I was wondering if any of you have experiance in fitting a barrel in an Officer's Model 1911. I have a OM size Caspian "kit gun" in my shop that has a cycling problem. The slide will not return to battery because the barrel starts to link up while the slide is moving forward. When the slide is about 1/4 inch from locking up, the barrel attains a three point jam between the link, the bottom of the barrel muzzle against the slide and at the top of the chamber against the slide locking lugs. If you hold the gun muzzle up, it will close smoothly. If the gun is held horizontal, or muzzle down, the barrel will ride the link upward and wedge the slide.
This gun has the standard OM flared barrel and does not have a bushing. The barrel tunel is .699", and when the gun came into my shop, the barrel was riding heavily on the bottom of the barrel tunnel in the slide and the bottom barrel lugs would not touch the impact surface in the frame. I have removed material from the bottom of the barrel tunnel to lower the barrel and the lugs now touch the frame, but the chamber area of the barrel still rides on the bottom of the tunnel when the slide is in the full recoil position. When the slide is in the full recoil position, the muzzle of the barrel is not touching the muzzle end of the barrel tunnel. The muzzle of the barrel is hanging out in mid air with the .699" barrel tunnel around the .575" diameter area of the barrel. When the slide begins to move foreward, the barrel raises on the link and the top of the chamber rubs against the top of the slide. When the muzzle area of the slide reaches the point of picking up the barrel at the flared end, the whole mess jams. I'm thinking that the friction between the bottom of the barrel and the slide may be causing the barrel to link up early and I should take out more material. But, I am concerned because the barrel already assumes a muzzle down position when the slide is in recoil. If I remove more material from the bottom of the barrel tunnel to drop the muzzle to contact the slide at the front, it will tip the barrel even further down at the muzzle and possibly aggravate the problem by tipping the link upward. Any suggestions? How were the original OM guns set up?

SteelArt

SteelArt,

I just posted what I've done to make my OM run in this forum under the thread named, "Short Barreled 1911s". I've set up a few standard OMs, with barrel bushings, and this procedure works for me. Read my post over and if you have any further questions, drop me a line.

Best regards,

CJR

SteelArt,

After posting my last reply to you, I reread your post. I have some additional comments for you:

1. There must be no barrel contact with the slide during recoil. If there is, the slide gets slowed down, barrel gets bounced around laterally and vertically, and malfunctions develop. You will need to remove more material inside the slide as you describe. Kuhnhausen also describes this in his 2nd Volume.
2. After linkdown, the clearance between the top of the barrel and the slide lug area must be .010 to 0.015 inch. This insures no contact between the slide and barrel during normal cycling.
3. In linkdown, only the back vertical surface of the bottom barrel lugs must touch the vertical frame surface as Kuhnhausen correctly describes in his 2nd Volume. The bottom of the barrel, i.e. chamber area, must not be in contact with the top of the frame as Kuhnhausen incorrectly describes in his 1st Volume.
4. Check if you have too long a link already installed, which may be aggravating things. With new barrels, I use an internal barrel rod with nipple(Brownells sells one) that lines up with the firing hole. When the barrel is installed properly with this rod, the firing pin hits are dead center on the primers.
5. Check to see if the extractor is prematurely hitting the underside of barrel hood, driving it upwards, before the slide's breechface hits the back of the barrel hood. Check by removing recoil spring and slowly hand-cycle slide on frame. Does extractor prematurely hit underside of barrel hood before breechface hits back of hood? If so, clearance the underside of the hood on the extractor side.
6. Reread what I posted earlier about barrel torquing and how the hood must be clearanced to the slide. The final hood clearancing depends on the measurements of the barrel lug widths, lug recess width in frame, hood width, hood recess width in frame, lateral slide movement on frame, and sloppy link/stop fit allowing more angular CCW movement of barrel in frame.

If you have any questions let me know. I'll be in my hunting camp the next two days but I'll get back to you when I return.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Best regards,

CJR

I'm thinking it is a long link, having been there and done that with my homebuilt Commander.

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Sounds like stans nailed this one again. (Didn't I tell ya'll he was good? Didn't I? Huh?)

Check to see if the barrel is standing on, or riding the link during the vertical lockup phase. Many people install a long link to correct sloppy vertical fit in the mistaken belief that it will help, when it actually causes more problems
than it solves.

CJR...Of course the barrel contacts the slide during recoil...That's what the locking lugs do. It's after unlock/linkdown that you don't want slide to barrel contact.

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Thanks for all of our input on this problem, but I still have some questions as to where I should go from here. I have a good bit of experience with 1911 guns, but not with the Officer's Model. I've got Kuhnhausenen's books and Shuey's videos and none of them address the OM gun. The link is the correct length, the barrel lugs contact the frame properly and the barrel does not touch the top of the frame under the chamber area. But, the barrel still rides the bottom of the barrel tunnel because the front of the barrel is not supported when the slide is in recoil.
My question is, how do these guns function when there is no support of the front of the barrel when the slide is in recoil? On the standard 1911 models, the barrel is supported by the bushing during recoil and that keeps the barrel lugs back against the frame. If you take a barrel and put it on a frame with the slide stop pin (without the slide) and tip the frame muzzle down, you will have an example of what is happening in this gun. The muzzle will drop, the barrel will sag forward and rise on the link, lifting the chamber area to the point where it would rub on the upper slide lugs, if the slide were on the frame. This extreme angle causes a three point wedge of the barrel between the slide and the link as the slide tries to return forward. This gun will also not chamber a cartridge properly because the bullet hits the top of the chamber, pushing the barrel upward into the slide, creating the wedged situation.
So, how does the OM function with no support of the barrel at the muzzle? I can remove more material at the bottom of the barrel tunnel so the barrel doesn't drag in the slide, this would lower the muzzle of the barrel so it is supported at the front of the slide, but that would allow the barrel to sag at the muzzle at an extreme angle. I do not understand how the gun will function properly if the barrel is allowed to tip even further than it does now.
Thanks again,
SteelArt

The bottom of the barrel chamber (behind the barrel's leg) should not touch the barrel's bed in the frame? Strange, both my pistols barrels rest there, and they function perfectly. I didn't know that the barrel should not touch the frame bed!!!! So there should be a gap between the frame ramp and the barrel's ramp??? Are you sure about that?

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The M1911 Pistols Organization
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If the barrel touches the frame at the bottom of the chamber, the barrel lugs cannot properly contact the barrel stop area in the frame. This condition causes the slide stop pin to take the load of restraining the barrels inertia. The slide stop pin may eventually break, and if the gun is fired with a broken slide stop pin, the result will be a crash that will likely destroy the gun.
The gap between the bottom of the chamber and the frame only needs to be a few thousands of an inch, but it must not touch.
SteelArt

Whew! Again...I don't quite know where to start.

The lower barrel radius not touching the frame bed applies with a hand-fitted
gun that started with a barrel with overlength dimensions at the bottoms of the lower lug feet. (Good luck in finding a barrel with lower lug feet like that.) Perfectly spec-ed and fitted, the feet just touch the recess just as the link stops the barrel's drop, and halts it in light compression. In the early days, when the 1911s were pretty much hand-built and fitted, most of them did this. After the specs were altered for WW2-era production, it was determined that it wasn't necessary as long as the frame's vertical impact surface stopped the barrel's rearward movement at the right place. As long as it stops the barrel after it unlocks from the slide and before the link has to stretch...and the rear face of the lower lug isn't hitting too low on the vertical impact surface...it's fine.

Whew! Talk about a run-on!

When thinking about the tilting barrel design, keep in mind that the tilt is in lockup. When the barrel unlocks and drops, it goes pretty close to level.
Close meaning...maybe not perfectly level, but close enough to call it that.
If the bushing fit prevents it from dropping to the frame bridge, it's not right.
Once the bushing moves back from the muzzle, the barrel shouldn't be in any sort of bind with the bushing. Likewise, once the barrel is fully down, the link should be loose. The barrel is correctly stopped by the vertical impact surface...at the right time and place. Ideal is for the impact surface to contact the rear lower lug right at the junction where the radius is, or just a bit lower. Below mid-point can break the lug loose from the barrel. The link's sole function is in getting the barrel unlocked and away from the slide in time to get out of the way.

Fitting the barrel in an OM-length gun is pretty straightforward, and standard practices will work fine. All 3 lugs bearing in the horizontal plane if possible...Lower lug to slidestop pin camming the barrel into vertical lockup, with full or nearly full depth and overlap...Hood fitted with no more than .003 inch clearance per side, if accuracy is your goal, and .005 inch for service grade. Rear face of the hood making light to medium in-battery contact with the breechface up to a maximum of .005 inch clearance for service-grade pistols.

EDIT TO ADD:

Almost forgot! Due to the shortened barrel length, the tilt angle will be increased and should be taken into account for the timing
and drop issue. The barrel will necessarily have to drop a bit faster
than for the 5-inch and Commander-length guns. That is to say, the drop needs to be a little more abrupt once it starts.

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One thing that we need to pay attention to, is that the barrel does NOT have a bushing. Maybe the cone of the barrel is not properly shaped for the Officer's model? With no bushing, I bet there is a fat cone at the muzzle end. But that needs to be reduced in diameter in a very specific way, otherwise the barrel will not move up and down properly.

Pardon my simple language, but that's how I can express myself better. I ain't no gunsmith.

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The M1911 Pistols Organization
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