A lot of smiths throat and polish feed ramps incorrectly. A 1911 does not need a polished feed ramp to function properly. What a 1911 needs is a feed ramp that is the proper angle the proper distance from the magazine. Normally only a few thousandths needs to be removed to acquire proper function. FreeMe is more correct than many are giving him credit for.
JWP's right, it's almost NEVER the feed ramp that is the issue unless:
A - Someone has ruined it
B - It was done incorrectly from the factory.
I've seen feed ramps with BAD machine marks and the gun still fed well. It's usually the magazine, barrel throat, extractor, or breech face if there is an issue; very rarely is it the feed ramp.
Back in the day it wasn't uncommon for feed ramps to need some serious attention on non-Colt 1911's. There were a lot of cast guns that had feed ramps that weren't cut deep enough (not horribly uncommon on Essex), or were under-cut badly (AMT & Vega were famous for under-cutting). The nice thing about Essex frames is if you encountered this (which wasn't all that common), the fix was easy. A feed ramp cut too deep is a cast iron be-otch to fix.
As a gunsmith I recognize that polishing the feed ramp, while unnecessary; is just an expectation from customers. So I do it because that's the expectation. They feel all warm and fuzzy if they can comb their hair in their feed ramp. But guess what, I haven't done it on my 1911's because it's just not needed.
