1911 rifling wear

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Georgezilla
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1911 rifling wear

Post by Georgezilla » Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:56 pm

The 1911 I use has a carbon-steel barrel that appears to be blued internally. The lands on the right-hand side of the muzzle (when looking at the muzzle) have had significantly more bluing rubbed off than the left; some of the lands on the right side of the muzzle are almost totally silver while some of the lands on the left side are nearly totally blue.

This pistol is match grade and it has had around 5 - 6k rounds through it. Is this pattern of rifling wear unusual for a match grade 1911?

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Post by Bullseye » Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:57 am

5-6K, that barrel is still an infant just out of break-in. How's it shoot?

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Post by Georgezilla » Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:54 am

Well as you may remember from my post in the marksmanship forum, with the ranges I have available I can only shoot 15yrds... From 15yrds it can put each round over the last, but from that distance I think that most 1911s can. The really sad part about this is that I have a ransom rest to test it, but no where to use it. The only true accuracy test the pistol has ever gone through was at the factory; the test target it shot was 10 rounds of federal HB gold match and it measured 2in.

I am mainly just wondering if this is abnormal rifling wear because this is the pistol with the canted barrel bushing (which you have already spent extensive time informing me about, much appreciated!). I was just wondering if the a-symmetrical wear was a symptom of the canted barrel bushing, or just normal.

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Post by Bullseye » Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:16 pm

I don't see the wear pattern as unusual. Just think if it were not blued inside. You wouldn't even be able to notice a difference in the wear pattern; and how would you be feeling about the barrel then? If you're a right handed shooter, then the tendency for the barrel's recoil is to twist up and to the left from torque of the bullet in the rifling. These forces can have a slight influence on wear but overall it's not that significant. The real proof is in the barrel's performance.

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Post by Georgezilla » Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:38 am

Thanks for the info Bullseye. I had never thought about the way a shooter recoils influencing wear on rifling.

The range I go to only recently (last 6 months or so) discontinued the 25yrd pistol, and now that I think about it prior to that the pistol was able to group quite well at 25yrds. That was also only about 2k rounds ago.

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