To polish or not to polish feed ramp

[casdor12345]

I'm posting the following for comments because I've read on different forums that polishing the feed ramp helps ... now I'm confused.

Friday went to my local gun range. Fired 100 rds of 36 grain HP thru my SR 22. Had 2 FTF at random intervals. On my way out, I stopped at the gunsmith's shop and asked him: I'd like to polish the SR 22 feed ramp but did not have a dremel, what would you suggest I use? He told me polishing the feed ramp was a widely held misconception. That the feed ramp had nothing to do with an FTF, other things on the gun caused the FTF; lack of proper lubrication of the gun, springs, etc.

He also said that the feed ramp is not a true ramp, the bullet does not travel up the ramp. The bullet hits at an exact angle on the ramp and bounces into the chamber. If you were to polish the ramp (too much - my interpretation), you could change the angle and the bullets would never seat correctly causing a bigger problem, He also said never lubricate the ramp make sure it was dry after cleaning.

 

[6gun]

I polished the ramp on my SR22 pistol and it helped a bit, I just used some 1000 grit sand paper very lightly followed up with metal polish if you put a bullet in the mag with the slide off you can see the bullet just hits the very top of the ramp before it goes into the chamber so the ramp doesn't really need to be polished much,mostly at the top, I can't agree or disagree with your gunsmith but all the little things you can do will add up to a gun that shoots better.

 

[Pat-inCO]

He told me polishing the feed ramp was a widely held misconception. That the feed ramp had nothing to do with an FTF, other things on the gun caused the FTF; lack of proper lubrication of the gun, springs, etc.

Listen to what he said.

 

[Jwp721]

Looking at the angle of the ramp and how the round sits in the magazine I truly doubt the ramp does much for feeding. Glad to hear your gunsmith confirms.

2 bad rounds out of 100 isn't earth shattering. I am more curious as to what type of ammo you were using then the smoothness of your feed ramp.

... but all the little things you can do will add up to a gun that shoots better.

This I will disagree with. You can do a lot of little things that might not do a darn thing at all and some that could do some damage...so I wouldn't go doing a bunch of little things in the hopes that your pistol will shoot better.

 

[6gun]

Looking at the angle of the ramp and how the round sits in the magazine I truly doubt the ramp does much for feeding. Glad to hear your gunsmith confirms.

2 bad rounds out of 100 isn't earth shattering. I am more curious as to what type of ammo you were using then the smoothness of your feed ramp.

... but all the little things you can do will add up to a gun that shoots better.

This I will disagree with. You can do a lot of little things that might not do a darn thing at all and some that could do some damage...so I wouldn't go doing a bunch of little things in the hopes that your pistol will shoot better.

So all the AR15 makers that polish feed ramps are wrong then?

There are lots of little things like installing better springs, polishing action parts where they make contact, have you never heard of action jobs? not much you can really do with a SR22 to make it shoot better, but in general with most handguns there are lots of small improvements one can make.

 

[Precision32]

Please enlighten me as to how a feed ramp would create FailToFire problems?

Your firing pin positive protrusion needs to be checked. It should be 0.025" to 0.035".

 

[6gun]

My SR22 not only has failure to fire problems it also has failure to feed problems as well, ammo missing the chamber being feed to high or sideways, bending the bullet at a angle to the case, and yes polishing the feed ramp did help with this problem, but didn't make it go away entirely it's not a fire pin problem in my case, got to chamber before it can fire, and ammo that does chamber and fails to fire all get good firm strikes which tells me it's the ammo, lots of ammo lately is not even strong enough to cycle the slide so that is another problem.

 

[Jwp721]

So all the AR15 makers that polish feed ramps are wrong then?

There are lots of little things like installing better springs, polishing action parts where they make contact, have you never heard of action jobs? not much you can really do with a SR22 to make it shoot better, but in general with most handguns there are lots of small improvements one can make.

No clue on the AR15. Wrong forum for that. I just know how the round in a SR sits in the magazine before it is moved to the chamber. That feed ramp appears to be doing little to nothing. And the fact that your problem did not go away completly leads me to question if you did any good at all or if there was another factor affecting the issue such as ammo related. Very doubtful that ammo that can't cycle the slide is going to benefit from a polished feed ramp!

As far as your comment about changing small things ...I simply disagreed with your blanket statement that "all the small things you can do" will add up to make a gun shoot better. Some could, some might not, and some could do damage. No big deal, I just dont like absolute statements when not 100% true.

 

[6gun]

So all the AR15 makers that polish feed ramps are wrong then?

There are lots of little things like installing better springs, polishing action parts where they make contact, have you never heard of action jobs? not much you can really do with a SR22 to make it shoot better, but in general with most handguns there are lots of small improvements one can make.

No clue on the AR15. Wrong forum for that. I just know how the round in a SR sits in the magazine before it is moved to the chamber. That feed ramp appears to be doing little to nothing. And the fact that your problem did not go away completly leads me to question if you did any good at all or if there was another factor affecting the issue such as ammo related. Very doubtful that ammo that can't cycle the slide is going to benefit from a polished feed ramp!

As far as your comment about changing small things ...I simply disagreed with your blanket statement that "all the small things you can do" will add up to make a gun shoot better. Some could, some might not, and some could do damage. No big deal, I just dont like absolute statements when not 100% true.

That's because you are missing my point and trying to lump all the different problems with the SR22 into one problem when there are many.

 

[Jwp721]

That's because you are missing my point and trying to lump all the different problems with the SR22 into one problem when there are many.

I guess I am missing your point. I thought you said "all the small things you can do will add up to a gun that shoots better"... Which I simply disagreed with the use of the word "all". And for sake of this thread and the SR22 you can switch out the plastic recoil rod for a steel one... But it ain't going to make the pistol shoot any better. Polish your feed ramp if you want to but you have already said it didnt eliminate your problem.

 

[6gun]

That's because you are missing my point and trying to lump all the different problems with the SR22 into one problem when there are many.

I guess I am missing your point. I thought you said "all the small things you can do will add up to a gun that shoots better"... Which I simply disagreed with the use of the word "all". And for sake of this thread and the SR22 you can switch out the plastic recoil rod for a steel one... But it ain't going to make the pistol shoot any better. Polish your feed ramp if you want to but you have already said it didnt eliminate your problem.

But polishing the feed ramp did make it fail to feed less often by about 50% so that's one little thing that helped.

 

[Jwp721]

6gun. I am glad you think that polishing your ramp helped. In fact if it stopped rounds from missing the chamber, being feed to high or sideways, bending the bullet at a angle to the case, and ammo not cycling the slide that would be great by me... But all of those issues lead me to believe you have a bigger issue than a non polished ramp. Your pistol, your call...

But I have never had any issues like that with my SR which is now over 6,000 rounds and still going strong. I would be calling Ruger instead of looking for little things to fix.

 

[6gun]

6gun. I am glad you think that polishing your ramp helped. In fact if it stopped rounds from missing the chamber, being feed to high or sideways, bending the bullet at a angle to the case, and ammo not cycling the slide that would be great by me... But all of those issues lead me to believe you have a bigger issue than a non polished ramp. Your pistol, your call...

But I have never had any issues like that with my SR which is now over 6,000 rounds and still going strong. I would be calling Ruger instead of looking for little things to fix.

So if yours is working so great and your such a expert why are you reading and responding to fixes. :lol:

 

[Jwp721]

So if yours is working so great and your such a expert why are you reading and responding to fixes. :lol:

Ahhh.. Because I believe what the OP was told was correct and that polishing the feed ramp on the SR is not the fix he needed.

Keep polishing your feed ramp and looking for little fixes 6gun, but from the issues you said you have with your SR, I believe you have issues that Ruger would be better suited to correct. You may now have the last word as I am not visiting this thread ever again. See ya.

 

[Bull Barrel]

I had much the same problem with a 10-22. The problem was failing to eject the spent cases properly and the spent cases and new cartridges were colliding. I had fail to feed, fail to fire and fail to eject. Installed a Volquartsen extractor and problem solved.

 

[6gun]

I had much the same problem with a 10-22. The problem was failing to eject the spent cases properly and the spent cases and new cartridges were colliding. I had fail to feed, fail to fire and fail to eject. Installed a Volquartsen extractor and problem solved.

never thought of that that's another thing I can try, thanks.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

I don't have a whole lot of experience with autoloaders, but have yet to hurt one by smoothing up the feed ramps with some 0000 (extra fine) steel wool and a drop of oil. I use the same treatment on the magazine lips. I'd call it more like deburring than polishing. Again, haven't hurt one yet...

Whether it does any good is arguable. But it makes me feel better!

Rick C

 

[6gun]

Hi,

I don't have a whole lot of experience with autoloaders, but have yet to hurt one by smoothing up the feed ramps with some 0000 (extra fine) steel wool and a drop of oil. I use the same treatment on the magazine lips. I'd call it more like deburring than polishing. Again, haven't hurt one yet...

Whether it does any good is arguable. But it makes me feel better!

Rick C

Yup don't hurt a thing to carefully polish looking at mine magnified it was really rough, and your right about magazine lips, they very well can be part of the problem, lots of little thing can add up to make a gun not function well, and failure to cycle rounds can be feed ramp, ejector, or magazines or all of them.

 

[frank n texas]

I thought polishing ramp was to remove any horizontal machine grooves or marks