Here is the final outcome with my pistol. As I might have mentioned before the seller claimed the gun was purchased in 1967, was brand-new, had never been fired and never taken apart. Of course, I took this all with a grain of salt, but it certainly looked perfect when I first received it. At any rate, there is a master gunsmith who lives nearby and yesterday he was able to fit me in. It turned out that the pistol indeed had been fired and also damaged by the shooter when he tried to field strip it for cleaning. Here is what we found after the gunsmith disassembled it.
The blueing on the rear, upper face of the barrel was missing because of having been struck repeatedly with a metal hammer while trying to force it off the frame. In fact, it was hit so hard it created a tiny blip on the top of the barrel. This had to be taken off which also removed more blueing. Luckily this is all hidden by the slide when the pistol is fully assembled. I thought anybody with the least amount of common sense would know enough not to strike a valuable firearm with a metal hammer.
This Beretta was designed for competitive target shooting so the tolerances for the mating surfaces are very close. However, the pistol had not been thoroughly cleaned after shooting. After that it had just been placed in a safe where it remained for more than 40 years. Only the bore was cleaned from the muzzle end. Over time, for this and God knows what other reasons, the slide locked up in the frame. To correct this the gunsmith had to apply a thin coat of an abrasive paste with a Qtip to remove material and get the slide to move freely in the frame. Once this was accomplished this compound was cleaned off and replaced by Lubriplate.
The next thing was that the grips had been removed and then incorrectly screwed on very tight. I had never noticed this. But the gunsmith, with his eye for detail, pointed out to me that there were gaps between the grips and the frame. This produces stress in the plastic which over time, especially with shooting, could crack the grips. So he removed the grips and then replaced them so that all the mating surfaces fitted correctly and there were no longer any gaps.
So, as the Bard said, all's well that ends well. The pistol is now fully functional and I will try to get it out to the range sometime next week. Then I will let you know how it shoots.
