Latest smiley philosophy......

[Volt]

Below is a photo of how a round nose bullet is able to ride up over the frame edge and enter the area of the feed ramp even though the slide is over and still compressing the round.

I am convinced that this "frame overide" is happening during recoil. I think this is the cause of smilies on post-rampotomy pistols that have ramps that do not enter the magazine area.

The interesting thing is it seems to happen worse as the pistol becomes dirty. Is the bottom of the slide that rubs the top round in the magazine getting sooty and thus slicker? Or is the frame edge getting slicker. Sort of like being coated in graphite? I do not know.

A lot of things are moving very fast and many things are happening in micro-seconds.

[Volt]

Here is a photo showing the wear mark on the frame edge.

[Volt]

Here is a photo of my rampotomy. I shortened the ramp until it would no longer protrude into the magazine-well area.

[oldgranpa]

Volt,
good looking ramp job, about like mine on my 1st gen P3AT.

To better see what's going on, try this....

remove the spring from the slide/barrel and then reassemble the pistol.
Now you can slowly cycle the slide by hand and watch the effect on rounds in the magazine.

og