Barrel… not lead, then what could it be?

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Ignacio49

New member
This is an AMT Hardballer barrel. At first glance I thought it was lead in the barrel…Then I realized it was only in the rifling lands/hills, nothing in the grooves/valleys….. very strange. Well, I tried to get rid of the lead but couldn’t. Bronze brush, pod cleaning scrub pad, Lewis Lead removal (just the fabric, around cleaning brush) with some Hopes 9… even 1000 grit sandpaper.. Nothing. I was very gentle when trying to remove, as this is a friend’s barrel, not mine. I even tried a dentist pick ..nada.
I then took pics for closer inspection and realized this was not lead in the lands. I believe it is abrasion. Appreciate your comments.

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Beautiful pictures. Looks like a bad rifling tool. broach or what ever they used.

David

Sent from my SM-T900 using Tapatalk
 
Wow, nice pictures, I can never get bore pictures to turn out worth a darn.
I'd say shoot it and see how it does, might be decent to plink with
 
"...chatter marks..." Yep. Manufacturing defect. Lapping the thing might help. It's not something for the impatient though. Time consuming. Way faster to fit another barrel.
However, barrels that are pitted from rust can still shoot reasonably well. Did the guy work up a load or is he shooting factory?
1,127px × 1,055px is too big. Please reduce the size of your pictures.
 
T. O'Heir said:
"... Did the guy work up a load or is he shooting factory?
1,127px × 1,055px is too big. Please reduce the size of your pictures.
Click to expand...

My friend just got it a week ago and has not shot it yet .... and probably won't, as he is not happy with this barrel and will sell the gun, in anticipation to the possible finding of more "unpleasant surprises" which would confirm Harballers sad reputation.
 
Tool chatter/machining marks from when the barrel was made. It will foul more than usual but will probably shoot just fine.
 
That's one of the worst I've ever seen. There's no chance that will ever smooth out and it will copper foul quick. Good choice to get rid of it. If it was mine, I'd remove the barrel and make something out of it that doesn't involve bullets.
 
It's a semi-auto handgun. Most people can't shoot a pistol well enough to challenge the accuracy of any halfway-decent pistol. Besides, even with the worse than normal jacket fouling that will result from the roughness, it will probably be quite accurate.

If it were a rifle, or maybe a single-shot hunting handgun, then the rifling condition would be something worth worrying about. Or maybe for a person who is going to spend a lot of time gazing into the barrel or worrying about getting every last bit of jacket fouling out after a shooting session.

In a semi-auto pistol owned by someone who isn't going to obsess over the smoothness of the lands or getting it perfectly clean every time it's shot, I doubt this will be any issue at all.
 
Why has nobody mentioned returning the gun to the OEM or distributor? Even if one isn't the original owner, a manufacturing defect such as this warrants a new barrel. What could it hurt to give em a call ?
 
The most important question is "How does it shoot?"

Before jumping to any conclusions, take it to the range and put out some proper targets and see how it shoots offhand and from sandbags.

It may foul with copper or lead, but then again.... TRY IT. Get back to us with your conclusions after you put a box of ammo down the spout.
 
I own a Springfield loaded 1911 several ago I was using moly coating, cleaned after each use but the barrel looked worse each time I cleaned yet it was still accurate, I contacted SA told them what I was using, sent it in they replaced barrel with a new match grade barrel said my old barrel was pitted. I never used moly again although many continue to use coatings with good results. My point is you never know what the previous owner has used in that particular gun.
This post is not condemning folks using coatings but just passing along my experience.
 
The AMT Hardballer is a basic 1911-style gun.
When they were made, machining stainless steel for guns was not exactly an art.
Just buy a new 1911 barrel and put it in the gun. Simple.
 
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