Capt. Bob Posted April 15 Report Share Posted April 15 (edited) I recently bought a Spitfire .45 that does not run correctly. Actually can’t even get it to chamber a round, much less fire a round. I believe that it’s going to need a feed ramp fabricated, so it’s going to need some machine shop work. I’m hoping that someone can recommend an experienced class 3 gunsmith that I can get my dealer to ship to and can get my gun running properly. Here is a picture of a custom manufactured feed ramp that another member had posted several years ago Edited April 15 by Capt. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 15 Report Share Posted April 15 Do you have pics of your gun? Have you tried dropping a round in the chamber to be sure there's not something in there causing problems? You're saying it won't even feed a round from the magazine into the chamber? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Bob Posted April 16 Author Report Share Posted April 16 5 hours ago, MPFiveO said: Do you have pics of your gun? Have you tried dropping a round in the chamber to be sure there's not something in there causing problems? You're saying it won't even feed a round from the magazine into the chamber? It would actually chamber the snap cap when I got it out to take a picture. There is a big gap between the nose of the round and the chamber where the round is seated. https://imgur.com/a/68cgQIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 16 Report Share Posted April 16 Among my many toys I have a Volunteer Arms Commando Mark 45 that uses modified Thompson magazines. I tried several kinds of factory ammo and none would feed and chamber reliably. I looked at all kinds of potential solutions and tried something simple. I reload .45 ammo and decided to make some longer rounds. The rounds I loaded are slightly over max overall length but still fit in the magazine with room to spare. Suddenly the gun ran flawlessly. Sometimes the solution to a problem is not so obvious and not so complicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Bob Posted April 16 Author Report Share Posted April 16 6 minutes ago, MPFiveO said: Among my many toys I have a Volunteer Arms Commando Mark 45 that uses modified Thompson magazines. I tried several kinds of factory ammo and none would feed and chamber reliably. I looked at all kinds of potential solutions and tried something simple. I reload .45 ammo and decided to make some longer rounds. The rounds I loaded are slightly over max overall length but still fit in the magazine with room to spare. Suddenly the gun ran flawlessly. Sometimes the solution to a problem is not so obvious and not so complicated. I am going to experiment with some different ammo and study it a little more. I have a friend coming over this weekend who is much more knowledgeable than me when it comes to working on stuff. It uses grease gun mags and the rounds don’t seem to unload very smoothly when using my thumb to push them out. I have several magazines that I can try. Thank you for the reply. I will come back with the results after trying a couple of fixes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Zeek Posted April 16 Report Share Posted April 16 11 hours ago, Capt. Bob said: It would actually chamber the snap cap when I got it out to take a picture. Are your snap caps the same length as the rounds you're trying to use? I ran into this recently when troubleshooting an M10 & realized that I had to get different ammo for the gun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryanjj Posted April 16 Report Share Posted April 16 Bottom line. You need feed ramp. These guns run fine is semi auto without one but full auto is another story. There is too much distance between the bullet and chamber face. A proper feedramp is the answer. YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Bob Posted April 17 Author Report Share Posted April 17 Ok, i was using the 30 rd grease gun mags that came with the Spitfire. I noticed that when i was trying to thumb the rounds out of each magazine that most every round was nose down , where i had actually lift up on the nose of each round to get it out of the magazine. Another gun I recently bought also uses grease gun mags. It’s a Stemple take down gun by BRP Arms. that thing is a tank! Awesome weapon. Anyhow, it came with 20 round g.g. mags. I was able to try 1 of them today. Got through the 20 rounds with only one ftf. So that’s something that I can work with, I’m feeling a lot better about the situation. I’m new to the world of sub machine guns and I definitely appreciate all the replies and the support. I’m sure this won’t be the last time I need y’all’s help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 17 Report Share Posted April 17 Supposedly this is the only source for replacement springs and they currently have them in stock. https://www.keepshooting.com/m3-magazine-spring.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eMGunslinger Posted April 17 Report Share Posted April 17 Best thing you can do to these is throw the bolt away and convert it to use grease gun parts. It's a lot of work but I have rebuilt many of them and they are fantastic afterwards. Not sure why someone would put a ramp on the barrel like that but not the way I would do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfiresubgun Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 Some of the issues with failure to feed is the magazine lip angle when rounds are loaded if the bullet lays flat that being in relation to the top of the feed lips the bullet should appear to be horizontally straight. You could open the lips up just a little bit in order to get the bullet to raise the front end more towards the center line of the chamber, but going too far will get a failure to feed by jamming at the top of the breach. Considering that Spitfire is nearly 60 years old, some spring tension may come to play. And since Spitfire did make a stamped feed ramp that bridged across the guide rods on some of their later models, they had a little issue with it too. The feed ramp pictured above is for the original Spitfire bolt a grease gun bolt will not work with that ramp unless the sides of it are taken in at the top to allow the bolt to impact all the way into battery with a round chambered. I have mine bolted to the receiver tube from the bottom in order to make it fit under the space of the grease gun bolt. . it's better to make the feed ramp small enough to feed under the grease gun bolt now because eventually you're gonna need to replace the bolt because of the spring steel extractor wearing out or the end of it chipping off. I've never had an issue with the battle proven gun bolt shooting in competition at Knob Creek or my local matches 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryanjj Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 54 minutes ago, spitfiresubgun said: Some of the issues with failure to feed is the magazine lip angle when rounds are loaded if the bullet lays flat that being in relation to the top of the feed lips the bullet should appear to be horizontally straight. You could open the lips up just a little bit in order to get the bullet to raise the front end more towards the center line of the chamber, but going too far will get a failure to feed by jamming at the top of the breach. Considering that Spitfire is nearly 60 years old, some spring tension may come to play. And since Spitfire did make a stamped feed ramp that bridged across the guide rods on some of their later models, they had a little issue with it too. The feed ramp pictured above is for the original Spitfire bolt a grease gun bolt will not work with that ramp unless the sides of it are taken in at the top to allow the bolt to impact all the way into battery with a round chambered. I have mine bolted to the receiver tube from the bottom in order to make it fit under the space of the grease gun bolt. . it's better to make the feed ramp small enough to feed under the grease gun bolt now because eventually you're gonna need to replace the bolt because of the spring steel extractor wearing out or the end of it chipping off. I've never had an issue with the battle proven gun bolt shooting in competition at Knob Creek or my local matches If this is Mike, then this is the SPITFIRE MASTER. I will tell you to LISTEN TO THIS GUY!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfiresubgun Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 GUILTY 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryanjj Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 8 minutes ago, spitfiresubgun said: GUILTY Man so happy you’re doing good. You beat the cancer. Ty Jesus!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfiresubgun Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 Yes caught it early and 35 radiation treatments later it was gone now 11 years later still clear. If it weren't for the arthritis I'd be runnin' and gunnin' more GUILTY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 4 hours ago, spitfiresubgun said: it's better to make the feed ramp small enough to feed under the grease gun bolt now because eventually you're gonna need to replace the bolt because of the spring steel extractor wearing out or the end of it chipping off. My buddy had a gunsmith talked into making some extractors for his Spitfire but the gunsmith passed away before completing the work. He had drawings done up and material selected but that was as far as he got. It's not a terribly complicated design but no one thinks it's worth their time because the market is just too small. My buddy has had really good luck with his Spitfire. The only mod to the gun was clipping off the top of the disconnector as it had never been converted even after being registered. He had a few issues with the extractor coming loose but fixed that with an application of loc-tite. He's run at least 10K rounds through it and had few if any malfunctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Bob Posted April 21 Author Report Share Posted April 21 On 4/17/2026 at 2:02 PM, eMGunslinger said: Best thing you can do to these is throw the bolt away and convert it to use grease gun parts. It's a lot of work but I have rebuilt many of them and they are fantastic afterwards. Not sure why someone would put a ramp on the barrel like that but not the way I would do it. I have ordered a grease gun bolt, if I understand correctly, it should be a direct replacement. Any suggestions on replacement springs? I am going to hold off on the feed ramp for now. I’m going to replace the bolt, replace some magazine springs, and see how it runs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryanjj Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 (edited) Needs to be a m3a1 GG bolt. A m3 won’t work. Yes direct replacement is all you need. Get a set of GG springs as the spitfire ones won’t work. Also you will have to remove the bolt spacer on the spitfire guide rod in order for the GG bolt to work. There is a guy on Gunbroker that sells repro gg springs. They are perfect. You will need to make a feed ramp in time. It’s not super hard. Start off with a small piece of aluminum and Dycam to mark the groves matching the gg bolt. Once the ramp is done you can use a few screws to screw through the reciever and into the “tapped” ramp. Also remove that ginormous spitfire buffer. It won’t be needed. It will never bottom out with the GG bolt. You can make a 1/8” buffer out of neoprene. If that makes you feel more comfortable. edit… you will also need to enlarge the ejection port about 1/2” not for proper ejecting but to enable your finger to access the cut out in the GG bolt to retract it. You can leave the ejection port the way it is. It will just be hard to get your finger in there to retract it. Edited April 22 by Ryanjj Missing info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryanjj Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Capt. Bob said: I have ordered a grease gun bolt, if I understand correctly, it should be a direct replacement. Any suggestions on replacement springs? I am going to hold off on the feed ramp for now. I’m going to replace the bolt, replace some magazine springs, and see how it runs. Trust me. Spitfires failures are as follows stock extractor no feedramp bad mags. So to sum it up “Percentage wise” gg bolt will fix 20% of your issues Feed ramp will fix 75% of your issues proper mags %5 ymmv fyi I have learned a lot from Mike. Then I took it to the next level and bought a few. Reverse engineered them. Made them into sewing machines. They are super underrated once properly upgraded!! Edited April 21 by Ryanjj Typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfiresubgun Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 (edited) On 4/20/2026 at 12:31 PM, Ryanjj said: If this is Mike, then this is the SPITFIRE MASTER. I will tell you to LISTEN TO THIS GUY!!!!!!!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q-tU5Ve3cU Edited April 21 by spitfiresubgun Adding to post 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eMGunslinger Posted April 22 Report Share Posted April 22 (edited) 5 hours ago, Capt. Bob said: I have ordered a grease gun bolt, if I understand correctly, it should be a direct replacement. Any suggestions on replacement springs? I am going to hold off on the feed ramp for now. I’m going to replace the bolt, replace some magazine springs, and see how it runs. Its not a drop in, there is a lot of work involved to do it correctly. Had to fix several over the years from people who thought they were just going to drop stuff in and it run. The ejection port on the gun isn't even the correct size. Edited April 22 by eMGunslinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Bob Posted April 22 Author Report Share Posted April 22 It sounds like I have a lot of learning and some tedious work ahead. I’m finishing up my shop right now and will have a dedicated gun work bench. I’m living in a small office grid cabin and not much room for laying everything out. 19 hours ago, Ryanjj said: Needs to be a m3a1 GG bolt. A m3 won’t work. Yes direct replacement is all you need. Get a set of GG springs as the spitfire ones won’t work. Also you will have to remove the bolt spacer on the spitfire guide rod in order for the GG bolt to work. There is a guy on Gunbroker that sells repro gg springs. They are perfect. You will need to make a feed ramp in time. It’s not super hard. Start off with a small piece of aluminum and Dycam to mark the groves matching the gg bolt. Once the ramp is done you can use a few screws to screw through the reciever and into the “tapped” ramp. Also remove that ginormous spitfire buffer. It won’t be needed. It will never bottom out with the GG bolt. You can make a 1/8” buffer out of neoprene. If that makes you feel more comfortable. edit… you will also need to enlarge the ejection port about 1/2” not for proper ejecting but to enable your finger to access the cut out in the GG bolt to retract it. You can leave the ejection port the way it is. It will just be hard to get your finger in there to retract it. I ordered the wrong bolt from Sarco, so I will need to find the m3a1 bolt. Thank you for the information. I’m sure I’ll have more questions for you once I tear it apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 22 Report Share Posted April 22 There are a few M3A1 bolts on GunBroker currently that are reasonably priced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted May 2 Report Share Posted May 2 Hi Capt. Bob, Don't forget the 9mm GG conversion. Had one of the guys at the local match make himself a 9mm barrel and used the 9mm GG bolt in his Spit. Very funny. It runs so slow that it sounded like someone shooting a carbine pulling the trigger fast! Enjoy, Grasshopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Bob Posted May 2 Author Report Share Posted May 2 11 hours ago, Grasshopper said: Hi Capt. Bob, Don't forget the 9mm GG conversion. Had one of the guys at the local match make himself a 9mm barrel and used the 9mm GG bolt in his Spit. Very funny. It runs so slow that it sounded like someone shooting a carbine pulling the trigger fast! Enjoy, Grasshopper ‘That may be something to consider in the future. I just received my GG springs, should have the correct GG bolt Monday. I’m hoping that’ll correct most of my issue. I’ll know soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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