Should I be concerned? (1911)

[threedogdad]

Should I be concerned about this? There's an interesting flaw (wear?) on one of the lugs of my 1911 barrel. (Colt old roll mark 1991A1.)

Sorry my pictures aren't any better than this.











And also what appears to be some sort of gouging inside the slide in front of the lugs. The picture is poor quality, but it's an actual gouge in the metal.





For reference, I bought this pistol new in 1994 and put many, many thousands of rounds through it for the first 5 years I owned it. Then I left it in the custody of a family member for several years while I was overseas in the Army. No idea how much he shot it while I was gone, but he is an avid and active shooter. Since returning I've started keeping a log and am up to slightly over 11,000.

Any thoughts on what's going on here, whether or not it's a real problem and if so what I should do about it?

Thanks.

Edited to simply add: This pistol has probably been the single most reliable handgun I have ever owned so whatever the problem is, so far it hasn't affected functioning.

[45dotACP]

Looks like the upper lugs are crashing...I'd suggest checking the clearance between the barrel hood and the breech face.


Mebbe. But then it could also be a lot of other things. That's just what popped into my head first. I'd get it looked at by a pro before shooting it much more...might need a new barrel, but if it gets much worse, you'll need a whole new slide and that would suck.

[BLR]

From those pictures, I see nothing I would worry about. Though, not the best pictures ever.

I don't see any peening of the lugs. The gouges look like machining marks to me.

[threedogdad]

Thank you, Bill & 45dot.

I've been hoping to send this pistol out for a little custom work soon, but was concerned about whether I was making a mistake and "putting new wine into old bottles," so to speak.

This one has definitely been over the mountain and across the river with me more than once over the past 20 years (and has been refinished twice and had the front dovetail welded up and recut once) and it's beginning to show its age in other ways now too.

Still debating whether to spend my money trying to "revitalize" this one or buy a TRP or XSE to replace it.

[Trooper224]

Looks like typical 90's era Colt machining to me. I never had one in that time frame that failed to function as needed, but several of them exhibited internal machining flaws like this.

[45dotACP]

Haha, saw this thread at late O' clock when my eyes stopped working and I had taken a punch too many in training...

Never mind me. I thought the darker spot on lug 2 was folded over metal...carry on.

[calibased]

I don't see any "flaws" but there does appear to be normal wear and tear. Do you use grease? (Ie: slide glide) ?

[threedogdad]

I keep it well lubed and frequently cleaned, but in the past I have typically used whatever lube I happened to have on hand at any particular moment, rather than any specific brand. That means this pistol has seen its fair share of motor oil over the years.

More recently I've settled on using Ballistol to lube all my firearms. The smell doesn't bother me and it seems to do a good job.