First is what LOA? With a real H&G 68 or most commercial copies, newer guns with very tight match
chambers with no real throats will not tolerate longer than 1.250. In my Colts I always ran them at
1.260-1.270, but they had generous throats. When I bought my first Dan Wesson I had to change
to 1.250 after 28 years of running at 1.260-1.270. The was an obvious mark on the bullet shoulder by the
rifling start and chamber edge in that case.
This sounds perhaps like the kind of problem where a tighter taper crimp was how we solved it in IPSC ammo,
if LOA was OK. The FTC was thought to be due to crud in the chamber being scraped forward, building a ridge at the
end of the chamber and the loose TC catching more crud, scraping it forward. If I was talking to an IPSC guy, I'd
start with LOA, then a bit more TC, with a RCBS/Lee short taper type of TC die. Slide over the crud, leave it in place.
I used to clean my Gold Cup every 6 months, which was around every 5,000 rds or so when I was really
active. I did put one drop of BreakFree on the chamber exterior with slide closed and on the barrel exterior tip at l
ockback before each practice session or match. Cruddy but it always ran perfectly with tight TC ammo. For newbies,
I'd just pop a round out of a mag, hand it to them and say - "match this one with LOA and TC". Always worked.
I have never seen a powder charge change cause a last round, 2nd last rd, jam. I wonder if something else changed
like TC or seating depth at the same time.
Not all guns like all mag designs. The majority of 1911s that I have will feed everything reliably from an
original tapered lip type GI/John Browning design mag. Hybrids are generally very good, too, and most
guns will feed most ammo from the newer parallel lip, early release mags.....BUT not all are equally happy
with each style of mag. My Ltwt Colt Commander never once actually jammed with hybrid or parallel lip mags,
but it had a very noticable hitch in the feed cycle when racking the first round, and you could find a spot if
you tried carefully where it would hang, just sit there - only at zero speed, never,ever happened while shooting. I
switched it to original tapered lip GI/Browning style and hand cycled it will not hang, no matter how I tried,
and the normal first round racking was perfectly slick and smooth. That is my daily carry gun and gets
only GI/Browning style mags. The one in the magwell is a very early factory nickel Colt mag with a
milled, pinned baseplate. I have never, ever found a slicker mag than a nickel plated mag, bar none. Ammo
moves slickly, and the mag goes into the well and back out like it is greased. IMO, nickeled mags are
the best possible magazines, bar none - problem is that they are nearly impossible to find. I bought a
batch in the 80s and have them still, great mags. The seller said that they were "overruns from a special order
for a middle east shiek's personal bodyguards" might be true, why I can never find any more.
Last round issues are sometimes attributed to the lack of a bump on the mag follower - the purpose is said to keep
the round from moving fwd uncontrolled. Personally, I have never proven this to myself, just heard it
as "conventional wisdom". Doesn't seem like this has anything to do with second to last round, tho.
My typical move for a mag that has a problem when others do not, is to relegate it to practice only mags
with a paint dab on base until it is 100% certain that it is a bad boy and then toss or give away to someone
who doesn't mind an occasional jam. On thing I got over in IPSC was any attachment at all to a mag which had
not really earned some loyalty. I have some mags that I have run many, many thousands of round through and
the never bobble, but you learn to keep new ones on a 'apprenticeship program' until they prove that they can
run. Once they are proven, they become valued members of the team.
Bill
