped barrel moot for reliability in general?

Eric

[RAZZ]

I am not a gunsmith, and this is just information I am repeating from one that I talked to...When I had a single stack built a couple of years ago, I had him use a barrel I won at a match--a Schueman ramped .45. Very nice barrel, but he told me that due to the intregal ramp, the barrel / ramp was longer than a non-ramped, and the resulting angle would be a little steeper than a non-ramped .45 barrel. Maybe its true, maybe he wanted an out just in case it didn't work, I don't know.

[ck1]

Not a gunsmith here either, but IMO feed ramps in 1911's are kinda like a bit of added insurance to sometimes give a little help to get rounds to feed now and then, and that "help" is usually less than ideal, and it's a "sometimes", not an "always".

Since I mostly shoot 9mm and .40 out of 1911 style guns I tend to go for guns that are feed-ramp equipped since the round is shorter in a platform designed for a longer .45 and any extra "help" with feeding is welcome. That said, I really don't think I've ever come across a feed-ramp in a 1911 that I ever felt was "right". IMO, most, if not all of the ramps I've seen are too steep, I think they should be more like that of a CZ: less steep and slightly longer; though that would mean 9 and .40 mags with the spacers in the front instead of the rear of the mag where most are located now, and likely other changes that are beyond my knowledge... don't know if there really is even enough room in the gun's design tto allow for a ramp to really do anything good for a.45.

As an aside, it seems strange to me that no maker's have really persued making a dimensional-specific design to run 9 and .40 "correctly" after all these years (beyond and further than Springfield's EMP path)... still just fussing around with making JMG's original platform "get by" with the shorter OAL rounds... I dunno?