Is it worth the effort to polish feed ramps on semi-autos even if you’re not having problems? It seems like the ramp should be nice and shiny. Thinking of my 3rd gen’s and Glocks in particular.

If working, I'd leave it go. But if you do it very sparingly it shouldn't hurt anything. I'm sure you know not to change any dimensions?

Grab the Dremmel and have at it!
Kidding, if it works now why mess with it

Shiny...NO.
What's needed is SMOOTH. No machine marks or roughness.

Polishing to a bright shine does nothing useful and risks ruining it.

So people ask why custom guns have mirror polish feed ramps: That's because the customer pays for a feed ramp polish and if he doesn't see a mirror surface he figures the gunsmith forgot to do it, or charged him for work not done.
A custom smith can do a mirror polish because he knows how to do it without botching the frame.

I have pretty much always polished them; but VERY carefully. A felt pad and metal polish (sometimes with my Dremel) are all I use. It may be pointless, but I figure a shiny feed ramp certainly doesn't hurt.

We here at Bubba's Skool of Kitchun Table Gunsmithin believe that every feed ramp needs a polishing. We teaches to get out the Dremel an a sandin drum to polish, polish, polish until you can see yerself shavin in it. Like we say, if it ain't shiny, it ain't Bubba's!


Seriously now, if it ain't broken, don't go fixing it.

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Do not open a can of worms! If it's working - don't fix it!

There's also a Bubba's Outboard Repair and AR factory just down the road.

Sadly most QC people don’t have a CLUE about tooling marks. Cratex fine stone works just fine.

Is it steel or an alloy?

Smooth beats Rough ... Seven ways to Sunday .

The way corners are cut in manufacturing ...
You just about have to be the inspector and finisher your-self .
If the ramp is rough ... it will do no harm to to smooth and polish it .

When I get a rough one ... I finish the job myself .
Gary

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Yep, they is one of our subsiddsss, subsidery, subsdizer, ehhhh... sister outfits.

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And when you get the pistol perfected you should dive into your vehicle engine and get some of those parts smoothed up - ya know, for more horsepower and better gas mileage!

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S&W factory revolver armorer

Absolutely! Bubba's Skool of Car n Truck Fixin specializes in teachin how to get more power out of any engine. The Dremel comes in handy when it comes to grinding out an then polishin them ports and valves. Sometimes ya find a water jacket when grindin, but we just fill it in with some JB Weld and it's all good then.

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let the nose of your bullets do the polishing.

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Carry on....

I must be bubba cause I have polished plenty of ramps with rubber Cratex abrasives in a Dremel and then maybe red rouge on a felt pad to finish. Also cleaned up sharp edges around chamber with same. IF you wanted to drastically change the dimensions of a ramp to make it wrong with a fine Cratex, you best have alot of time on your hands to do that. If you only shoot ball ammo, maybe don't waste your time. Some guns come from the factory with good clean ramps that need nothing, some will at least shave led bullets and such if they were done on Friday afternoon close to closing time.

We don't hear about Glocks needing their feed ramps polished because:
1) They do not need it.
2) We don't have an internet to afford mass communication.

Umm ever heard of polishing and port-matching an intake and heads? It's a "thing"...

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Polishing ports was a thing 'till it was shown to be inferior to managed texture.
10 Myths Of Cylinder Head Porting | Speed Academy

Bubba's Outboard Shop doesn't mess nothing up. All Bubba does is slap a 9.9 HP decal on 15 horse motors to make them small lake legal. I don't know how I know that.

I have been there and done that! Back in the mid-1980's, with my '72 Ford Gran Torino Sport, which was blessed(?) with Ford's then new 400 cubic inch engine. I really wanted it to have more power than what Ford engineers had put into the 400-2V engine and I really did not want to be changing radiators and engine mounts. With no internet (Al Gore was still busy inventing it), just some books written in the late 70's to early 80's, I embarked on building a performance version of the 400.

I kept the 2V Cleveland heads as swapping on 4V heads meant finding intake manifold adapter plates and headers would likely be a no-go item due to the 351M/400 block deck being 1 inch taller than that of the 351C. Anyway, I gasket matched intake and exhaust ports, cleaned up the valve bowls, but I did leave the intake port surfaces rough, no polishing there! It took a lot of work and a lot of machining, but I ended up with a streetable, high power Ford 400 long before John Kasse started messing with them.

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Usually shooting a few hundred FMJ will do the trick in smoothing it out.

Use smooths everything fine for me, as others have suggested. Many years ago my friend took his Colt .38 super to a "gunsmith" to polish the feed ramp. The first time he shot it, he blew all the rounds out of the bottom of the pistol and splintered the grips. Fortunately, his hand was only numbed. I examined the pistol and cartridge and the idiot that did the work had polished the feed ramp beyond the supported portion of the cartridge base.

In 1971 I bought a new 39-2 and it came with two barrels, one looked normal and the other had an obvious ramp job. Much smoother and feeds every kind of ammo. The ‘normal’ looking barrel doesn’t.

In all the pistols I have ever owned I've never encountered one with a ramp that caused any feeding issues. Most name brand and descent quality pistols have nicely polished ramps.

Nice.

Are you familiar with Speed-Talk.com – Home of the Best and the Brightest!
It's the best general purpose speed forum I've found. Some industry pros as well as accomplished amateurs hang out there.

SO the gist is, there is no relation between proper polishing and "grinding away" on a feedramp.

Some short time after NYPD made the Glock 17 one of 3 permitted service pistols, the training staff made a call to Glock. Fix the guns or we'll return ~20K pistols. Several mobile machine shops staffed by Glock personnel arrived at the NYPD range complex shortly thereafter. They were there about 3 years until they got all the bugs out.

I could go on. And on..............

As good as Glocks are in the end, they are mechanical devices with all that goes with it.