unusual 1911 barrel feature?

J

Jeff Loveless

New member
I feel silly asking this. I've owned quite a few 1911's over the years and handled and shot many others. Right now I have a Colt Gunsite Pistol that has a barrel like none I've seen. Over the last 2 years I've shown this barrel to folks and asked supposedly knowledgable people about it with no luck. Plus my digital camera won't take an extreme closeup, so I'll try to describe it...

The rear of the barrel itself, at the feed ramp, is polished and basically looks like any other factory barrel except that it has a rounded groove or trough cut into it to facilitate better bullet feeding, I guess. It looks like a chain saw file (or other round file) was used to hone out a narrow groove. Now this is a new pistol - no work has been done to it. My dealer/gunsmith ordered it and never touched it. It feeds fine. I've since asked him about it and he just shook his head.

I'm curious why this is here. Is it an 'improvement', a discontinued practice, a feature from the 'old' days, or what? It works, but I have never seen it on any other 1911 barrels, ever. And no one I've talked to yet has either. Any help?
 
Factory standard.
Colt redesigned the barrel ramp to handle the many different nose shapes now available. I don't know if they are still doing it, we don't see many new Colts in our small market, but it is or has been a standard on .45 ACPs of recent manufacture.
I don't think Dave likes it, though
 
Do you mean like the one on the right? These are a couple of old take-offs. Thought a pic might help.

19416603.jpg
 
Bill Z,
That's about it. If anything, mine is more pronounced. Your pic looks like mine might after a million rounds. Thanks for the info folks - what's wrong about this feature Dave? That for nearly a hundred years it wasn't needed? ;-)

jeff
 
barrel

Dear BILL Z:
I've NEVER seen one like that! Where have I been? Was that a factory modification? I've never seen one like that - learned something :)
 
Harry, I wouldn't call it a factory modification, it was just par for the course from the factory for a while, it's certainly not something I would do or noone I know would do, not on purpose anyways. I don't think they are doing it anymore, but am not sure. Both of those barrels were officer size by the way.

Bill
 
Amother brilliant idea from The Colt Man. They say it works. I have one like it in the spare parts box. I like the one on the left because I have done that type for a very long time. I know they work.
 
I have one of the notched barrels on a Gold Cup Trophy and I have had no issues at all with it. Don't know if it helps or hurts really. Looks like its a cheap mod to help in feeding LSWC's, but I have purchased a combat commander and gov't model without this barrel type and they needed nothing to feed the exact same handload. In fact, none of these 3 pistols has choked on anything I have fed them since new. yip-eee!
 
I think it's been the standard on Colt .45 barrels for over five years (my circa '98 M1991A1 had a barrel like that); or, maybe it was standard for over five years, and they're not doing it anymore? I don't know who designed it, but it seems to work.
 
That type throat was designed by JMB way back when. That is the type we have been re-throating for ever. I think it's ugly, but I am sure it works as it has for 94 years.
 
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