Failure to Feed 200 grain Gold Dot in SR 1911 Commander

[mike7mm08]

Got my commander a few weeks ago. I am very happy with except it does not want to feed 200 grain gold dots. They are a handload. Racking the slide will chamber the first one. After that slide will stop about an 1/8" from closing and the gun will lock up tight. Need to drop the mag to clear the action. The first loads were 1.200 oal and the problem was intermittent. All the other loads of differing bullets were in the 1.230 1.235 range. So I tried some of the gold dots at 1.225. Now the problem is a constant.

So I am wondering. If anyone else has had issues with the gold dots? If they have worked for you wondering what oal of your handloads. If your using factory loads wondering what the oal is of those. Was going to set the length at factory length but I cannot find a box of gold dots within 50 miles to measure them. So if someone could provide oal of the factory ammo that would be appreciated as well.Thanks.

 

[Geoff Timm]

Did you full length resize? Did you try micing the case down the whole length.
Is your crimp good?
Geoff
Whose handloads in the begining were...cause to buy a good bullet puller.

 

[Cholo]

Have you measured the case mouth after the taper crimp? It should measure no more than .470.

 

[mike7mm08]

Everything measures out fine. Full length sized using a lee factory crimp die so a good taper crimp followed by a secondary sizing. The loads function fine in my other 45. They drop right in and out of the SR chamber as well as a 45 acp gauge.

 

[DGW1949]

No experience with the Gold Dots, but quite a bit with other fly-weight HP's. As a group, they were all iffy in my Government Models, and all but useless in the Combat Commander that I had at the time.
As a side note; Speer's infamous "Flying Ashtray" was the worse offender.

If playing around with the bullet's seating-depth don't help, you might try a different brand of mag, or tweaking one of your present mags. Or....there's gunsmiths out there that can alter your gun in a manner that will allow it to work with about any one bullet shape that you want it to work with. The problem there though, is that once a 1911-type gun is "set up" for one type of "specialty" bullet, it may no longer work all that well with the "conventional" bullets that most-all of them are designed to work with.

If none of that works out (or appeals to you), there's always the option of just using a heavier bullet with a longer/friendlier nose shape than can be had with the light-weights.

Hope something here helped.

DGW

 

[LEDW]

Max OAL is barrel specific and handloading any new profile, the bullet should be charted to the handgun being used by means of a barrel probe or similar method. In this case having passed the plunk test and cartridge gauge you're probably within acceptable OAL range. In the absence of any bullet or brass marring or damage on the failed to feed rounds, can you complete the cycle manually? If yes, are you using factory magazines? If yes, do you have a conventional grip, keeping firm from forearms thru palms of both hand thumbs forward? If yes, reconsider the powder and charge you've selected to be certain it matches the weight and type bullet to achieve proper velocity. If yes, pull a few and re-weigh. If they check out correctly, is there range in the data to up the charge and remain within the safe limit max. If yes, load a bunch and see if it helps. My full size SR1911 came with a 18# recoil spring and wouldn't cycle lite loads reliably, could be the problem here. Good luck.

 

[mike7mm08]

Loads are near max checked weights of charges within a 1/10th of a grain no marks on the cases nothing on the bullets that I can see. The mags are factory. No problem manually cycling the action to chamber the first one from the mag. When it locks up I need to drop the mag to clear the jam. As for hold multiple shooters same problem. Thinking it has something to do with the blunt squareish nose of the gold dots. Thinking the angle they are coming out of the mag and the bullet shape are jamming the rounds tight to the top of the chamber.The gun functions flawlessly with 185 grain xtps with a pronounced nose taper. So those will probable be my defense load. Fortunately I have close to a thousand of those and only a couple hundred of the gold dots. Still want to get the factory gold dot load dimensions. Just would like to match the length and see if it works as I have heard numerous reports of the factory golddots working in SR commanders. Cannot duplicate the powder and charge but at least the length and I can eliminate the bullet from my load choices for this gun. Thanks for all the thoughts.

 

[LEDW]

OK, seems you have eliminated most probable causes of this problem. DGW mentions magazines. I might suggest researching the Wilson and McCormack[sp?] 1911 mags. I recall one of them present the cartridge at a different angle by-passing most of the feed ramp adding to the reliability that they claim. Borrow one from a friend and see if it works. Then shoot them up and move on.

 

[mike7mm08]

I do everything your doing as I previously mentioned. 1.200 is my length of the first ones I loaded. They drop right in the chamber and I am running a Lee factory crimp die. Loads function fine in my other 1911 just don't group worth a darn. Gonna try different magazine and see if that helps.

 

[dlidster]

Just for the heck of it, try these same cartridges in a different magazine in your SR1911. The Ruger/Check-Mate issue magazines have what is called a "hybrid lip" design. This design has its followers and detractors. Borrow a different magazine from a friend and decide for yourself.

 

[dakota1911]

I know my full size SR1911 had some issues with some 200gr cast SWC I had loaded until I put a Colt 16lb spring in it. They were not loaded real hot.

 

[mattsbox99]

I have some 185 grain Speer Gold Dots loaded up that function fine in my full size, I haven't tried them in the Commander though.

 

[trauma1]

No experience with the Gold Dots, but quite a bit with other fly-weight HP's. As a group, they were all iffy in my Government Models, and all but useless in the Combat Commander that I had at the time.
As a side note; Speer's infamous "Flying Ashtray" was the worse offender.

If playing around with the bullet's seating-depth don't help, you might try a different brand of mag, or tweaking one of your present mags. Or....there's gunsmiths out there that can alter your gun in a manner that will allow it to work with about any one bullet shape that you want it to work with. The problem there though, is that once a 1911-type gun is "set up" for one type of "specialty" bullet, it may no longer work all that well with the "conventional" bullets that most-all of them are designed to work with.

If none of that works out (or appeals to you), there's always the option of just using a heavier bullet with a longer/friendlier nose shape than can be had with the light-weights.

Hope something here helped.

DGW

I remember many years ago that the "flying ashtray" was the gold standard in 1911 reliability tests. may just be the bullet and your chamber if other stuff functions. Clean your barrel/chamber REALLY good. May have some lead/copper right where the case mouth seats at.

 

[mike7mm08]

I have cleaned and even lightly polished the chamber. No luck. I am now waiting on some different mags. Might see them before 2014 maybe,not holding my breath though.

 

[mike7mm08]

Update on my problem. Finally got a Wilson Mag. problem solved. Went with their new Heavy Duty/+P seven round mag. Supposed to be the latest and greatest 1911 mag. Whatever the advertisement from the company matters nothing to me. All that counts is I now have a reliable gun with a bullet I want to use.