New 9mm and 38 Super barrels shoot left...

[Justsomeguy]

I recently installed a couple of barrels into a newn Essex 9mm slide and have both of them shooting about 4-6 inches to the left at 15 yards. Could someone here review the possible causes and fixes for this? I have adjustable BoMar type sights on the slide, but I do not like having it adjusted so far over to the right that is looks severely off center. Plus, the angle of fire is such that I am sure that if I moved back to 25 yards or even more the bullet would hit even farther over to the left than it is now. These were a 9mm and 38 Super barrels I installed. They both feed reliably but I can't stand that they shoot so far to the left. I don't want to move the front sight out of center position either. I am looking for a fix that is permanent and will not require periodic adjustment.

Is my breechface out of square? What should I look for and how?

[Deacon Aegis]

I'd start by looking at how centered the barrels are relative to the firing pin when in battery. From there, draw your troubleshooting forward looking at lug engagement and see if the centerline of the firing pin on barrel alignment changes as the slide is cycled. If everything there is in spec, but the FP hole appears to wobble a bit left to right while being slowly cycled, (it will obviously track in alignment up and down during cycle) but left and right may reveal clues showing some issues involving the gun's current timing geometries. It may be that some real subtle issues of timing and lug engagement are the culprit and 1911Tuner's mastery of understanding the geometries at this level are renowned, we could derive better focus on the specific geometries to be looking at, but if the barrel and bushing fit are match and not sloppy and the lock-up is pretty well centered on the FP hole when in battery, you might just tap your front sight a bit in adjustment to pull it all into good centerline as a layman's solve.

[Justsomeguy]

I'd start by looking at how centered the barrels are relative to the firing pin when in battery. From there, draw your troubleshooting forward looking at lug engagement and see if the centerline of the firing pin on barrel alignment changes as the slide is cycled. If everything there is in spec, but the FP hole appears to wobble a bit left to right while being slowly cycled, (it will obviously track in alignment up and down during cycle) but left and right may reveal clues showing some issues involving the gun's current timing geometries. It may be that some real subtle issues of timing and lug engagement are the culprit and 1911Tuner's mastery of understanding the geometries at this level are renowned, we could derive better focus on the specific geometries to be looking at, but if the barrel and bushing fit are match and not sloppy and the lock-up is pretty well centered on the FP hole when in battery, you might just tap your front sight a bit in adjustment to pull it all into good centerline as a layman's solve.

Upon careful examination after firing it about 100 rounds, I noticed some wear on the left side of the barrel shrouds and also some wear on the rear portion of the right side of the barrel feet. This would indicate to me that the shroud was pushing the rear of the barrel to the right as it comes into battery, thus canting the front of the muzzle to the left. I filed a small amount off the left side of the shrouds and will see if that has any effect when I take it to the range again. My range is of the outdoor variety though, and the weather has been abysmal lately. Perhaps later this week I will get to try it out again and see if my small fitting improvements have had any positive results. That reminds me... I must re-blue or use a marking pen on the portion of the shroud I modified so I can track any more wear on that area when I fire it again, or at least hand cycle the thing a bunch and look at it again.

As to the firing pin, I did examine the rounds when fired last time looking for off center hits, but they seemed to be very close to center. After they are ejected, it is impossible to know just which direction is "up", "down", or "sideways". Your suggestion is taken to heart but I don't quite know how to go about looking for what you suggest. Perhaps you mean to use a bore light, or strong overhead light focused on the breech, and, after putting the grip in a padded vise, to slowly cycle the slide while peering into the muzzle to see if the firing pin stays centered. Is that what you mean?

[Deacon Aegis]

Ah, sorry for not really clarifying what I meant, but yes, you'd grip the handgun in a vice with the firing pin removed and make sure the backlight was bright enough for the exercise, but there would not be a need to do that at this point as you have indication of what the first might reveal for you. Now what you need is to take a Sharpie and blacken up the steel all around the area you see the rub marks and drop the barrel back in and cycle it a bunch and take it back out and begin removing material where those scuff marks are occurring. Keeop going back and forthe like that until it cycles without scuffing things up.

[Justsomeguy]

Ah, sorry for not really clarifying what I meant, but yes, you'd grip the handgun in a vice with the firing pin removed and make sure the backlight was bright enough for the exercise, but there would not be a need to do that at this point as you have indication of what the first might reveal for you. Now what you need is to take a Sharpie and blacken up the steel all around the area you see the rub marks and drop the barrel back in and cycle it a bunch and take it back out and begin removing material where those scuff marks are occurring. Keeop going back and forthe like that until it cycles without scuffing things up.

Ok... I see what you mean now. Yes, that would seem to be a good indicator. I will conduct that test as well. I will "blacken" the appropriate areas as well and see if more needs to be done there too.

Thank you for your quick response and good suggestions.

[Deacon Aegis]

Nah, don't waste your time with centerline on the firepin test, you've got rub marks indicating the point where the issues I think is and the FP line-up would only lead you to a better clue as that contact occuring, so it's not neccessary and would waste your time right now.

[Lubaloy]

Two common maladies with tier three slides and frames.
One is the slide bore .703" diameter, is not true to the slides exterior.
Two is the locking lug cuts in the slide are favoring one side.
Either way...bummer, dude.

[Justsomeguy]

Ok... Phooey!

I will continue with my ministrations to the hoods as specified. I don't want to loosen them up too much as they have some bearing on accuracy and if they are too loose could negatively affect things. The feet I will leave alone for now except to blacken them as an indicator of "pushing" by the hoods.

The barrels are of uncertain lineage but will cut a good group. The groups are just left of center. I previously had good results with Essex slides and frames in other builds, but they were all 45 cal units. This gun would, when in 45 trim using an old Remington Rand slide of WW2 vintage which was highly "tweaked" or hand fitted, cut a 5 shot hole at 10 yards that could be covered with a nickel. It is an Essex frame from about 27 years ago that I am using.

I do have an old "in the white" Colt Super slide laying around, but it does not have cuts for the dovetailed front and Bomar rear sights. Plus I would have to re-cut the shrouds to use them in that slide and fit that to the frame as well... It would be like starting over.

[Justsomeguy]

Next time, I am going to start with an RIA for a build, but with the introduction of their "tactical" model, I would just get one in 9mm and perhaps fit an extra Super barrel and leave it at that.

[Spindly61]

How is your barrel bushing fit? I highly recommend E.G.W. bushing made to your measurement. I had a Springer that did what you are describing and this part helped out allot. Best money I ever spent for accuracy. They are a sponsor here on this site so it is easy to find.

[Justsomeguy]

Hi Spindley61...

Actually I have about 3 EGW bushings laying around still in their little bags (and 3 of their over-sized firing pin stops too). The bushings do require some fitting to get the slide to come back on this gun. I would have to grind out some relief spots on the lower inside rear and upper front to make them useful with these barrels I think. I used the bushings that I got from the same guy I got the barrels from on these installations, and they fit with no grinding required and are pretty tight. If I don't get better results with the changes I made so far, I will have to try to fit one up for the 9mm, see how it goes, and if better, use another for the Super barrel as well. I like to have bushing/barrel sets and not mix them up.

I still have the old Colt Super slide and one more super barrel laying about the place. It has stock GI type sights on it which I am not fond of. I might make a good carry combo with that and fit it up to a different frame... I still have one more 9mm/38 Super ejector, but would need an extractor and 9mm/Super slide stop from Wilson if I can get one. They are hard to come by. I guess I could fit it up to this frame though and leave the other as a 45. It shoots pretty well as it is. Have you tried to get magazines for Super lately? They are as rare as hens teeth nowadays. I wonder if RIA has any in stock they could sell me? I could only get two McCormicks from CDNN before but they are out of them now and MecGar is out too. In fact, I tried every supplier I could think of except RIA.

[Justsomeguy]

I had a chance today to re-test these barrels after some slight filing on the hoods. They now shoot where I want them to and I will probably go with the present state of tune and see how they "shoot in". I may have to adjust the extractor tension a little as I did have a couple of failures to extract resulting in "double feeds" that I did not have before, though only with some fairly brisk 9mm reloads I was using today with mixed brass of uncertain age. I would wind up with a partially extracted case and a new round trying to feed. All factory ammo functioned perfectly in this gun with the 9mm barrel. I encountered the same occasional failures with the Super barrel with both 38 Super and infrequently with the factory 9X23 Winchester loadings. I will have to consult with you "experts" here about resolving that. Perhaps the chamber for longer cartridges is a little tight, but it may just be the extractor tension is not quite good enough. Should I try polishing the chamber in the Super barrel?