tndrfttom
Member
This post doesn’t fit neatly in the “Reloading”, ‘smithing, or “competition” categories so I figured I’d drop this “1911 barrel failure” story here for anyone who is interested. I’ve seen several bulged barrels from stuck bullets and one that the chamber/hood area blew out due to an excessive load but nothing like the failure shown in the photos below.
The barrel is from an AMT Hardballer Longslide (insert your favorite AMT joke here) that had been shot almost weekly in local bowling pin matches for 5 years or so. The reloads were, admittedly, stiff with a 200 grain H&G SWC over a max load (per the Lyman Manual) of Bullseye.
It’s obvious from the photos that this is a two-piece barrel with the chamber area and link lug area silver soldered to the back of the barrel. The longitudinal crack goes underneath the reinforced area and the end of the crack is barely visible on the ramp area of the chamber. When the split opened, the bullet left the barrel, the report was not as loud as normal and smoke rolled out of every opening in the pistol. Other than the barrel failure nothing else was damaged; also, there were no injuries.
The barrel is from an AMT Hardballer Longslide (insert your favorite AMT joke here) that had been shot almost weekly in local bowling pin matches for 5 years or so. The reloads were, admittedly, stiff with a 200 grain H&G SWC over a max load (per the Lyman Manual) of Bullseye.
It’s obvious from the photos that this is a two-piece barrel with the chamber area and link lug area silver soldered to the back of the barrel. The longitudinal crack goes underneath the reinforced area and the end of the crack is barely visible on the ramp area of the chamber. When the split opened, the bullet left the barrel, the report was not as loud as normal and smoke rolled out of every opening in the pistol. Other than the barrel failure nothing else was damaged; also, there were no injuries.
