1911 45 barrel construction ?

[crackerjack]

On the barrel are the lugs and barrel milled from one piece billet or are they attached to barrel by other means. I have a barrel that upon magification I see a hair line crack running 1.25" where it appears to be joined out beyond the barrel lug on one side .
Thanks

 

[Jim Watson]

Depends on the gun.
A lot of Springfield barrels are two-piece, the rifled tube brazed into the breech section with locking and link lugs. Allee samee good shotgun Monobloc manufacturing technique.

The joint will appear as a circumferential line, likely with some yellow braze showing, in front of the locking lugs. A longitudinal line is a crack or scratch.

 

[crackerjack]

barrel

Thanks for reply, I will check it out with better magnification.

Thanks

 

[Dave Sample]

Right on Jim! I never used them as I did not trust them. So, I never had one fail in the trash can! I have never seen one come apart, either, but that area is where you have to polish the barrel throat and I could not stand the way they looked. I have heard the usual war stories about them , but I go by my personal experience. You are usually right about these things.

 

[Old Fuff]

Fabrique Nationale (FN) made barrels for P-35 Hi-Power pistols in this way, and they apparently worked because I never heard otherwise. I would however be less trusting of the same manufacturing method in a .45 barrel. The barrel walls are thiner, and other then cost saving I see no advantage for the gun buyer/owner - only for the manufacturer.

 

[Jim Watson]

If you have a two-piece phobia, be careful.

Many folks assume that a stainless Springfield barrel is one-piece, that all the fabricated ones are blue. But the stainless barrel in a new SA lightweight 5" made this year is two piece, seam showing in the barrel ramp and in front of the link lug. The locking lugs are on the tube, though.

I don't worry about it too much. General Hatcher had a .30-06 barrel turned down to 1/16" wall thickness over the chamber. It held service loads but a 75,000 psi proof load wrecked it.

But, as Dave says, they don't "leak smoke" (as I saw it put in one post) if in the trash can. And we all have plenty of money for new barrels.