I have a aluminum frame Taurus 1911. I've put about 2000 rnds through it at this point and with a few rare exceptions it has given me no trouble at all. I just went to the range the other day and noticed a new problem. When shooting Double Tap hollow point ammo, the first round in a 8 round Cobra (Tripp) magazine would not chamber. The gun got stuck in slide back position, forcing me to eject magazine at which point slide would slam home.
When I removed the top round from the 8 round mag, thus making it a 7 round mag I did not have this problem and it worked properly. When I switched to ball ammo I did not have this problem even with 8 rounds in mag. When I switched to Winchester Ranger I did not have this problem even with 8 rounds. I then remembered the last time I was at the range it did the exact same thing with a mag of Powerball I had left over. I considered it an anomoly at the time, but now it's a problem.
Not quite sure what is going on here. For whatever reason, that top round in these Cobra Mags with certain ammo just doesn't want to make it up the ramp. In the past I have used this ammo before and never had this problem. Could it be my slide release pin?
The first step I would recommend is to replace the recoil spring. Wolff Gunsprings makes, IMHO, the best. If your pistol is a 5 incher it should use a standard 16 pound Colt-type spring. www.gunsprings.com
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I'm thinking the magazine springs are weakening.
Not a bad idea to replace the mag springs as well. The Taurus factory recoil springs I have seen appear to be from the lowest bidder, and 2,000 rounds may be all the life they've got. YMMV.
After a 1911 gets more than 4 or 5 round loaded into it, the top round begins to lose nose support from the rounds below. The loss of nose support increases with each additional round and reaches its maximum when the magazine is full as seen here:
And the greater the magazine's capacity, the less the nose support for the top round, as seen in this one:
P08C040009plus10.jpg
When the slide tries to feed that top round, the lack of nose support sees it nosedive and hit down low on the frame feed ramp because of these factors...
...and if the slide doesn't have enough energy to make the bullet glance up and off of the ramp and into the chamber the bullet sometimes just stays planted on the ramp.
Of the two things mentioned so far, a new recoil spring may be the most effective as it will give the slide more energy. New magazine springs may not help, but they certainly won't hurt. You can see if they will help by putting a round or two underneath the magazine spring. In addition, if the gun has a shock buffer installed removing it may help by allowing the slide to go back a little farther and store up a little more energy in the recoil spring.
If the frame feed ramp in really rough, smoothing it a little might help except for the fact that yours is aluminum and probably anodized. As such, do not even think about making it any smoother!