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EMP4 Feeding issue

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Lowrider25

Alpha
Founding Member
I just purchased a new EMP with the silver slide and contoured grip. I love the look and feel of the gun as well as it's ability to keep from printing with the bobbed grip. I didn't realize when I bought it how much design had gone into the gun and that the magazines were completely different tahn standard 1911's.
So, now for the bad news...I can not get this gun to cycle through with out jamming or stove pipes. The feed ramp is so steep, around 75 degrees, that instead of feeding the bullet into the chamber the bullet is jamming between the feed ramp and slide. Occasionally I have been able to rerack the slide 5-6 times and get the bullet seated in the chamber but usually I have to remove the magazine to clear the stoppage. This has happened using Blazer Brass, Remington hollow-points and Sig hollow points. I just sent it off to Springfield for repair but wanted to see if any one else has had this issues, as it seems like a flaw in the design of the ramp rather than a one-off issue.
 
I bought a EMP4 used and it wouldn't load Hornady FTX with the rubber tip which is what I use in other guns. I tried normal hollow points and it wouldn't load reliably with them either. it will never make it as a carry gun for me. I too think the feed ramp is very steep. Makes a good target gun though with ball ammo. I was hoping for a all around gun, target, carry and a little competition but no.
 
It's a real shame! With the light-weight aluminum frame and bobbed grip Springfield advertises it as a great carry gun. I think even when it comes back from service I won't be able to trust it for that reason. I have a Springfield Range Officer Elite & XDS Mod 2, they're reat guns, super reliable but I think this one's a dud...an expensive one at that!
 
I started with Federal & remington practice ammo, was having this issue atleast once per mag. but once I went to Blazer Brass it was constant. Blazer seems to have a more protruding nose, its more concave and less circular, and it wont feed hollow points at all. I tried rubber snap caps with very round "bullet" tips and they fed fine.
 
I have a EMP CCC in 40 cal. I haven't had any problems with but I only shot Ruger's ARX by polycase and different kinds of FMJ. I was going to switch to Hornady critical duty. Have to try a box out before I buy in bulk. Thanks for the info.
 
I purchased my EMP 4 (.40 cal) 18 months ago, loved the look, feel and incredible accuracy out of the box. However, starting with the first trip to the range I began to experience multiple Failures to Feed, with all seven factory magazines, using all the standard name brand FMJ/flat nosed ammo. The one exception, my Hornady Critical Defense rounds, fed without incident. The shape of the Hornady projectile is rounded nearly all the way to the tip of the bullet, unlike the flat nosed FMJ ammo. It took two trips back to Springfield to resolve the problem, I hope. The first trip reportedly involved polishing the feed ramp, which appeared to reduce the frequency of Failures to Feed but did not approach eliminating it. On the second trip I insisted that they swap out the barrel/feed ramp otherwise, I'm convinced, I would have been shipping it back a third time. After the second trip to Springfield, and a new barrel/feed ramp, Failures to Feed were nearly eliminated. Ultimately, I bought some Winchester FMJ and after hundreds of rounds without a Failure to Feed believe the problem has been resolved as a result of a new barrel/feed ramp and Winchester FMJ .40 cal ammo. As previously stated, this wonderful pistol will not become my EDC weapon because I don't have the time or money (for ammo) to establish the level of trust necessary to trust it when my life is on the line.
 
gjackson said:
I purchased my EMP 4 (.40 cal) 18 months ago, loved the look, feel and incredible accuracy out of the box. However, starting with the first trip to the range I began to experience multiple Failures to Feed, with all seven factory magazines, using all the standard name brand FMJ/flat nosed ammo. The one exception, my Hornady Critical Defense rounds, fed without incident. The shape of the Hornady projectile is rounded nearly all the way to the tip of the bullet, unlike the flat nosed FMJ ammo. It took two trips back to Springfield to resolve the problem, I hope. The first trip reportedly involved polishing the feed ramp, which appeared to reduce the frequency of Failures to Feed but did not approach eliminating it. On the second trip I insisted that they swap out the barrel/feed ramp otherwise, I'm convinced, I would have been shipping it back a third time. After the second trip to Springfield, and a new barrel/feed ramp, Failures to Feed were nearly eliminated. Ultimately, I bought some Winchester FMJ and after hundreds of rounds without a Failure to Feed believe the problem has been resolved as a result of a new barrel/feed ramp and Winchester FMJ .40 cal ammo. As previously stated, this wonderful pistol will not become my EDC weapon because I don't have the time or money (for ammo) to establish the level of trust necessary to trust it when my life is on the line.
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Thanks for the info.
 
gjackson said:
I purchased my EMP 4 (.40 cal) 18 months ago, loved the look, feel and incredible accuracy out of the box. However, starting with the first trip to the range I began to experience multiple Failures to Feed, with all seven factory magazines, using all the standard name brand FMJ/flat nosed ammo. The one exception, my Hornady Critical Defense rounds, fed without incident. The shape of the Hornady projectile is rounded nearly all the way to the tip of the bullet, unlike the flat nosed FMJ ammo. It took two trips back to Springfield to resolve the problem, I hope. The first trip reportedly involved polishing the feed ramp, which appeared to reduce the frequency of Failures to Feed but did not approach eliminating it. On the second trip I insisted that they swap out the barrel/feed ramp otherwise, I'm convinced, I would have been shipping it back a third time. After the second trip to Springfield, and a new barrel/feed ramp, Failures to Feed were nearly eliminated. Ultimately, I bought some Winchester FMJ and after hundreds of rounds without a Failure to Feed believe the problem has been resolved as a result of a new barrel/feed ramp and Winchester FMJ .40 cal ammo. As previously stated, this wonderful pistol will not become my EDC weapon because I don't have the time or money (for ammo) to establish the level of trust necessary to trust it when my life is on the line.
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Thank you for the history. It sucks, but I'm glad I'm not the only one. Springfield has it now, so I'll have to see what they do to resolve the problem. I know the feed ramp is pretty marred up from the bullet being slammed into it by the slide. I hope they just go a head and replace the barrel but I doubt it.
 
I purchased my EMP 4 in 9 mm in November 2019. At first everything was a little tighter than I was led to believe, but working it by hand and some dry fire practice loosened it up some. At the range and after a box of ammo the pistol was shooting well. however, after about 200 rounds it started to have feeding problems and light primer strikes and stove pipes. I tried many different brands of ammo with no one brand being consistently better than the other. By this time hollow points failed to feed with any regularity and were leaving deep marks in the feed ramp. At this time I am not sure what to do and I now understand why no one makes holsters or lasers for this pistol. I have a 1911 Springfield Loaded in 45 ACP and love this pistol. I thought sure the EMP was to be my dream carry pistol. I never expected it to end up a nightmare, not from Springfield. I have and still own several different rifles and pistols from Springfield Armory and think very highly of them, but am very disappointed in this one. This has to be the most expensive paper weight I ever purchased.
 
Well don't fret
Popgun said:
I purchased my EMP 4 in 9 mm in November 2019. At first everything was a little tighter than I was led to believe, but working it by hand and some dry fire practice loosened it up some. At the range and after a box of ammo the pistol was shooting well. however, after about 200 rounds it started to have feeding problems and light primer strikes and stove pipes. I tried many different brands of ammo with no one brand being consistently better than the other. By this time hollow points failed to feed with any regularity and were leaving deep marks in the feed ramp. At this time I am not sure what to do and I now understand why no one makes holsters or lasers for this pistol. I have a 1911 Springfield Loaded in 45 ACP and love this pistol. I thought sure the EMP was to be my dream carry pistol. I never expected it to end up a nightmare, not from Springfield. I have and still own several different rifles and pistols from Springfield Armory and think very highly of them, but am very disappointed in this one. This has to be the most expensive paper weight I ever purchased.
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Don't fret, I sent mine to Springfield without high Hope's that they would be able to fix the problem, but it appears they did. The note that returned with the gun said they honed and polished the feed ramp and you can certainly see that the ramp's angle has been addressed and is much shallower. So far I haven't had any more feeding issues. I would not hesitate to send your gun back to Springfield and have them look at. Also, I would look at what kind of lubrication you use on the slide. These guns need are tight and need a really slippery oil to function correctly. I use a gun grease on the barrel lock-up points but stopped using that on the slide and went back to using Hoppe's oil on the slide with no problems. Good luck. It's a great shooter when it's working ;)
 
I had posted my problems with my used EMP 4 9mm in early January. I have sense replaced the recoil spring with a standard 15 pound spring from Galloway Precision and the pistol loads and shoots anything I put through it, hollow points and ball ammo. I'm a happy guy now. The spring was $8.
 
I have both the EMP 40 S&W-in the 4 inch the extractor was very tight-had problems with chambering until I adjusted the extractor tension and now all is well.
Seem's that Springfield's 1911's run their extractors extremely tight from the factory.
 
Popgun said:
I purchased my EMP 4 in 9 mm in November 2019. At first everything was a little tighter than I was led to believe, but working it by hand and some dry fire practice loosened it up some. At the range and after a box of ammo the pistol was shooting well. however, after about 200 rounds it started to have feeding problems and light primer strikes and stove pipes. I tried many different brands of ammo with no one brand being consistently better than the other. By this time hollow points failed to feed with any regularity and were leaving deep marks in the feed ramp. At this time I am not sure what to do and I now understand why no one makes holsters or lasers for this pistol. I have a 1911 Springfield Loaded in 45 ACP and love this pistol. I thought sure the EMP was to be my dream carry pistol. I never expected it to end up a nightmare, not from Springfield. I have and still own several different rifles and pistols from Springfield Armory and think very highly of them, but am very disappointed in this one. This has to be the most expensive paper weight I ever purchased.
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Have you given SA the opportunity to fix it? If not, you should do that first.

The reason that there are few accessories for this pistol is that is it is fairly unique; it’s a non-standard frame size, and nobody else makes anything similar.
 
Just bought the EMP 9mm 4". Piece of crap, as is Springfield's customer service. Right out of the box it had feeding issues and when I drop a mag, a round is stripped off the magazine and falls thru the mag well. Sent it back and they did a bunch of cool stuff to it. Got it back, same issues. They told me not to load 9 rounds in the mag??!! Ok, I'll try that. Cured the feeding issue but not the round being stripped off the magazine and falling out. Called back and now they tell me that that is "normal," and not a defect??!! On a $1000 gun? On any gun? Luckily, I have a good friend who's a Massachusets attorney. He's gonna write a letter because I don't want this gun. Has anyone else experienced this? And BTW, I've shot at least 500 rounds of a lot off different ammo thru it.
 
Popgun said:
I purchased my EMP 4 in 9 mm in November 2019. At first everything was a little tighter than I was led to believe, but working it by hand and some dry fire practice loosened it up some. At the range and after a box of ammo the pistol was shooting well. however, after about 200 rounds it started to have feeding problems and light primer strikes and stove pipes. I tried many different brands of ammo with no one brand being consistently better than the other. By this time hollow points failed to feed with any regularity and were leaving deep marks in the feed ramp. At this time I am not sure what to do and I now understand why no one makes holsters or lasers for this pistol. I have a 1911 Springfield Loaded in 45 ACP and love this pistol. I thought sure the EMP was to be my dream carry pistol. I never expected it to end up a nightmare, not from Springfield. I have and still own several different rifles and pistols from Springfield Armory and think very highly of them, but am very disappointed in this one. This has to be the most expensive paper weight I ever purchased.
Click to expand...
Popgun said:
I purchased my EMP 4 in 9 mm in November 2019. At first everything was a little tighter than I was led to believe, but working it by hand and some dry fire practice loosened it up some. At the range and after a box of ammo the pistol was shooting well. however, after about 200 rounds it started to have feeding problems and light primer strikes and stove pipes. I tried many different brands of ammo with no one brand being consistently better than the other. By this time hollow points failed to feed with any regularity and were leaving deep marks in the feed ramp. At this time I am not sure what to do and I now understand why no one makes holsters or lasers for this pistol. I have a 1911 Springfield Loaded in 45 ACP and love this pistol. I thought sure the EMP was to be my dream carry pistol. I never expected it to end up a nightmare, not from Springfield. I have and still own several different rifles and pistols from Springfield Armory and think very highly of them, but am very disappointed in this one. This has to be the most expensive paper weight I ever purchased.
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After seeing so many people with some of the same problems I have encountered with this pistol, I decided to have a go at correcting these issues. I have been collecting and restoring firearms as a hobby for over 40 years.
I polished the flats and edges of the rails on the slide. I slightly rounded and polished the rear edge of the flat that cocks the hammer. I polished the hammer face. I polished the breach face. I polished the firing pin and channel and the inside and outside of the spring. I checked to see if the extractor had any irregularities, none found. All else seemed to be ok.
The barrel and the lock up was excellent as far as I could tell and I do not recommend doing anything to these parts anyway. Also do not touch the disconnect. I polished the recoil spring, inside and outside, along with the guide rod.
The only thing I did to the receiver was polish the feed ramp. Everything else appeared to function properly.
My biggest concern was the magazines. I tend to agree with the people that know, the most problems with a 1911 is because of the magazines. After comparing these with my other 1911 magazines I saw that the followers were noticeably at a shallower angle. After taking them apart, I increased the angle of the followers to match my other 1911 magazines. I also increased the angle of top part of the springs to maintain proper tension on the follower. This helped to stop the bullet from nosediving when chambering a round. The angle of the feed lips appeared to be correct and I did not change anything else. A word of caution concerning the follower, the metal is hard and brittle, so when adjusting the follower ledge for a correct slide lock be careful it is easily cracked. Guess how I know.
After a liberal lubrication of all parts I put it back together. The pistol now runs any ammo put through it, no jambs, or misfires, including hollow points of various manufacturers.
If you decide to polish the parts,POLISH ONLY and do not change any dimensions of the parts. Any major changes should be done only by a qualified gunsmith.
I use Dia-Sharp diamond hones purchased at Harbor Freight. Polishing with the 25 micron or 9 micron.
I use nothing courser than 600 grit foam blacked pads from Wood Craft, along with small dowel rods and popsicle sticks.
This works for me, maybe it will help you.
 
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