barrel rubbing on slide question

[awizardalso]

Is it possible to keep the visible portion of the barrel from scuffing on the slide? I'd buffed the visible portion of the barrel, but it appears to be rubbing just so slightly to make polishing a waste of effort. When you draw the slide back, the barrel drops down with a slight clearance to the slide, but when the slide moves forward, the barrel moves forward and up against the slide with just enough pressure to remove most of magic marker ink after a few cycles, and dulls the barrel surface (even before the magic marker). It doesn't have a tight bushing but there seems to be enough drag to pull the barrel on the forward stroke. The underside of the slide is clean, without any burrs or signs of impact damage. I'm soon to be trying my hand at refinishing the entire piece and thought a polished surface in the port would be a nice touch. Just wondering if this would be a worthwhile pursuit. Appearance isn't my primary consideration, but would be a plus. Am I trying to catch a ghost?

[mike h. buness]

Hi, Awizardalso, Make double sure you have NO slide or barrel lug damage. The barrel should not move at all until the lower barrel lugs contact the slide stop pin. If it does, there is barrel/slide contact or the bushing is too tight [unlikely]. Most likely the slide has a few high spots in the lug area. LIGHTLY polish this area. The key word here is lightly. A wooden dowel with 320 grit wet/dry is what I have used. Glue the wet/dry only to one side [180 degrees only]. Agin, check to be sure there is no lug damage. Good luck, Mike.

[awizardalso]

I tried using marker again on the barrel lugs and the inside of the slide. The ink was cleaned off on a small spot on top of the lugs and a short 3/16" wide strip down the center of the slide where the two forward lugs look like they're making contact. I did this twice, being careful when I assembled and took it apart. Doesn't look like the metal shows any signs of contact. For that matter, all the metal in the area looks good. Edges on all the lugs are clean and sharp. I'll give the 320 on a stick a try. So the barrel should stay down on it's own until the hood makes contact with the breech? Thanks for the help.

[stans]

Scuff marks on the top of the barrel over the chamber area are going to happen, it's part of life with semi-automatic pistols. There will be clearance between the inside of the slide and the outside of the barrel at full link down, but during the unlocking phase, the friction between the fired case, chamber wall, extractor and breech face are usually enough to keep the barrel up and the slide will drag slightly on the barrel until the link can fully pull down the barrel. Then during the feeding phase, as the round gets pushed into the barrel, the barrel will want to push up and then the slide will again drag slightly on the top of the barrel. The amount of drag should never be enough to induce a malfunction or remove metal, but it will scratch and scuff parkerizing or bluing.

[mike h. buness]

Stans has it right. There always will be some contact in this area. I have removed some of the high spots on the slide on my AO to the point that the top of the barrel no longer looks like it was scraped on rocks, but is not a mirror. For some reason I like the "Wilson 45 Auto" stamp to be legible. Mike.

[awizardalso]

I thank you, gentlemen, for the advice. After some more fiddling around with it and a magic marker, I figured out the barrel was rubbing (sticking) on the bottom sides of the slide. Holding the slide in my hand, with the barrel resting inside, the barrel wouldn't slide forward very easily, unless I lifted up a little, at which point it was touching the top. There's a flat area ground into the barrel on each side, tapering the chamber section into the barrel. Seems the edges of the ground area were grabbing the slide. I used a stone and rounded the edges a little and rubbed the inside of the slide above the machined surfaces. Now it looks like the barrel pretty much stays down like it's supposed to. I believe Stans is right. It's not realistic to expect no contact, but it's certainly alot better than it was. See how it looks after the next time out.

One of my first posts was about a chambering issue where the slide stopped about a quarter inch short of fully chambered, and it took just a slight touch with my thumb to lock into battery. The consensus seemed to be questionable reloads. What's the chances this little clearance could have contributed to that problem?

[mike h. buness]

Yes, weak reloads can cause FTFB. Small fit issues usually don't. Check the AOL of the reloads as well as the case length by trying the ammo in the loose barrel for fit. Any rounds that fail to bottom even with the barrel hood or slightly less [.003/.001] will cause problems. Also insure that crimp dimensions are ok. Mike.