Barrel wear/scratches from slide (is this normal)

mdyorke · Feb 20, 2015

I recently purchases the M&P Shield 40 cal and have shot about 100 through it. When I was cleaning it I noticed that the top of the barrel has some wear (pics attached) and was wondering if this was normal. It looks like it might be friction from the slide.

Let me know your thoughts and thanks in advanced for your help.

Autococker07 · Feb 20, 2015

yup, perfectly normal... that breechblock is designed to help the slide glide inot lock when the pistol reloads.

Bkreutz · Feb 20, 2015

That seems like a lot of wear for 100 rounds. Have you lubricated the pistol like the manual says?

mdyorke · Feb 20, 2015

Yea, I did everything stated in the manual. I contacted S&W to see what they would say but they haven't gotten back to me yet. Thanks for the help!

linkmodo · Feb 20, 2015

Mine is pretty much like that after 100 rounds, and maybe 200-300 slide serrations without firing

Bkreutz · Feb 20, 2015

Here's one of my barrels at about 20K rounds, there is wear but one would expect that at that round count. 100 rounds, not so much. It really won't hurt anything, the stainless will just get shiny in that spot. Maybe Smith changed their coating process??

marine6680 · Feb 21, 2015

The lubrication instructions in the manual is really a minimum requirement to keep the pistol functioning. The barrel cam surface isn't even listed as a lube point, and it definitely is one.

The manual lubrication is for when it will be carried a lot, but shot little... so less lube helps keep down lint and dust sticking.

Now that you have shot the gun, it will tell you where it needs lubrication the most, by giving you shiny spots like that, those spots tell you that area needs lube.

boomerguy49 · Jan 28, 2017

Bkreutz said:
Here's one of my barrels at about 20K rounds, there is wear but one would expect that at that round count. 100 rounds, not so much. It really won't hurt anything, the stainless will just get shiny in that spot. Maybe Smith changed their coating process??

That looks different from the original post. There appears to be some "crunching" on the edge of the barrel hood just like on my 9c which was caused by "burrs" on the inside edge of the slide that touches it. I could feel the "burrs" with my finger and the "crunching" with my fingernail. No amount of lube would prevent this. I used a very fine file and a very fine sharpening stone to smooth the edges of each until they were smooth again. In the end, I only have a very fine silver line that you can't notice unless you look for it. My opinion is the cutting tool used on the slide opening caused this. My Glock 17 has no mark of any kind of abrasion or rubbing on the slide or the barrel hood. S&W needs better quality control for the manufacturing process. While it doesn't hurt the performance of the pistol, it lowers my confidence in them. Before I ever buy another new pistol, I will definitely do more research on how well they wear.

Com 45acp · Jan 28, 2017

Wow a thread two years old brought back.

boomerguy49 · Jan 28, 2017

Com 45acp said:
Wow a thread two years old brought back.

There is a new thread with the same type of problem on current M&P's which led me to this one. Since this problem is continuing, I thought it was worth bringing attention to it. My M&P 9c was made last year with the same problem. Evidently, this isn't a problem worth fixing by S&W.
Just because a thread is two years old, doesn't mean that it isn't worthwhile. I'm fairly new to this forum so every thread in it is new to me.

Barrel wear/scratches from slide (is this normal)

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