In 2001, I ordered an LBC Premier II 6" (Longslide) in .45 ACP with a carbon steel slide but a stainless frame. Since then I've put thousands and thousands of rounds through it and it's held up really well, remaining very tight and scarely worse for the wear. At least, up until now. Last night I disassembled it to do some much needed routine maintenance/cleaning and found that the forward end of the frame's rails, on both sides, as well as the area just forward of the feed ramp (where the underside of the barrel's chamber section articulates with the frame) were marred and pitted vastly beyond what I had noticed the last time I disassembled the piece to clean it up and re-lube it. Now, not only was the frame not like this the last time I disassembled it, but there was absolutely no new discernible wear/erosion in any area of the slide.
Mind you all, I've probably spent almost a thousand rounds with this gun since last cleaning it, which is unusual (ususally clean and re-lube it every 500 rounds). I've been shooting a steady diet of pretty warm ammo through it as well (Zero 230-gr FMJ or JHP projectiles @ just over 900 fps). Also, the last time I changed out the mainspring, I used a Wolff #2 (trimmed to exactly the same length as the Wolff #3 springs I order pre-trimmed direct from LBC). But the gun was less managable with the #3 springs used and recommended by Les Baer for his 6" guns in .45 ACP given the warmer loads, so I decided to go with a spring from the same manufacturer that was one step up in terms of tension. Strangely, Wolff does not rate mainsprings for longslide configured 1911s in terms of lbs. Rather, they rate them on a scale of 1-5 (the lower the number, the greater the tension of the spring).
What do you guys think is the main contributor of this new and seemingly accelerated wear/erosion in the frame of this gun?
Mind you all, I've probably spent almost a thousand rounds with this gun since last cleaning it, which is unusual (ususally clean and re-lube it every 500 rounds). I've been shooting a steady diet of pretty warm ammo through it as well (Zero 230-gr FMJ or JHP projectiles @ just over 900 fps). Also, the last time I changed out the mainspring, I used a Wolff #2 (trimmed to exactly the same length as the Wolff #3 springs I order pre-trimmed direct from LBC). But the gun was less managable with the #3 springs used and recommended by Les Baer for his 6" guns in .45 ACP given the warmer loads, so I decided to go with a spring from the same manufacturer that was one step up in terms of tension. Strangely, Wolff does not rate mainsprings for longslide configured 1911s in terms of lbs. Rather, they rate them on a scale of 1-5 (the lower the number, the greater the tension of the spring).
What do you guys think is the main contributor of this new and seemingly accelerated wear/erosion in the frame of this gun?