[E Buzz Miller]

Howdy,

Upon inspecting my new P229 I was surprised to see the feed ramp was not polished.

Is there a coating applied that's slicker than polished steel ?

Seemed to do fine at first range trip with only hiccup being a FTE that AFAIK has nothing to do with feed ramps.

I read that some hot rod mods end include polishing the feed ramp.

I guess if I have FTF I'll look into this but just double checking for now.

Thanks,

EBM

 

[jeff s]

The DLC coating is actually pretty slick, all things considered. Polishing the feed ramp and throat is a common part of gunsmiths' "reliability package," but if your pistol feeds fine, then I wouldn't worry about it.

In reality it shouldn't be needed. You can spend a couple hundred bucks for a gunsmith to do it, or spend that money on a case of ammo and shoot it a ton, allowing the feeding/cycling of ammo to act as a polisher.

 

[bumper]

In reality it shouldn't be needed. You can spend a couple hundred bucks for a gunsmith to do it, or spend that money on a case of ammo and shoot it a ton, allowing the feeding/cycling of ammo to act as a polisher.

A couple hundred bucks??! To polish a feed ramp? Time to find another gunsmith. Okay, I hope I know that amount was tongue-in-cheek.

Feed ramp is stainless steel, bullet is, at best, copper. If the ramp is rough, bullet metal will transfer to the ramp and you can see the "color" there. You can fire away 'till the cows come home at the Bundy ranch and those soft bullets aren't going to do much but transfer a little more of themselves to the feed ramp where that transferred metal will protect the feed ramp from further smoothing

Get a bit of 600 wet/dry paper (add some 400 to use first if the ramp is really rough) it'll take all of a few square inches. Go up and down the ramp with finger pushing against the paper. After the 600, switch to Semi-Chrome or Flitz polish. If you have a rotary tool and some black emery compound and a small hard felt buff the right size, use that and you'll be done in just a few minutes.

Worth doing? Absolutely, part of any action work and with good reason. Do it!

 

[markm]

I don't know, I've never seen a Sig P-series that needed it, at least all mine are silky smooth.

 

[E Buzz Miller]

A couple hundred bucks??! To polish a feed ramp? Time to find another gunsmith. Okay, I hope I know that amount was tongue-in-cheek.

Feed ramp is stainless steel, bullet is, at best, copper. If the ramp is rough, bullet metal will transfer to the ramp and you can see the "color" there. You can fire away 'till the cows come home at the Bundy ranch and those soft bullets aren't going to do much but transfer a little more of themselves to the feed ramp where that transferred metal will protect the feed ramp from further smoothing

Get a bit of 600 wet/dry paper (add some 400 to use first if the ramp is really rough) it'll take all of a few square inches. Go up and down the ramp with finger pushing against the paper. After the 600, switch to Semi-Chrome or Flitz polish. If you have a rotary tool and some black emery compound and a small hard felt buff the right size, use that and you'll be done in just a few minutes.

Worth doing? Absolutely, part of any action work and with good reason. Do it!

Luckily....

I'm a jeweler and have an array of incredible polishing tool down to 15,000 diamond.

I'll see how it progresses.... if it aint broke don't fix it right?

I was curious though as my XDs has a very nicely polished ramp and is of course a less expensive firearm.

Thanks,

EBM

 

[northlight]

It's gonna be...

...a Feed Ramp Polishing Festival here in the Great Northwest.

Just took inventory and there are 9 Sig barrels....threaded and non-threaded versions...that desperately need their ramps to be super shiny....

Thanks, Bumper, for the suggested process and required stuff.

We'll get some actual paying work done this morning and then it's off to Carmen's House of Polishing Equipment Emporium to exercise the credit card.

Northlight

 

[northlight]

"Seven of Nine"....

....that's right, Star Trek geeks...I polished seven of the nine Sig barrel feed ramps in the house late this afternoon and evening.

As Bumper suggested, very fine sandpaper to remove the DLC (black coating), taking it easy so as not to remove metal, just the coating.

Then on to black polishing compound for the first round. I moved on from there to green polishing compound for a higher shine and then some Mother's Aluminum and Mag Polish to finish.

The Dremel with soft wool 1/2" diameter polishing pads worked well.

Polishing compound came from Harbor Freight and the Mother's Mag Polish from O'Reilly's Auto Parts. Lowes had some Dremel polishing pads as part of a $19 kit.

Looking at the pictures closely, you can still see some imperfections. I wanted to stop, reassemble and go shoot the guns to see if all is well. I'd appreciate anyone else's thoughts on whether to polish even further.

Northlight

 

[Reagan 39]

The first pistol feed ramp I ever polished was my P938. It was the first new pistol that initially had feed problems. It's feed problems were resolved after the polishing, new rubber Hogue grips (better purchase on the grip), and a few hundred down range.
Now I do every pistol when cleaning...only a few minutes with a dremel, polishing bit & flitz.
Was it the cure for the 938? Certainly didn't hurt.

 

[boris95]

Northlight, I do the same as you. I use green compound. Works every time.

 

[Dragonfly]

I am 100% in the "if it's not broke don't fix it" camp. If you don't experience any failures to feed then feed ramp polishing is not needed.

 

[Reagan 39]

I am 100% in the "if it's not broke don't fix it" camp. If you don't experience any failures to feed then feed ramp polishing is not needed.

I started doing my feed ramps not only for feed problems with the P938 but also so many posts reporting Sig service for feed problems:"polished feed ramp".
I liken it to cleaning your car's wiper blades...do they work? Sure do even if you didn't touch 'em. Do they work better with an occasional cleaning wipe? Sure do!

 

[ScalpeL28]

I had failures to feed using Sig's hollow points, around 3, even after going through 200 rounds of FMJs. I wanted to polish the feed ramp of my barrel though when I called Sig customer service about this they said just to shoot more FMJ first. I asked if I can polish the feed ramp and they said it will void the warranty on the barrel, just the barrel and not the pistol.

I just find it wrong that you purchase such an expensive and supposedly special version, the Legion and you still need to break it in. Don't get me wrong, I love my P229 Legion, for me, its the best pistol I ever owned. But I never had to go through a break in period with my Glock or H&K VP9.

Just sharing my opinion.