Battering? Overpressure?

[grislyatoms]

Went to the range last night, and fired 100 reloads through my Springfield Champion. I haven't been to the range for @ 3 weeks or so.

While I was shooting, I noticed that the reloads I was shooting seemed to be recoiling a little heavier than normal, but I chalked it up to not having shot the Champion for awhile.

Got home, broke down the Champion and began cleaning it. On the front lug on the barrel, on the very tip top where the forward lug recess on the slide engages the lug on the barrel, it has a very tiny "chip". The recesses on the slide and the rear lug look just fine. It looks to my untrained eye like the beginnings of battering / peening. Champ has about 1200 rounds through it, and I am shooting plated 230 gr. round nose over 5.2 grains of W231. I checked my fired cases and the breech face and didn't see any signs of overpressure.

My first thought was I had better double check the OAL on my reloads (which I haven't done yet, not enough time last night).

Could having too short an OAL raise pressure enough to cause battering?
Time for a recoil spring replacement?

Any ideas? thoughts, comments, questions? I really don't want to shoot the Champ any more until I find out what the problem is.

Another question, if this "chipping" eventually gets worse, but the slide is o.k., can I just drop in another factory barrel?

Thanks for reading and any advice.

P.S. My seating / crimping die is set (last time I checked, which was about 3 weeks ago) to 1.26 OAL and .47 at the crimp)

 

[HSMITH]

Your loads are in-spec I highly doubt that they are battering your gun, you would have to drop down to 1.1" OAL or so to get pressures up and by then you should have feeding problems.

A 1911 with proper timing, heat treatment and materials will go 100K rounds before the slide and barrel lugs are peened to the point that it is a problem. TIMING is what beats up the barrel locking lugs, not warm handloads.

I wouldn't worry about a small 'chip'. Is there any way you can get a picture of it on here?

 

[Jim Watson]

The front lug has very little engagement and contributes little to the lockup. (According to my FLG who turns them off to make up his version of the old Sheldon Bobcat which he prefers to Commander or Champion.)

Smooth the edges of the chipped area and shoot on. It is time for a new recoil spring in that short gun if you have shot it more than a few hundred rounds altogether.

 

[stans]

I think Jim is right, the front lug is only locking at the very edge of the lug, so the recoil forces are concentrated on the edge and it is getting battered. As the barrel in the 1911 gets shorter, the barrel also sees a greater downward angle at lock up. So where a 5 inch barrel might have 70% lock up on the rear lug, 50% on the front, a 4 inch barrel might have 70% on the rear and only 30% on the front. This is one of the down sides to short barrels.

 

[grislyatoms]

Thanks for the responses, folks. I ordered a couple of standard 22 lb. springs from Wolff, hopefully that's all it is.

 

[Old Pa]

You really owe it to yourself to try some 200gr hardcast lead H&G #68s. Not only do they cost a third as much as some JHPs, but they have much less perceived recoil (ie. battering) at all practical velocities. John Moses Browning originally designed the .45ACP around a 200gr bullet; heavier bullets were first used because the Army had a surplus of heavier revolver bullets. Jacketed pistol bullets are a "rules" bullet for the Geneva Accords on the conduct of war; there's nothing inherently superior about them at .45ACP velocities. I set my OAL for the .45ACP for the longest completed cartridge that will fit in my magazines; the Keith type #68s feed flawlessly in my Kimbers/Remington Rand (better than jacketed ).