45 colt not cycling properly

Hi
I have a colt 45 and maybe one out of ten bullets does not completely load into the chamber . The slide will stop about 1/4 of an inch short of a complete cycle. The rear of the bullet stops equal with the leading edge of the barrel hood, stops in the same spot every time. I can usually just pull the slide back a touch and snap it forward and the bullet will seat.
I tried my friends go no go gauge and every single bullet dropped in no sweat. I cleaned and polished the feed ramp, it got better for about 50 shots then reverted back to jamming. I don't think it's magazine related do to the fact that the bullet is almost in when it jams.
Could  this be an extractor problem ?
Maybe it's getting hung up on the extractor.  Not sure where to look, any thoughts greatly appreciated .
Please don't say send it to a gun smith, I'm shooting in a weekly shoot and this is my only gun don't want to lay it up.
Thanks, Tom

Have you tried a new recoil spring?

Remove extractor and try it again: this alleviates extractor from the equation. Remove slide and take out the barrel. You should be able to slide a cartridge under the extractor by hand with little effort. The cartridge nose should drop/hang down slightly when slide is horizontal.
You can bend the extractor to add or lessen pressure on case rim.
Jon

Factory ammo?

David

My reloads.
Extractor works a described, holds on the horizontal. 
I'm working on the gun right now, if I drop a bullet into the barrel it will stop at that same spot, even with the leading edge of the hood.
If I assemble the gun and let the slide slam shut it will drive the bullet home, otherwise it won't go all the way in. Is this normal  or do I need more crimp? 
Thanks for the help, Tom

Any marks on the bullet or case, evidence of hitting something when being chambered?  Had a similar issue where the corner of the  barrel good was hitting the case mouth after popping out of the magazine, slowing down the feed operation just enough...

If rounds won't pass the "plunk test" in the barrel of the subject gun, then the solution is obvious.

Actually they do pass the plunk test, after examining and measuring, the top of the casing is supposed to be even with the hood of the barrel.  I assumed it should be flush with the whole chamber,  below the hood but I was wrong.  This tells me the bullet is seating fine and the extractor is not getting over the lip of the shell all the time.

New gun or ??  Did the problem just crop up.

Tell us a bit about the gun and history.

When you put a round into the extractor is the bullet held straight or does it droop

Are you sure your reloads don't have a sliver of lead at the crimp?  I've had this and the lead builds up in the chamber after some rounds and will not let subsequent  round chamber until it gets cleared out.  Somehow after it hangs up the lead will get blown out of the chamber and then the gun will cycle fine for a number of shots and then not go fully into battery again until the lead gets blown out of the chamber or cleared out in some other way.
Just a suggestion.

BTW when I would plunk test these rounds with a sliver of lead they would all pass the test.  In shooting they would not go into battery after a number of rounds were fired.  YMMV

Virgil

New gun to me, but we'll used. Don't know it's history.  Just started shooting 45 two weeks ago. Been working on the 22 for the past year. So all of this is new . When I put a bullet in the extractor, it will stay in but it droops quite a bit.
Virgil please explain a sliver of lead. My reloads have the bullet sticking out of the shell about 1/32 of an inch. I visually compared them to a friend's reloads and they were identical. His work fine in his gun.
Thanks for the help, Tom

If the case isn't flared enough when you seat the bullet you will get a sliver of lead that gets stripped from the side of the bullet.  When this happens that sliver of lead will almost always be deposited up by the crimp.  When you crimp the bullet that sliver will be caught up by the crimp and if left there that lead will build up in the front of the chamber.  An easy test is to grab one of your reloads and spin it in your fingers while you take the thumb nail from your other hand and let it scrape along the case where the crimp is.  If you get ANY lead coming off on your thumb nail that could be causing your problem.  Look the crimp over and see that it is uniform all the way around and that there is no lead hanging over the crimp anywhere.  The crimp should be clean and uniform all the way around.

BTW when this was happening to me and the gun wouldn't go into battery I could usually take the thumb of my shooting hand and force the slide forward enough that it would fire.  Then it would usually be good for a number of shots until the lead once again built up in the chamber.

thessler,

Does this happen when shooting, or are you just hand cycling rounds through it?

I don't think I have a sliver problem the bullets are clean.

It happens when shooting,  the slide will stay back 1/4 of an inch from closing and you can't just push it closed. I have to pull it back some and let it slam closed.

Has the barrel been properly throated by a bullseye smith? Some off the shelf barrels won't chamber bullseye loads consistently. My first 1911 was a Les Baer Concept and it wouldn't work with button nose bullets, they I got a LB wadcutter and would feed the same bullets fine.

Borrow some of your friends reloads and try them to eliminate your ammo.

A picture of your feed ramp and barrel with the slide locked back would be helpful. Also if you slowly release the slide and ease it down to about 1/4" from closed does it hang there?

If this is a slide mounted optic pistol try a new recoil spring 10-11 lbs. For a iron sight pistol 12-14lbs.

To me it sounds like the extractor is too tight

Check your mags...try a different one.  Had a similar problem on a pistol recently:  SWCHP would hang up on the feed just right of the opening with Metalform mags. (Rounded follower) Not so with standard Colt or Chip McCormicks. (Flat follower...worked well) You may need to get it to a smith and have the chamber opening adjusted also.  Could also be a combo of recoil spring, mainspring AND all of the above! Take it to the best you can find.