22 and 45 gun issues

hi i am new to bullseye shooting. i picked up a s&w 41and 1911 45. 6 months of fte ftf stovepipes failure to pick up new round. i scoured this forum looking for answers, and followed all advice given. all winter going to range to see if guns would work. today practice no gun problems. thank you for posting fixes. i learned. s&w 41 clean chamber 25 cal brush,use cci std,new recoil spring, polish spring guide rod. 1911 45 . use locktite on scope frame mount (went loose during match ) gunsmith put in kart barrel and would not go 40 rounds and not fully chamber, chamber got all fouled up. called fred kart he said send barrel and sample ammo (no primer or power) he said hood too short rebored chamber and throat (fixed chamber ) also my ammo had lead burr on tip, i seat and crimp one operation, fred said to  try separate seating and crimping. thank you fred kart for your help. guns run great now thanks mike

There are a lot of gems in this thread, of people trying to help me - some of your issues are similar to what I had.  You might want to read the whole thing:
https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t9606-problem-with-reloaded-ammo

I have heard that one should shoot lead round-nose in .22lr. It's said that it is more accurate generally than FMJ. It's also said that it fouls the barrel faster. I have been trying each, but apparently, I am not yet accurate enough to tell the difference in ammo accuracy.

Any guidance will be appreciated.

You could order a "brick" of CCI 22LR ammo, that the Model 41 seems to thrive on.  The rest of my 41 gets dirty, but the barrel (since the 1980's) stays fine.  Do NOT get the high velocity stuff.  You can spend a lot more, but the CCI works fine, is reasonably priced (when you can find it) and is plenty accurate.  (Can you post some of your targets?)

Do you have a reloader?  If so, which one?  I wish I knew long ago what I know now - I wasted a lot of time and money, first from shooting what I could buy new from the stores (way too hot for Bullseye), and then from buying components out of my reloading manuals, instead of asking for advice here.  

Why don't you pick one or the other, and work with that for a while?  Not both, unless you want to be as foolish as I am.

Good idea. Thanks.

Couple of little tips for the M41. I believe Vorquartsen makes an extractor that helps. Get that installed by KC Crawford or David Sams and have them give the gun a once over. 

With a 41 a small drop of oil on the 1st round in a magazine will help with feeding.

Tuning a 45acp is a tedious process.  But only do one thing at a time. Seems like the chamber now is not an issue so that is good. 

What recoil spring? I use 10 or 11 with a slide scope mount. I do not like #9. 

Ammo must be optimized to your chamber. Sometimes a 10th of a grain of powder can make all the difference in the world. In my guns 4.0 WST is good but 4.1 is reliable. 

Do not use brass once fired by a glock, they bulge out the bottom of the case. Taper should be no greater than .470 I taper at .468. If you are using range brass the LEE factory crimp die will make reliable ammo. 

HG68 type bullets feed better than button nose.

Extractor tension must me right. 

Mag catch could be the worn new and high type could help with feeding. 

Magazines must be fitted and use a round follower. 

Port beveled and lowered help with feeding if you have a scope mount.

That was a lot of work, congrats.  This is why I started with a Ruger Mark ll and a Python revolver.

I never had any of these issues until I started shooting SV ammo. Check-out the link for S&W m41 maintenance; it tells you how to do just about everything not involving machining or a Dremel.

The simplest solution to cure stovepipes or ejection hangups is to shoot the CCI 1200 fps ammo (I forget the specific name, but they come in 300-round boxes) or even Minimag. I tried messing around with Wolff recoil spring kits to tune the recoil spring to SV ammo, but concluded that the m41 is most reliable with slightly higher velocity ammo and all CCI ammo I've tried in my A-series shoots more accurately than I can. 

The absolute cure is to buy a Clark Custom m41 barrel at Clark Custom m41; get the STC barrel in 5.5 or 6.5" length ($325.00). This barrel lacks the rear top strap extension that traps ejected brass, causing ejection problems. You have to mount the red dot with 2 sets of rings on the from portion of scope, but this works well.

Failure to feed may be magazine issues? Hope this helps, dipnet