LC9 feed ramp issues?

CET2012 said:

Wow, Cheese, you punish your guns that don't work right? Isnt that like punishing yourself since you bought them?

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Actually, I was kidding a bit there.

Polishing a feed ramp really needs to be done with some care. Probably the best way is to take a nice soft cotton cloth and some Flitz and with your finger polish it. I know this takes some time but you won't damage things this way and you can get it looking and feeling pretty nice this way.

For a ramp that needs a little more than some hand polishing, a proper diameter wooden dowel, one that has the same radius as the feed ramp, used with some very light sand paper/emery cloth/crocus cloth wrapped around it. You will need to follow the angle of the ramp and not roll it into the chamber transition using up and down movements only. You can finsh this with a Flitz treatment.

That transition from the top of the feed ramp into the chamber should really never be messed with, you would be surprised how little material is actually in that area. Just a little of metal removed from this area is dangerous.
Using a dremmel tool even with a polishing barrel on it will take more metal off than should be in an instant, faster than you can believe but you should really believe me.

When it comes to changing out springs in a pistol, you have to consider a few things. Most engineers call out a weight of spring based on a window of ammunition capability, fit, form and function.

A main spring (hammer) with just a pound less than stock will make the trigger pull lighter on some guns and in DA mode on most but it may and probably will make that gun have light strikes with ammos that have harder primers.

Recoil springs have a lot to do with the timing of the gun and it's reliability. A weaker than stock spring will help with weaker loads such as target loads or cheap bulk ammo such as Federal Champion. It can also solve a limp wristing shooter's self induced issues, it's better to learn to hold and fire a pistol properly and not fix bad technique with a spring change.

...and it can make a slide slow to return to battery and a strong mag spring may slow it even more, causing timing and feeding issues.

A stronger than stock spring will get that slide back in battery quickly but can cause the gun to gag when feeding or ejecting a spent case, this is really an issue with smaller pistols.

Springs should never be stretched or cut, they will fail at some point.

Engineers get paid a lot to design pistols, you get paid nothing to screw your's up.

DBelite05 said:

I just bought my wife a a brand new LC9 and we've both noticed it doesn't always want to chamber a shell when racking slide. The shell get chambered only partially and the slide doesn't come all the way forward and the only way to fix it is to eject the shell completely, even when working the slide to get it to feed it doesn't budge. Any one else have this problem? Should i wait to put some rounds through it before contacting Ruger or having the ramp machined?

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Yes, with Zombie 115 HP's. I've got 300 or so rounds of various types of ammo through it with zero issues, until I tried these Zombies. 3 FTF's on one magazine.

mine came with the feed ramp a little rough, was also blued. so wasnt polished at the factory. rounds would drag on the ramp fed off the clip by hand. i polished it out to a mirror finish and feel no drag feeding the rounds in slow by hand and havent had any issues with close to 500 rounds threw it. all hollow points. IMO all feed ramps should come polished. as Rcu316 points out ammo can be at issue though imo a polished ramp should feed about anything. A few hundred rounds isnt going to polish the ramp.

My LC9's ramp wasn't polished either when I got it but I routinely polish those parts in all pistols I get. I use a bit of polishing compound with a felt buffing bit in a Dremel tool for the job. Even if the gun performs well a bit of sprucing up in that area can't hurt. My LC9, and LCP function as they should with plated and jacketed round, flat, hollow point bullets as well as hard cast lead.