Do you polish internal Pistol parts to lessen friction?

[daddySEAL]

I routinely polish the feed ramps, guide rods (if those are metal) and inside of mags on all my pistols~
How about you guys?
Do you have any other areas you "glass up" to lower friction?

[RPB]

If they needed it

Back in the 1970s/80s,
I recall I polished:
feed ramp on an AMT backup
The opening/closing action on a break-open side-by-side 2 barrel 12 guage coach shotgun, so it opened easily and closed with a strong flick of the wrist if carried down main street while broken open
Feedramps on several "not-the-best" semi-autos Grendels etc

not much lately though, as most stuff is better quality from factories and needs less "break-in period" (well the brands I buy anyway) Seems Like I did need to clean up a feed ramp about 5 years ago though I forgot on what.

[speedsix]

...I don't know much about gunsmithing...I use Gun Butter in lockwork...seems to help a lot...

[v-rog]

I polished the sear, trigger bar, striker, and the Firing Pin Block on my M&P 45. But I don't polish the feed ramp lest I interfere with the gun's ability to eat my Lee 200gr SWCs

[WildBill]

If they needed it

Back in the 1970s/80s,
I recall I polished:
feed ramp on an AMT backup

I spent hours polishing my AMT backup. Not only the feed ramp, but also the slide. I used jewelers rouge and cycled it until it was smooth and did not catch.
I also used a file and stone to smooth out the machining marks on the outside surface of the slide.

[OldCannon]

Well, polishing things doesn't always make it work better, but it will make it shinier

Seriously, know WHY you're polishing components. Remember, you are removing metal when you polish, and that's not always a good idea.

I always get scared when I find people have polished the feed ramp on their Glock barrels to "fix" stovepiping (hint: Glocks don't need feedramp polishing).

[The Annoyed Man]

The best exsisting polishing method is to go to the range and shoot lots and lots of ammo.

[texasmusic]

You can also burn through the parkerizing/ protective coat / hardening pretty quick. I've polished things but only when I've found it to be helpful... If the gun is too slick it may outrun your magazine spring in my experience. On a gun like a 10/22 I polish away. Polished the loading ramp on my PPS and its had zero problems since after having some trouble before. As with all things I stick to the old "if it aint broke don't fix it".

[74novaman]

I touched up the lever on my .357 1894c because it was a bit sticky. It still hitches a little...but at this point I'm planning on just shooting it a lot until its smooth.

Other than that I've never touched up anything on any of my pistols/rifles.

[FishInTx]

I recently purchased a used Taurus tcp 738 .380. I'm having ftf problems. It doesn't like fmj's(monarch, blazer, remington). 12 Hornady cd's worked well. The feed ramp looks too steep and narrow. Should I try to polish the feed ramp to better accomodate fmj rounds or should I send it back to Taurus or keep, shoot, slap, shoot, slap shooting the thing? I've cleaned it twice and have only put about 50 rounds through it. I'm getting it out today and going to put about another 50 through it. Maybe it will clear itself. It looks brand new not sure how many rounds were shot by previous owner. TIA

[74novaman]

50 rounds isn't really enough to break a gun in....try shooting it some more.

I'd be very hesitant to polish a feed ramp, because you can REALLY mess up how the gun feeds.

Try shooting some more, see if that helps......good luck!

[cbunt1]

Personally, I'm all for polishing where it's necessary, and leaving things be where it makes no difference. In many cases, removing the tool marks and such is an improvement, and anything beyond that is a waste of elbow grease and a potential to damage parts with very shallow hardening (such as the internals of modern S&W revolvers).

In short, anyplace you have firm metal-to-metal contact working against leverage (like the sear/hammer contact surfaces of a 1911) can benefit from a proper polishing. Metal moving against metal without the leverage (e.g. slide rails against slides on the same 1911) will benefit from removal of rough spots, but won't get much benefit from more detailed polishing--well, at least not enough to make it worth it to most of us shooters--there are cases that justify it, I'm just not that good a shooter!

The key element to polishing and friction reduction is to ONLY polish, and don't remove metal. I'm thinking of course, of the famous "fluff and buff" jobs that can so significantly improve the performance of many pocket pistols such as the kel-tecs.

BUT...personally, I don't even consider looking at "problems" in a gun until after I've run about 300-500 rounds of basic (read cheap) hardball ammo through it...follow it with a close look before you clean it, and you will see where the contact surfaces are, and if you've had any hiccups, you should have a decent idea of where they are and what leads to them.

My opinion. Worth what you paid...maybe less

[Jumping Frog]

My personal opinion is there are more guns messed up by amateur gunsmiths using the Dremel than any other tool. Go easy, go slow, be patient!

[cbunt1]

I'm not sure it's just amateurs that mess things up with dremels