Feed ramp polishing...

[JefFamous 6]

How many of you have done it? I got all my polishable internals done by pauly, which i was very pleased with, but i never bothered reprofiling the feed ramp my self. It never has trouble feeding anything except the occasional deformed shell. (typically my fault) I just wanted to get a little input from the forum before i went about doing it my self. Also, did any of you do it without a dremel? Like a hand file for instance..?

 

Thanks, Jeff

[jdtravers 637]

It it does not have problems, leave it alone. You can cause more problems to the feed ramp by taking off TOO MUCH materiel. If you have your heart set with fucking with it, then take some 60 - 80 grit paper, wrap it around your finger and break/radius the sharp edges. DO NOT try to angle the ramp, it is not a pistol feeding the cartridge up into the chamber.

 

The feed system was designed to feed the shell off the inside top of the barrel hood, not the bottom of the feed ramp, but the shells will bounce down and hit the ramp during that feed cycle sometimes. If you try and build a ramp up into the chamber the shells will bounce down and stop on that ramp because of the angle.

 

Regards,

 

Jack

[JefFamous 6]

So you personally, would not recommend doing the feed ramp polishing as it is shown and described in the, "How to polish my bolt" or w/e its called sticky? I just thought it might give me a little more tolerance on a deformed top shell..

[jdtravers 637]

go for it!

[JefFamous 6]

Good answer.... But i just re-read that last sentence in your first post and made my decision for the moment....Last question tho, would doing the sand paper trick you mentioned do anything benificial for me, in your opinion?

 

Thanks, Jeff

[jdtravers 637]

Yes, if a shell hangs up on the ramp it is usually on the square edge of the barrel, not the "Ramp". They are all a little different. I have learned through years of trial and error what works and what doesn't.

 

BUT, if there are no problems, leave it alone. The best test to find out if there are going to be feed problems, is do this: Leave about 10 Federal, Bulk Pack Shells, 3 Dram, wally world stuff, out in the sun for a couple of hours (90 plus temp) until the hulls get soft. Run them through the gun and see if they hang up. Wherever they hang up is where you need to focus on. If the shell does not hang up, pull it out anyway and see if it has plastic shaved or deformed, these are your contact points that need to be looked at.

 

I found that just taking the edges off will prevent the shell from hanging on the barrel as it tries to enter the chamber.

 

I use what is called a "Cross buff" on an angle grinder and break/polish the sharp edges. Failure to feeds are no longer a problem.

 

I do not get wrapped up in "Polishing" the area. The polishing is a by product of the cross buffs. What is important is that there are no corners/edges for the shell to lock into.

 

 

Jack

[JefFamous 6]

I appreciate the detailed information. I might actually do that little trick next time i hit the range. I might even put some sort of chalk on the tip of the shell and see where it actually touches.

[gunfun 3,931]

good info. Thanks.

[corbin 621]

Great tip Jack.

[The_Caged_Bird 474]

It's nice to know that a great 'smith like Mr. Travers suggests this, I oftentimes wondered if I had done the right thing by removing sharp edges. I polished a bit of the barrel hood as well...

[clifton 354]

Barrel Hood is where we find some feeding problems on a properly gassed gun, however 95% of the time an under gassed gun will give you signs of " Feeding Problems" Before you start removing matierial make sure your Gas is right.

[Paulyski 2,227]

As has been stated, a gun that's just a touch too undergassed can cause the stovepipe FTF.

This is because the short-cycle scenario that can ensue will cause the feed foot to start pushing the shell early & make contact too high on the shell, causing the nose of the shell to kick up.

 

However, mags can cause the issue as well if the mouth of the mag drags on both sides of the shell at once, slowing the mag's feed.

On all black surefires, I disassemble the mag, stick a 5/8" spark plug socket in the mouth like a shell sits, then dip it in boiling water for 10 seconds, then set it aside & let it air-cool.

I also tune the surefire 12 springs to be about 8" longer than they start to help lift the full loads of shells faster.

 

It's kind of like the pro-mag fix, but the surefires don't re-collapse like the Promag sticks do in my experience.

On the AGPs, to avoid mag hiccups, I disassemble them & sand the mag body's follower channel with 120, then 240 sand paper, to remove any left over bumps from flash that the injection molding tool's pins that push the halves out of the tool leave.

AGP has their assemblers knock the flash off by scraping it with a chisel, but I like it smoother.

When I reassemble an AGP, I tighten the screws until snug, then I back them off about 1/3 of a rotation as not to collapse the mouth & cause drag.

 

Also, use the Port Gauges/Cleaners I provided to you with GlassBolt to clean & measure your ports.

The carbon/lead mixture cakes up in the ports like a heart's arteries clog, so the sharpened precision carbon wires at .07", .08", & .09" give you a nearly full range of sizes to ensure your ports can get totally clean, as opposed to a paper clip which tends to mic out at around .035", therefore can only ensure that you have .035" of ports open & free of debris caked to the interior walls of the ports.

Start with the .07", work it in, then work the .08" in etc...

[JefFamous 6]

Appreciate all the useful information. At this point ive done just about every reliability mod i can other than polishing my feed ramp. As it stands my s12 cycles everything, i was just thinking about polishing the ramp cause its the only thing some people do to their saiga that i have yet to do. As far as cycling non deformed shells i have no issues tho.