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I'm not a 1911 expert by any means, more of a hobbyist, but if a gun won't reliably feed good quality JHPs, something isn't right. I could see a shorite having serious issues with a severely truncated type of JHP, but a hollowpoint like an SXT or probably a HydraShok should work fine. I am curious to know just exactly how it is jamming. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the cartridge is coming up the breechface, and then the nose of the bullet is smacking square into the barrel ramp and stopping dead right there.

Shorties do have all kinds of wacky feeding and RTB problems because of their short length. The problem isn't so much the length of the cycle (which isn't really that different), but rather the very steep angle of the barrel at linkdown. If you think about it, the angle between the muzzle and the throat on a government length gun is fairly shallow. Shorten up the available length by 35% for an officer's model (or even more for an ultra-compact), and you're getting into very steep barrel territory. As a result, if the barrel ramp and chamber throat are not carefully machined, the cartridge will not glide into the chamber. Steepen up the barrel ramp too much, and it stops dead. Shallow it out too much, and it will chamber and fire, but a lack of case support will leave you searching for your fingers. Compound that with the possibility of an extractor or breechface problem at the tail end, and it's a rather tricky procedure to get a cartridge in there at all.

The FMJ hollowpoint ammo you mentioned comes from Federal. It is basically a wadcutter HP that is filled with silicone and placed inside a standard hardball jacket. There are, however, significant problems. It should feed more reliably, and Federal makes quality ammo that goes bang every time. The issue is the way that the round expands. Normal HPs expand when the edges of the cavity are dragged open by resistance from the fluid they are penetrating (that's WAY oversimplified, but you get the idea). This gives good expansion like an SXT. Expanding FMJ rounds, by contrast, expand by the collapse of the nose of the bullet and the extrusion of the silicone filler through the fissures in the collapsing jacket. It doesn't expand with the "musrooming" effect we're familiar with. The problem this creates is that the round will begin to expand very quickly upon impact, and will dump all of its energy very early. Basically, the round becomes a .70 caliber slug at .45 velocity within the first inch of the target. This, of course, completely ruins any chance of good penetration. (it's actually more complex than that, but that's as much as I can understand without going back to college for a physics degree) Add in a bone structure, thick muscle tissue, or a high degree of deflection, and you end up with a round that will not penetrate deep enough to stop anybody thicker than a bean pole. A few police departments went to this new round to alleviate feeding problems with JHPs, but were forced to quickly abandon the round when it was discovered that a hefty leather jacket was almost as good as kevlar.

IMO, we should get your pistol running with a quality JHP instead of switching to some exotic ammo. I will be happy to give you any advice I can, and then to refer you to smarter men than me when I give up in frustration.