Thanks Larry, my family always says if we didn't have bad luck we'd have none at all. I just keep reminding myself that these are tools that can be repaired and replaced. My health and body parts are a much higher concern so its nice to see that this hunk of steel held up no matter what the cause of the failure.

Bill and the rest of the team, my research shows that the barrel length is 4.25 inches. Unfortunately, this barrel is approx a quarter inch longer than a standard 4006 barrel so I don't believe there is a drop in replacement as there was no 4506 version (long slide) of the 4006 except for performance center guns like mine.

TTSH, thank you for the kind words. As a fellow collector I'm sure you can empathize with my situation. Its not even about the money I paid for it.. its the fact that its such a rare and awesome pistol. It's my #1 priority to get this gun back to as close to original condition as possible, if possible.

I will not be shooting this gun again unless I find a custom barrel maker that can fabricate what I need. After chatting with a few people, I believe I'll be hitting desd ends with Smith and Wesson as well as Federal. I think my only option is to get this gun repaired at my expense. My intent is to take it to a local gunsmith to have the gun disassembled and evaluated for root cause as well as salvage-ability. If it turns out that only the barrel needs replacing, I will work with the gunsmith to find a barrel maker and be willing to pay top dollar for a precision made part. Once the barrel is made, with proper threads for the compensator, I'll have the gunsmith assemble the pistol back together and test for function. So far I've compiled 3 options for this barrel work.(Barsto, Paul at Pistol Dynamics - skeptical, Mcgowens Precision) I'll most likely have Frank Glenn do the gunsmith work if he's willing to.

SVT28