[Ko Improbable]

Just recently purchased an Armscor 1911A1 in .38 Super, and with the one kind of ammunition I could find for it before heading to the range, it didn't want to feed well.

The ammunition I found is Winchester's 130gr flat-point FMJ. The magazine is a Colt magazine, so I'm not thinking it's a magazine problem, but I won't rule it out.

The symptoms are thus: When there are five or fewer rounds in the magazine, it feeds perfectly fine. Sixth round takes two tries to get it into the chamber, and it goes up in difficulty from there. A full nine-round load won't feed, period.

I have two theories:
A.) Since Armscor is also an ammunition manufacturer, they most likely test with their own ammo, which seems to use a totally round nose bullet. Maybe the flat-point rounds are the wrong shape to chamber right when the rounds are getting angled down due to the original design of the .38 Super case being a semi-rimmed, which Winchester is still using.
B.) Perhaps this magazine is designed for the competition style .38 Super cases, which are properly rimless, I think. So, the rounds may be pointing down too much when I have 6+ rounds in the magazine.

Anyone have any thoughts or input from their own experiences?

 

[Rangeguy]

.38 Super

I own and shoot a Colt Commander in .38 Super and like your weapon, mine likes and shoots the "pointy" nosed FMJ round with zero stoppages. To be completely honest about it, I have not tried any other configuration of ammo in her, but my senses tell me that I would encounter the same type of problem as you described.........!!! The original design of the feed ramp for the .38 Super handgun was for FMJ round nosed ammo, period....!!! Because that was all that was available.. Truncated cone was not in the mix at that time.... maybe a redesigned ramp is needed here.......!!!!!

 

[Bill Mannatt]

There is no reason to shoot the semi-rimmed bass in the 38 super. Unless you don't reload. I have an accu-railed Caspian (officer frame) that shoots regular and super-comp brass interchangeably,Semiwadcutters,round nose flat points,round nose,you name it. The semi-rimmed cases create a lot of drag,try pushing one of them out of the mag when it is full.There's a reason competitive shooters use the Super-comp brass,it works with all bullet types and feeds smoother. Hate the thought of a Super being hamstrung by factory ammo.

 

[Night Driver]

Besides the points you brought up I believe competitive shooters use the Super comp brass because it is significantly more accurate than the semi rimmed ammunition.

Original 38supers were notorious for their high power and low accuracy. Some bright fellow figured out that headspacing on the semi rim was not nearly as accurate an arrangement as headspacing on the case mouth ala the 45acp cartridge. I find it somewhat baffling Colt chose to simply up load the old 38 auto cartridge and rename it 38Super. Especially after the fantastic sucess of the 45acp. Probably a cost cutting ploy by management.

I'm sure the point about the rimless case passing easily thru the magazine is quite valid and probably contributes a great deal to the reliablity of the round.

 

[duane]

try different magazines and/or bullet shapes occassionaly a weak mag spring will cause issues and some guns do not like one bullet shape or another. the latter is blamed alot but is not the true answer. is the bullet nosing up or down when it doesnt work? what weight recoil spring? are there any rub marks on exterior of the barrel where the bushing could be rubbing? does the round look different in the magazine when it is full versus half full versus empty?

 

[Ko Improbable]

Thank you for your input. I'll change my upcoming order for brass to the competition stuff, and probably aim to only use round nose ammo in it.