.45 Kimber...Kimbers jammed...

Earlier this week I went to shoot my .45s and started shooting some of my loads...semi-wadcutters...and both pistols jammed shooting them. Ugh first time my old Kimber Custom II has ever jammed! The SWC just wouldn't feed.

Have any of you guys experienced the same? What did you do? Should I just use round nose?

I blame the ammo. Chunk it and say sweet nothings to your babies.

I had the same problem with SWC in my glock 36. The range boss saw me fighting them and handed me his Kimber and it had the same problems. I wanted the brass back so I fought through them. I did notice if you only load half the mag the mag spring was lighter and it would feed them smoother. The soft lead hangs on the feed ramps.

Xtreme plated is the way to go for cheap target killers for me now.

Varying the OAL might help solve feeding issues. Just beware of elevated pressure should you seat the bullet significantly deeper without reducing the charge a bit.

You might want to try the plunk test, too. That's when you removed the barrel from the slide and drop your handloads into the chamber to see if they fall freely all the way in. If they don't, you may have a sizing or crimping deficiency.

1: load them longer.
2: polish your feed ramp.
3: I've shot tens of thousands of SWC in a 1911 and have had little issue.

Everyone knows I'm a Glock fan boy, when my 1911's jammed I just got rid of them. However I've been reading up on them a lot lately and read somewhere that for HP ammo and SWC ammo there are special followers for the mags that help feed them better. Maybe look into a new mag or some of the followers to see if it fixes the issue.

Where and how does it jam, specifically? Also, what is you load you are running? The jamming could be caused by several different factors.

Kimbers have always given me issues, one way or another.

My Colts have been flawless through everything. Go ahead and buy yourself a Colt. Perfect excuse to buy a new gun IMO.

Let's start at the start.

If it has been working fine with other loads, and is jamming with just the SWC, the problem is the ammo.

First, pull the barrel out, point it muzzle down to the ground, using a dummy round, drop it into the chamber. It should make a soft "thunk" hitting on the case mouth, and the bullet should not stop the case from going completely into the chamber. If the case is not going into the chamber easily, then either the COAL is too long, the case is not adequately resized, or both.

Are you full length sizing the case and using a taper crimp? What is the measurement of the case mouth after the taper crimp is applied? The case mouth on a loaded round after the taper crimp should measure 0.470" - 0.471". Do not use a roll crimp on a 45 ACP as the round headspaces on the case mouth.

Measure the diameter of a few bullets to make sure they are not oversize.

If they are dropping into the chamber easily, and still jamming, try matching the base to ogive measurement from a load that has proven reliable.

Also, how many rounds has it been since the recoil spring was last changed? What weight of recoil spring are you using?

Is the pistol lubed?

Please try those steps first and report back with the results. Then we can start ruling out other problems.

Great Info Guys! Thank you! I have pretty much always shot factory loads in my pistols because the cost just wasn't high enough and I did not shoot often enough to load pistol rounds. I bought some SWCs a while back and decided to load them and shoot them because ammo has gotten a little higher lately. So I had not shot SWCs through my 1911s before. And I have never had a feed issue...any issue with my Custom II Kimber before nor had I had any issues with my new Kimber before shooting the SWCs.

I will take the barrels off and check the loads out to see how they seat in the barrel. It does seem that they are not getting there as if they aren't coming out of the slide clean.

I will let you guys know what I find.

Thanks,

Mel

Can you explain this a bit more please?

Yes, I have seen this exact issue on a Kimber Raptor. It was a great shooter but picky about what it was going to feed reliably. I'm not sure what the guy did to fix the issue, if anything.

I shoot SWC all the time in my 1911's. Once in awhile I'll get a jam but not very often. My favorite is a 200gr SWC loaded with 700X

All of the above questions are valid. I'd be checking COL and crimp diameter. If you still can't make them run, shoot me pm with a price for the remaining bullets.

I shoot a lot of lead and plated SWCs out of my Gold Cup with no issues. What projectile are you using?