I just picked up a new to me Shield 9 (1.0 version). The gun appeared to be in excellent condition overall and I got it for a good price. When I tried to load it, the nose of the bullets would hang up on the feed ramp every time. When I disassembled it I found the feed ramp totally covered in carbon. The barrel bore was fairly clean and the internals had the usual dirt of a used gun but nothing excessive. After some Mother's Mag polish and a felt cone on my Dremel tool, the feed ramp cleaned up nicely and everything works fine now (I did a deep cleaning of the entire gun including removal of the striker). I've been playing with guns for over 60 years and I've used some dirty ammo but I've never seen anything like that on any of my semi-autos. My question is how does that much carbon build up on a feed ramp?
(BTW - the gun belonged to a local cop)

It is kind of amazing isn't it? My feed ramps get dirty but there is always a shiny spot in the middle somewhere where the bullet hits and keeps buildup clear. Maybe the shape of your bullets is different from the previous owner's.

I put 200 rounds through my brand new 9 EZ in a recent test of failure to feed with different ammunition. (Results here.)

I post this because I noticed that about half-way through, the feed ramp was completely black, so I used a bore snake w/ Hoppes to clean it off. It was black again when I finished the second half. I wasn't specifically checking for any issues with FTF related to the dirty ramp, but I noticed perhaps some correlation.

Anyhow, in a couple of weeks I plan on another range test with this gun focusing on the correlation (if any) between the number of rounds fired since cleaning and FTF. In this test, I will be using only a single ammo brand - Winchester (white box) Target 115 gr FMJ. I'll post the results.

A Cop who likes to shoot but neglects to clean/maintain his firearm, that's how.

Yeah, I gave him some feedback on the issue. I hinted that he might want to check his duty gun.

No proper cleaning makes such magic...

Good solvent which fights carbon residues and proper maintenance never allow any buildups on feed rump.

That behavior is not limited to cops. Plenty of citizens out there who will take their handgun to the range, put a couple of boxes or more of ammo through them, then put them in the nightstand without a good cleaning.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA