Had my Remington 1911 R1 Enhanced to the range, yesterday. Functioned flawlessly on all four mags (two original, two Wilson 8-rounders) with eight (8) different kinds of ball ammo, but, when it came time to try JHP the results were disappointing. The only one that would feed the first round on a full mag was, coincidentally (?), Remington Golden Saber. Of the other three: Two would feed if I down-loaded the mags by one. One of those that wouldn't feed I tried in both the Remington and Wilson mags.

I'm deciding whether to try polishing the feed ramp or just stick with ball ammo for carrying. Wondered what my fellow Sigforumites do.

Results (112 votes counted so far):
Do you carry ball or JHP in your 1911?
18	(16%)
		Ball
94	(84%)
		JHP
If JHP: Did you have to polish the feed ramp or do anything else to get it to feed JHP reliably?
87	(78%)
		Nope. Mine fed JHP right out of the box
16	(14%)
		Yep. I polished the feed ramp a bit
9	(8%)
		I like ponies
If you carry ball as an SD round, is it because...
17	(15%)
		That's what the 1911 was designed-for. I'm not a gambler.
0	(0%)
		I tried JHP. My 1911 didn't run it reliably.
95	(85%)
		I like ponies
See Poll Form

I carry Federal HST in my 1911s:
Sig Nitron.
Sig Nightmare Carry.
Armscor Citadel.
The Sigs shot HPs without failure. The Citadel was fussy about magazines.
If I buy a 1911 and it does not run reliably with carry ammo out of the box, off it goes to a 1911 savvy gunsmith to be made right.
Of all the guns I have owned, the 1911 is the most hit or miss, reliability wise. Which is odd, given its long history. As to the question of ball versus HP, I would be ok with carrying ball if HP was not available.

Sig Ultra .45 and Sig Nightmare Carry .45, both with Federal HST 230gr +p, never an issue. And, I like ponies.

My Springfield shoots 230 grain Federal HST perfectly reliably. I have not yet tried my SIG Revolution Carry with the Federal HST. The SIG, when new, was a bit unreliable even with ball, but is "shooting in" as I put rounds through it (currently less than 200), and is an early production one, which are reputed to need 500 or so rounds for break in. The last time I had it out, there were no stoppages, so I think I'm getting there. I plan to shoot a couple of hundred more rounds of ball through it before I try the Federal HST in it.

Neither of my Dan Wessons have ever hiccupped with 230 gr. Speer Gold Dots.

Speer God Dots feed just fine in my Sig Ultra and Sig C3.

Jim

I carry Remington 230-gr JHPs that have never given a problem out of a host of 1911s.

A couple of things I do to help my 1911s run well:

* Magazines. I’m wondering what mags you’re using. (Edited to add: you said exactly what you’re using, ha-ha!) I don’t have any Remington 1911 experience but I’ll tell you that, for me - I don’t care what 1911 it is, be it Colt or Springfield or Les Baer or Ed Brown - I use Wilson Combat 47 magazines. These are the 7-rounders, not the 47D 8-rounders. I’ll not knock 47Ds or the bevy of well-respected and time-tested 1911 mags out there. WC 47s work for me. When I onboard a new 47, I load it up and let it sit for at least a week before taking it to the range, just to help that magazine spring a bit. Again...I may be different with all this, but it’s been working well for me for a while now. Personally - I’d put the factory mags back in the box the gun came in, then clean and load those Wilson mags you have, let them sit loaded a few days, and try them again.

* Flitz on the feed ramp. This is a carryover from my earlier days with Classic SIGs, actually. Now I do it with all of my pistols. A little dab of Flitz polish and some elbow grease...okay, finger grease because that’s all I can fit in the ramp haha. Buffs that ramp to a lovely shine. I actually Flitz all the friction areas of the gun after cleaning and before lubing, but that’s another story.

I hope you find success with that 1911 and JHPs. In .45, I’d be okay with FMJ if that’s all I had at-hand, but I prefer JHPs.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Speer God Dots feed just fine in my Sig Ultra and Sig C3.

Jim

Whoa, how much do those cost and where do you get them?
Sorry, I thought it funny.

Colt Combat Commander and Kimber TLE/RL II both feed my 230 gr HST’s just fine.

I would find a better 1911.

I have a Sig XO and the only feed issue I have ever had was immediately after I bought it. Polished the feed ramp and it has fed everything else, jhp or otherwise, with no issues.

(I do not currently own a 1911, so I didn't answer the poll. I have had some in the past; none of them would run, but that is a different topic.)

quote:

The only one that would feed the first round on a full mag was, coincidentally (?), Remington Golden Saber.

Maybe that's the JHP load you want. But some questions: is the problem only when hand-chambering the first round? What about when actually shooting? Do you have any problems chambering when releasing the slide from lockback, as you would when reloading?

I have also heard of problems with some 230-gr. JHPs. Because of the hollow cavity, to bring it back to full weight, the bullet has to be longer. But it also can't be seated too deep in the case, so that necessitates a longer cartridge OAL. This might cause feeding problems. Maybe a 200- or 185-grain HP would work better. Also be sure your bullet has a rounded profile as close as possible to that of ball, not a "truncated cone."

If I had a 1911 and wanted to carry it, I'd find a load it likes (like the Golden Saber) and stick with it, but if it just won't feed any HPs, I'll carry something else. .45 ball doesn't have over-penetration problems as badly as 9mm ball, but I still want all the advantages I can get.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

The only one that would feed the first round on a full mag was, coincidentally (?), Remington Golden Saber.

Maybe that's the JHP load you want.

It turns out maybe it is. I've since done a bit of research and found two things:

• The Remington Golden Saber is known to work well with GI 1911s because its bullet profile is somewhat rounded, much like ball ammo.
  
• The Remington Golden Saber is actually fairly highly regarded, performance-wise. And it did well in Lucky Gunner's gelatin tests.
  

So I don't feel I'd be "under-gunned" loading Remington Golden Sable 230 gr. JHP.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
But some questions: is the problem only when hand-chambering the first round?

More-or-less: Yes. If it wouldn't load the first round that way, I'd be disinclined to use it.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
If I had a 1911 and wanted to carry it, I'd find a load it likes (like the Golden Saber) and stick with it, ...

I'm going to take two approaches:

• I'm going to re-test the Golden Sabers to make sure feeding is reliable with all four mags--even when the gun is very dirty. In fact: I'm not going to clean it. Instead I'll acquire more Golden Sabers and test the living bejesus out of it/them.
  
• After that, I'll lightly polish the feed ramp after the next cleaning, for insurance.
  

The first time I shot the R1, it wouldn't chamber a snap cap when it was dirty. After cleaning it was fine. So I meant to lightly polish the feed ramp, anyway.

As to the "find a better 1911" comment, all I'll say is this: The target below is a 50' pistol target at 30'. That's 30 rounds, four different kinds of ball ammo, not making any particular effort because mainly I was function-checking the pistol.



I love this pistol!

I like the Golden Saber, though I usually pick Gold Dot.

By hand chambering, do you mean slowly letting the slide close while loading a round? If so, don’t. I have a couple pistols that don’t like that but have no issues when loading by slingshot. Either slingshot or use the slide lock lever and let it close at speed.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
By hand chambering, do you mean slowly letting the slide close while loading a round?

Slowly? No. Never. I load/reload by slingshotting the slide. That is to say racking it the rest of the way back and, literally, letting it go.

Ok, just checking.

Both of my 1911's are 9mm and I carry JHP in both. Didn't have to do anything to the feed ramp.

I like Ponies, as in Colt... so, one could answer 2 selections where offered.

I've never had issue with my Colt 1911 and hollow points.

Only the fudiest of fudds carry ball in a 1911. It’s 2019, it’s not 1978 anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
Only the fudiest of fudds carry ball in a 1911. It’s 2019, it’s not 1978 anymore.

Nah, the real fudds 'candy stripe' the mags, FMJ, JHP, FMJ, JHP...