what causes this wear pattern and should i be concerned?

original: forum.m1911.org
Retrieved: November 24, 2011
Last Post: October 13, 2010
noclue2004
2nd October 2010

As the title says, what is causing these wear marks? And what should I do about it? Or just leave it alone? Gun is an RIA GI, with about 1400 rounds through it. What it looks like to me, is that the hood is hitting here, but not all the time. I've noticed with the slide locked open, I can push the barrel to the left. And if I push the barrel to the left and close the slide, barrel hits at this spot. If I don't push on the barrel while closing the slide it does not contact this area. All hand cycling of course. Makes me worry whats going on during normal fire conditions. I THINK its something to do with the link? Not sure.

niemi24s
2nd October 2010

Insure the aft corners of the barrel hood are chamfered at 45 degrees to help guide the hood in between the breechface guide blocks.

noclue2004
2nd October 2010

Can you show me exactly what you mean? Or maybe even a picture of another hood so I could see?

niemi24s
2nd October 2010 It's a little hard to tell from your pix, but it looks OK. It's not much of chamfer to begin with, only about 0.020". It can be seen here on the vertical corner of this barrel's hood: The link doesn't have much, if anything, to do with the side-to-side play of the barrel in the frame at linkdown. That's determined almost entirely by the clearance between the barrel's lower lugs and the slot in the frame. The minimum lug width is 0.356" and the maximum slot width is 0.370". What do yours measure?
noclue2004
3rd October 2010

Lug width is .355 close to barrel and .354 middle of lugs, and slot width is .3645 While I'm measuring. the slide stop pin is .198, while the hole in the link is .215

niemi24s
3rd October 2010

That gives 0.0095" of play, same as the average 1911. But the hood could extend too far over on its left side or the left hand breechface guide block could be cut/molded too far to the right. Dimensioned blueprints for the slide, barrel and all other M1911A1 parts are available in our Tech Issues section for you to compare your measurements with. If the gun's still under warranty, I'd strongly consider sending it back for repairs. That wear is abnormal.

noclue2004
3rd October 2010

Quote:
That wear is abnormal. I guess that is the info I did/didn't want to hear. Being my first 1911 I'm never sure whats acceptable/allowable wear, and what's not.

ArmscorBA
6th October 2010

Please send it back to us we will take care of it.

niemi24s
6th October 2010

Now how's that for some customer service?

Return to 1911 Archive