1911 Barrel Slide question

[Three Man]

I purchased a Bar-Sto drop in for a S&W 1911.
Fit the hood and to test function I cycle the slide by hand, the pistol is up-side down the slide and barrel bined up just for a brief moment prior to lock up. This also happens when I point the pistol down and hand cycle. No bined up when the pistol is cycled in normal level position.

It apears as if the barrel is trying to move ahead of the slide prior to lock up.

I tried a shorter and longer links with the problem still there. I tried a couple of long and short links to the extreems and in between that the rear of the barrel no longer made contact with the impact point on the frame and long enough links that the slide would not move forward after the slide stop was inserted.

I noticed the slide stop pin was hitting the front side of the barrel lugs with hard contact. I filed and sanded the lugs so that there is only very slight contact from the slide stop around the lug radius evenly on both lugs instead of the hard contact.

The pistol still exhibits the slight bined.

What else should I look for?

 

[1911Tuner]

The barrel is timing into the slide a little too early and catching on the lug corners. Check it with a looser-fitting bushing. Sometimes that does it.

 

[Old Fuff]

Tuner is right, but also you should consider that it's pretty hard to make "drop-in" barrels that fit up as they should, when the various manufacturers don't stick to a common set of blueprints. The Bar-Sto drop-in barrels work fine in pistols made to USGI specifications, but not always the stuff that's on the market now. They can be fitted or tweaked, but that sort of takes away the drop-in feature. No, this is not Bar-Sto's fault.

 

[Three Man]

Thanks for the pointers, I found the problem.

Initially with the hood fit I left a slight chamfer on the mating edge of the barrel hood to help guide the barrel hood into the slide.
Durring my hand cycling checks, the barrel would bined up trying to lock up early as explained in my first post.

The S&W I have has a 45 deg chamfer at the extraction edge.
The barrel hood would catch on the most rear edge of the slide chamfer.
So I gave the barrel hood about a 60 deg chamfer on the mating edge to help guide the barrel in place without sticking.

The pistol fired great and accurate

The photo attached expains it better.

This in no way is Bar-Sto's nor S&W fault.
Matter of fact I like the Bar-Sto drop in fit barrels because they leave enouph material for final fitting (at least in my experiences with the 5 Bar-Sto barrels I dropped in). Minimal time needed to have a good enouph lock-up, quick touch with a finish chamber reamer and sometimes touch the lower barrel lugs to reduce riding of the link and your done.

 

[RogersPrecision]

The hood making hard contact on one side indicative of a problem. The barrel hood offset is incorrect for the slide. Chamfering that corner as much as you did may have improved function, but the barrel is still being forced to one side. Ink up your lower lugs and check for contact on one side only.
Putting the barrel into a radial bind is not ideal for accuracy.
I would ink up the side of the hood and remove material incrementally until only very slight contact remains. This will probably increase the gap on the other side of the hood, but that is better than twisting the barrel into a position it does not want to be in.
I hope this helps.

 

[Three Man]

I agree on your method of checking.
The problem only showed up when I held the pistol in an un-natural shooting positions hand cycling slow.
I think the barrel has enouph play when unlocked to make slight off contact until the lugs start to ride along the slide stop pin.
I think that the hood would catch on the most lower rearward sharp edge of the slide chamfer prior to the lugs riding the slide stop pin. Which would then jump into position due to the lugs riding the slide stop pin and slide momentum when cycled quickly.

When I would release and cycle the slide with dummy rounds in a magazine in the same un-natural shooting positions the problem never showed up; but I could feel a slight glitch hand cycling with no dummy rounds only once in a while.

In almost each of the Bar-Sto's I've dropped in I have touched up the lugs because I've noticed that the contact on each of the lugs is different on each pistol (which is a function of the slide, frame and slide stop pin fit; not Bar-Sto problem). The lugs follow good enouph if left alone but I always try to get a very slight even ride until right before final lock-up. For final lock-up I like to have good hard contact with the slide stop pin and both barrel lug flats and radius.
I may have allowed the barrel extra play prior to lock up because of touching the lugs.

When the pistol is in full lock up both sides of the hood have a very slight gap.

I'll ink up my hood like suggested; That's a great idea.

I posted because I didn't want to beat this pistol to death and good people like you three are always here ready to point us home hobbyists in the right direction.

Thank you for the great words of advise.