How is the breech face machined on a Browning type auto?

BHP barrel bushing

I want to correct what I said above and apologize for the error. The BHP bushing is screwed in. I was deceived by a bad memory and by some drawings that don't show it, but the threads are there.

I am indebted to Mete, who sent me a pic of a bushing removed from a Belgian BHP that certainly has threads. The Browning High Power Automatic Pistol, by Blake Stevens, has drawings that don't show the threads but pictures of cutaways and also the bushings that do. It is possible that production techniques changed at some point, but for now, I have no doubt the bushing was threaded and was screwed in.

Regardless, the BHP barrel bushing was considered a permanent assembly to the slide and was not designed to be removed by the customer. When I make statements about gun parts or assembly, I prefer to check them out myself. I did not do so this time for the simple reason that I could not do so without wrecking a BHP slide, something I did not want to do.

A point on the front sight. I said that the hole for the sight tenon was cut through the bushing. That is true when there was a full tenon, but for a time in the post-war manufacture, the front sight was just soldered in and had no tenon. The cut was deep enough that the sight still locked the bushing, but the cut did not go completely through the bushing.

On the subject of bushings, I might note that the BHP had the same problem with the breech face being impacted by extensive firing that cropped up with the M1911. This was solved in the same way, by screwing in a hardened bushing ("slide stud" or "rear slide bushing") around the firing pin hole. The problem was finally resolved in 1947, when FN went to a hardened slide. Colt had gone through the same process, and a bushing (they called it the "recoil plate") was used from 1935 by Colt and also by all the WWII contractors. Colt also went to hard slides in 1947. Very few owners of either pistol know that the rear bushing is there.

Jim
 
Mete has kindly permitted me to post his photo of a BHP barrel bushing. It looks like this one is not drilled all the way through for the sight tenon, which would indicate it was on a pistol that had the soldered sight.

Jim
 
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re-breach-face.

Dear Shooters.
I learned something.
I asked Novak how bushings were put in the H.P. He said they're silver soldered in. I asked, "have you had one out?" No!
Now I see by the pict :) ure that they're screwed in, maybe also silver soldered too; but I really learned something by that picture. Thanks
Harry B.
P.S.
- I'm sure not taking mine out! :barf:
 
They may have changed since 1970. You could x-ray the slide to find out .It wasn't easy to get it out !! nor easy to machine the threads on the one I made !
 
I have since dug around and found several pictures and books that show the bushing threaded in, so I don't think there is any doubt. There is also no doubt that they were intended to be a permanent assembly and not removed, and that they were used solely for manufacturing purposes, not for reasons of accuracy.

Jim
 
Not to complicate matters but I once shot out the bushing on an FM Detective upper that was an a Hi-Power lower. As everyone knows, FM is the Argentine company that makes a Hi-Power clone and its Detective model is a Compact version, roughly the size of a Colt Commander. My reason for volunteering this tedious information is that the bushing and slide were not threaded on the FM Detective. My recollection is that they were soldered, but evidently not well enough. I returned the mess to JLD Enterprises, from whom I bought it, for replacement with a new upper.
 
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