Novice question?

As I have looked at 1911 frames I see you can buy them like usual with a ramp and you can buy them without,  why would I want ether or niether?

Non-ramped is standard.  If you have a non-ramped barrel fitted properly, on a frame with an in-spec feed ramp and mag catch, feeding good ammo out of good mags, it won’t make a difference.  For a .45, there’s really no benefit to one or the other.  It’s easier to find match-grade barrels in the standard layout. 

It can make a difference feeding 9mm hollowpoints.  9mm Luger is tapered.  When people shove 10 of them in a mag, the top couple rounds tend to want to nosedive because of the stacked case taper.  A Springfield-type ramped magazine, in conjunction with a ramped barrel, can give those bullets the best chance at feeding.

JRV wrote:It can make a difference feeding 9mm hollowpoints.  9mm Luger is tapered.  When people shove 10 of them in a mag, the top couple rounds tend to want to nosedive because of the stacked case taper.

I completely agree that 9mm feeding in a 1911 can be an issue and that the right magazine design will go a long way to mitigating the problem.

However, I'm not a fan of ramped barrels.  The ramp cannot extend far enough down in the frame to catch every nose-diving round.  It's such an issue that "helper" ramps machined into the frame below the barrel ramp are becoming more common.

FWIW, I recently did some work on a complete Colt 5" 9mm slide assembly.  When I finished working on it I wanted to test fire it but without the pistol's frame I had to plop it on top of a Colt .45 frame to test fire it.  The 9mm barrel was of standard configuration as was the .45 frame.  This "Franken-gun" ran flawlessly.

To my recollection, ramped barrels came into vogue when the high-speed gamers started blowing out cases when they loaded their ammo beyond SAMMI spec.  The term "super-face" became common for guys who caught a face full of unburned powder when their overloaded ammo failed.  Guys began pleading with barrel manufacturers to make ramped barrels to contain the pressure of their hot-rodded ammo.  The manufacturers were happy to oblige.

Colt has never built ramped barrel pistols for any of their calibers including 9mm, 9x23, and 10mm.  I do not recall a hue and cry over their pistols blowing up with these rounds.  As long as reloads are kept within SAMMI specs and the pistols are built right there's no need for a ramped barrel in a 1911.


By way of comparison note how deep a correctly machined frame ramp is. It extends nearly to the bottom of the frame cut out for the slide stop.