1911 Barrel Errosion

Status
Not open for further replies.
WrongHanded

WrongHanded

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Messages
4,771
My Sig 1911 is a fairly new gun. Probably only a year or so old. But whilst cleaning it after my last range session, I noticed some pitting and discontinuities in the first part of the rifling beyond the chamber. It is not farther down the barrel, which looks like new. It can be seen sporadically on both the grooves and lands, some appears more as pitting, some more as lines running perpendicular to the barrel.

The gun has been cleaned, though not aggressively, after each range session and has not been left dirty for extended periods of time. I've shot between 1,000 and 1,500 rounds through it of various ammo types all weighing 230gr. All the commerical ammo has been jacketed. All the reloads have been lead, some coated, some uncoated.

The last ammo to go through it was uncoated lead in reloads with 5.6gr of W231, and I did see some leading in the area that has damage. I suppose the leading could be from gas cutting, which has caused damage to the barrel. Or perhaps I didn't previously notice the barrel damage, and that damage was a factor in causing the leading.

Has anyone else has such an experience? Any thoughts on a cause? I suppose if it gets to a point where accuracy is negatively affected, I'll replace the barrel. But for now I'd just prefer to determine the cause, and if it's a certain type of ammo, just stop using it.
 
I've looked down some very well-loved .45ACP barrels, and I've never seen any visible erosion or pitting caused by shooting them.

Rusting? Yes. Leading that looked like pitting? Sure. Erosion or pitting from shooting? I say it ain't so.

Something else has happened. Chore Boy it (to check for leading) and look again. 45ACP barrels do wear, but very slowly.
 
It's probably not an issue. Here's a data point from Schuemann barrels.

http://www.schuemann.com/Portals/0/Documentation/Webfile_Barrel_Cleaning.pdf
My Personal Practice has become to never clean the bore of my barrels. I do use a brass rod to scrape the deposits out of the chamber. But, I've learned to leave the bore alone and it very slowly becomes shinier and cleaner all by itself. Years ago I occasionally scrubbed the bore with a brass bore brush. But, doing so always seemed to cause the bore to revert to a dirtier look with more shooting, so I eventually stopped ever putting anything down the bore except bullets...
Click to expand...
 
It was a difficult picture to get, but...
IMG_20190519_182848635.jpg

I tried to find chore boy, but couldn't. So I ended up with a plastic version. But as I can catch a pick in these pits, I know they're not some kind of foreign matter.
 
For what it's worth I usually just run a bore snake through my handgun barrels, to get powder residue out. Occasionally I'll use a copper bore brush (usually reserved for lead removal).And I almost never use solvents, preferring to try oil first if something refuses to budge.
 
Could be from the factory or your cleaning methods? Could the coated bullets trap moisture undernearh? More a question as i never used coatings.

Great job on getting that photo.
 
Well, considering it has happened, I'll keep shooting all the loads I've been shooting (in separate range sessions), and see if any of them make it worse.

The accuracy doesn't see bad right now. This is the last target I shot. 16 rounds off the bench at 25 yards with my non-dominant hand doing the work (just because).

IMG_20190519_193423208_HDR.jpg
 
It looks to me like something that's been there from the beginning, not erosion or pitting. I've seen that pattern before in new guns--it's some kind of an imperfection in the tooling/machining.

Erosion or pitting would be more random, not in a line like that. Also, you'd expect to see erosion or pitting showing up more in the grooves than on the lands.

Blowup.jpg
 
Steel barstock is generally homogeneous, but occasionally over many years I've run into a few bars with discontinuities in the structure of the metal. The most common flaw is "Seams" on the outside, but a few times I've found hard spots deep inside the bar. I've never experienced material breaking out from a bored hole like that but what I'm suggesting is that the original barstock may have been bad, maybe one spot in 100 bars of it.

A lot of flaws appear near the ends of the bars and that can be a seam deeper inside the bar that only lasts an inch or so, but that too is very rare in my experience, still,something did that and a material flaw makes sense. It doesn't look like a toolmark to me unless a tool broke in use and a piece dug into the bore.
If I worked for Sig I'd want to look at it.
 
I get a lot of that same thing youre describing of late, in both my 45 and 9mm's, with lead and jacketed rounds. Its generally "streaks" in the edge of the rifling, just forward of the chamber, and just doesn't want to come out, with normal scrubbing. A brand new bronze brush seems to help some, but still doesn't always get it.

What I have found to work best, after cleaning and dry patching the barrel, as usual, is to push a patch cut from a Hoppes "Quick Clean" cloth into the bore with a slightly worn bronze brush as a jag, and scrub it with that. Seems to do the trick.

Works well with light leading in the barrel as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

N
  • Locked
fouling in barrel of Walther p22?
Replies
8
Views
1K
mejeepnut
M
P
  • Locked
Glock w/reloads?
Replies
7
Views
544
Dienekes
D
B
  • Locked
Something in the barrel
Replies
9
Views
969
jhb
jhb
G
  • Locked
Glock 30s .45 FTE problem (Sort of...)
Replies
11
Views
2K
ChanceMcCall
C
B
  • Locked
1911 feed ramp damage
Replies
1
Views
519
ocharry
O
Back
Top