Just wonderin what you guys do or how you polish feedrails on a handgun. I am wanting to do so on my XD-40, although it hasnt had feeding problems i would like to aid it even more against future hangups.

I don't know if I did it the "correct" way, but I took a soft cotton like round polishing wheel and put it on my dremel an got 'er shining real nice one day. My XD 40 Tactical has only had a few FTF, and that was when I let my brothers gf was shooting it and she limp wristed it a few times.

well as you said not knowing if thats correct or not that's what i've been figuring on thus far. i have actually been thinkin of getting the tactical model to go along with my service model. how accurate is yours? i know i've saw alot of aftermarket internals for the tactical models too, like those tungsten rods, etc which are supposed to lessen recoil, and all that good stuff.

I have acutally put a #22 spring in my Tactical and the Don's Stainless Guide Rod. My gun shoots pretty well, at least it shoots as good as the guy behind it anyway. I'll post up a pic of my groups if my photobucket account starts working today.

If you aren't having any feeding problems, just leave it alone. Even if you are, eliminate all other variables and do that last. There are more pistols screwed up by amateurs polishing feed ramps that about any other abomination.

Here is a picture of a group I shot at 15 yards or so. Been a few years now, can't remember the exact distance.. I must be getting old! LOL

OK, that begs the question....... What do the amateurs do that screws them up? I have never done it before, just curious.

Maybe use a course abrasive rather than a polishing compound, removing too much material?

Well, they tend to do two negative things to the pistol: any material that comes off the feed ramp of the barrel, even if they leave the angle the same, is going to increase the amount of case head that is unsupported. And most people want to put a little shallower angle on the ramp to make it feed slicker - which further reduces the amount of case head support. The other thing that amateurs do is to put a slight hump in the angle of the feed ramp. It is hard not to wind up with a slighthump when using a Dremel tool. A perfectly flat surface feeds much better. And a slight concave is a little better yet - particularly on a fully ramped and supported barrel.

Most folks would be better off to just let the bullet noses do their polishing. I havea shoebox full of ruined barrels that were the result of a DIY feed ramp job. Some of these barrels caused case ruptures that injured the shooter. Polishing a feed ramp properly is a lot harder than it looks . . .

If it aint broken, don't fix it.