Semi Auto Feed Ramps in FA

[ratski]

I've been told that I will get better feeding and be able to use a wider variety of ammo if I have a SA feed ramp installed in the Vector.

Questions are:
1. Anyone out there doing this? I looked at the Vector website but didn't see it listed. Might have missed it.
2. Anyone have this done? How did it work for you?
3. How much does it run to do this?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[Joe in Fl]

I had this done to improve feeding of hollow points.My Vector will now eat anything I feed it without so much as a hiccup. I would do it all over again if I had another UZI I think that Vector charges somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 for this service but dont hold me to the price.
It was a week turn around from doorstep to doorstep. Thats really good service.
Hope this helps, Joe

[MuzzleFlash]

Conventional wisdom and the experience of several on this board says it helps.

Mad Mike of Vector has stated on these pages that it's not all it's cracked up to be and he doesn't recommend doing it.

That leaves me on the fence as mine feeds round nose fine, but is jam-o-matic on hollow points and flat nose.

I have a friend with a 1982-ish GI Uzi that eats every knind of 9mm I had in the ammo can without a single jam. He has the stamped feedramp. Go figure

I'm going to get some measurements to see if there's anything I should do to my gun to get that sort of performance with HP/FP rounds.

[osprey21]

I cant see a reason for one in a SMG that will never see any "special" duty. I feed my Mini what it was designed to eat, ball ammo.

[M60joe]

Originally posted by MuzzleFlash
Conventional wisdom and the experience of several on this board says it helps.

Mad Mike of Vector has stated on these pages that it's not all it's cracked up to be and he doesn't recommend doing it.

That leaves me on the fence as mine feeds round nose fine, but is jam-o-matic on hollow points and flat nose.

I have a friend with a 1982-ish GI Uzi that eats every knind of 9mm I had in the ammo can without a single jam. He has the stamped feedramp. Go figure

I'm going to get some measurements to see if there's anything I should do to my gun to get that sort of performance with HP/FP rounds.

I have semi ramps in my Full size and Mini. My FFL/SOT has a pre-sample IMI whithout the semi ramp and he eats JHP Silver Bear like I do....

[montana_jeepn]

Has anyone tried polishing the stock Vector feed ramp with a dremel to improve feeding? I'm considering trying this. Any thoughts?

M_J

[ratski]

Well, I know it has been a while since I originally posted the question about semi auto feed ramps, but it has taken me a bit of time to get the gun to Vector, get it back and try it out.

I finally sent the Uzi back to Vector for them to install the semi feed ramp. I gotta tell you these guys are top shelf in the service and customer relations department. Everyone that I talked to there was really a pleasure to deal with. A nice change from some other companies I’ve dealt with. In addition, they were really concerned with what I wanted to do and what I expected.

When I told them that I wanted to try the feed ramp due to the fact that I couldn’t feed truncated nose rounds or the Norma subcaliber practice ammo (using the special SubKal barrel for this) they told me that the feed ramp might not fix the problem, but then again it might. We went over my expectations and what they thought that they could to.

Service turnaround was fast. Very fast. They put in the feed ramp and as it turned out, there was apparently a barrel alignment problem present also. Was the barrel alignment problem part of the failure to feed? I don’t know.

What I do know is that I took the Vector out and played with it. Sweet. It ate the +P+ truncated nose rounds, the Norma practice and the round nose without a hiccup. Didn’t matter if it was thru the stick mags or the drum mag, it ran sweet.

Thought that I’d post it for anyone else out there that was interested. Can’t say enough about the service, turnaround or the staff at Vector. They rate.

[Gun Shot]

Good deal Ratski, I'm happy to hear everything turned out well!

I'll second the opinion on Vector service!

[SMG4Me]

My Uzi is currently at Vector for some 22lr kit fine tuning and I asked Mike if I should have them do anything else while it's there, e.g., the feed ramp. He asked if I was having any feeding problems and I told him no (I have only shot round nose and I do not have a 45 kit). He said that he believes if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[ratski]

You might want to ask Mike to shoot something other than round nose for you to see if there are any problems.

Round nose ran fine even with the barrel alignment problem. I wouldn't have thought much about it until I tried the other ammo.

I'm not advocating putting in the ramp, just keeping the options open.

[Z06]

After having my Vector for some time, and having it run 100% with ball ammo, I tried some hollow points. My super reliable subgun was a Jam-O-Matic™. Off to Vector for the SA feed ramp. Problem solved. YMMV
BTW, Vector IS: The Nordstrom of the Firearms World. They have the finest service and customer care. Thanks Mike and Christina.
-Z06:uzi

http://www.z06vette.com/gallery/data/500/135UZI-SMG.jpg

[RoverDave]

I agree completely that Vector has A1 service. Hats off to them.

I know that Mike is not a huge fan of the semi feed ramp. I'm not sure why but he usually recommends not doing it unless you really need it. I know he doesn't like the combination of the semi feed ramp and a .22 kit.

It seemed kind of odd that the GI/Vector guns would need the semi ramp so often. Some people have trouble even with round nose ammo. Then I saw a photo of an IMI SMG feed ramp and it seemed to explain the situation. I haven't seen one in person but it looked like a real IMI SMG ramp was much better constructed than the GI ramps. I guess that's why we need to upgrade the GI/Vector ramps so often. I know that the original IMI guns might not feed hollow points that great but I think they feed round nose more reliably than an original GI/Vector ramp.

Maybe someone with a DS IMI can post some good ramp photos for us???

[amphibian]

Originally posted by RoverDave
I know that the original IMI guns might not feed hollow points that great but I think they feed round nose more reliably than an original GI/Vector ramp.


Roverdave, there is a guy here in FL that has a Pre68 fully transferrable Uzi that says his feeds everthing including hollowpoints. He says his feed ramp is unaltered from the factory.
There is a shoot coming up at the end of February. If you are interested, I'll send him an email and ask him to bring it so that I can take some pictures.

He also has a MINI Uzi with a custom weighted bolt. He told me via email about how it was done. He went about it differently than I did. I really want to check out his MINI bolt.

[RoverDave]

Amphibian, pictures of the IMI feed ramp would br great. Take a good look at it and let us know what you think. My impression is that they are much nicer than the original GI feed ramps.

And let us know if you find out anything cool on the heavy bolt. I know that's a topic you love.

[montana_jeepn]

Well, as soon as I can, my Uzi is off to our friends at Vector for the semi-feedramp. When talking to Kelly about the feed ramp with a .22 kit, I understand the barrels need to be "turned down". I'm sending both my .45 kit and my .22 kit so that both will be guaranteed to run. I can't wait to actually run subsonics in my Uzi with the suppressor!!

M_J

[skydancer]

One of my FA Vector UZI's would not feed some types of FMJ ammo. The bullet nose of the types that failed to feed had a blunt shape. The bullet nose would hit the edge of the feed ramp. A ding would be left in the bullet nose. The types that fed OK had a sharper point on the nose. I sent my gun to Vector for the semi feed ramp to be installed. It worked great and I have not had any feeding problems since.

[LVHospiceRN]

Originally posted by MuzzleFlash
Conventional wisdom and the experience of several on this board says it helps.
Mad Mike of Vector has stated on these pages that it's not all it's cracked up to be and he doesn't recommend doing it.


What specifically are the drawbacks, i am interesting in the SA feedramp?

[joshuap]

I have the feedramp installed by Vector and run their .22 kit without ANY problems. Runs like a champ! I did need to send the .22 barrel back to vector to get them to work the barrel so it would work with the feedramp. They did it for free.

[RoverDave]

Originally posted by LVHospiceRN
What specifically are the drawbacks, i am interesting in the SA feedramp?

My impression is that Mike has a harder time getting the .22 kits to work with the semi ramp. He can do it, as joshuap and others have pointed out, but for some reason it's more of a pain. Not sure why.

[skydancer]

In my 1/15/04 post above, I forgot to state that I was referring to only 9 mm ammo. I have no experience or interest in shooting .45 or .22 ammo in my UZI's. Vector's work on the feed ramp was very good. The only negative issue was having to ship my UZI to Vector and risking UPS losing it.

[montana_jeepn]

Just sent my baby out last night. Fortunately the lady behind the counter was a newbie and didnt ask any questions so I didn't have to spend 30 min explaining THEIR rules to them.

I decided to 2nd day Air it instead of ground. I will let you folks know how it works out for me.

Thanks for all the advice!!

M_J