The barrel and all parts seems fine. The pic from the magazine well the brass seems to be normal. Everything looks correct,but something isn't. I'm sure the weapon was returned because of this and shows that he tried to clear it from marks on the front of the slide. Have no idea what ammo was used. If the armorer who like your self ,is retired after 25 years service, cant figure it out I'm thinking maybe drilling the case with a 1/16th drill bit to try and get the rim to rip off and maybe then the slide would move to field strip it. and like you said beating isn't working. Foxy