When fitting a barrel hood to a slide, should contact be left between the hoodface and the breachface? (Not talking about the sides of the hood extension, only the back part - the face of the hood extension).
I have narrowed the issue down (correctly, I hope, to this): Absent hoodface to breachface contact when the pistol is locked up, is there anything physical in the lockup mechanics other than hoodface-to-breachface contact that would prevent the lower lugs of even a properly fitted barrel from locking up at a different point on the slide-stop pin each time the gun returns to battery?
Would love to hear the opinions of more experienced folks.
Try a head space guage in the chamber, and note the difference between the back of the guage and the hood.
The hood/slide joint should not have a gap.
Glad you asked but I think I can easily say ask a 100 gunsmiths this question and you will get a 100 different answers. Kart recommends .002-.003 gap between the barrel hood and the breechface. Most pistols I see come across the bench even the high end ones display about this much gap also or slightly more.
Now that I have prefaced that everyone has a different belief on this I will tell you how I do it.
When I finish fitting a barrel and you link it up in the slide I shoot for a no gap fit. IE hold it up to the light and I should see no light.
Its not easy to get a tight fit like this and easily takes me 2-3 times longer to fit a barrel than most. I also angle the rear of the barrel hood, the part that touches the slide at a slight angle. So that it makes almost full contact when touching the slide. I also put a slight 45 along the whole barrel hood on the sides and back of the hood so that is has no sharp corner to scrape the slide and this helps it self guide itself into the slide. Many feel the barrel hood should have some gap, I am just one of those guys who does not necessarily feel that way.
As you probably know, there's an article in the member's library section that contains a "How To" article by a very well-known builder that suggests that there should be contact, and yet, when I read the Kart booklet, it said no contact. Interesting stuff.
I have my own beliefs on this, It comes down to the more the barrel has the ability to move when locking up then the less accurate the barrel is. In order to get accuracy one needs the ability to have the barrel to lockup in the same place each time. It does not take much thinking on this subject to come to my conclusion on the tight lockup to achieve accuracy issue .Of course you dont want it so tight that it inhibits lockup, that is not the goal. Just a no interference fit. IE My goal is no light when locking up. Its not hard to do just time consuming.
If done correctly there will be no gap.
Reloading takes care of the rest.
Rounds needing manual assistance to lock the slide, need the crimp set deeper on the die.
Reliability is better if the head space is just a little long by several thousandths.
This one was finished as described, it has 50 yd X ring accuracy
