Question on fitting a 3913LS barrel

[DaveCA]

Hello all, new to the forum here.

I recently purchased a Safe Queen Lady Smith for my wife that was on consignment. She loves the gun, and I've put a reduced power hammer spring to help with the stiff first trigger pull since she has arthritis. She loves the way it shoots.
I went to reload some of my 9mm brass, and I found that the previous owner had some barrel polishing done on this gun, and who ever did it went up the ramp too far and put a divot on the top of the chamber. The gunsmith says it is still safe to use, but it puts a bump on the empty brass cases and they do not size right now, they develop kind of a folded crease in them.
I took it to the service center to have a new barrel put on, and after 3 months it was still back ordered from Smith and Wesson with no due date.
Anyway, I was able to order the proper barrel from Numrich and it was here in a few days. Since the gun does not seem to have any visible wear or peening, it looks like all I all I needed to do was take off a few thousandths off the barrel hood to get it to drop in.
And before anyone asks, no, I’m not a gunsmith, but I play one on TV :-) . Actually I’m pretty good at working on my guns, and I’ll take them in to a pro when I think I’m getting in too deep. The problem is finding a decent gunsmith close by, the service center is about a 2 hour drive for me and this doesn’t seem to be that big a job.
So I shortened the hood a file stroke at a time and used steel bluing to check where it was contacting the breech face. I think it’s fitting very well now, it drops in easily to the slide and has no wiggle front to back. The original barrel had just a bit of play that way. So I’ve run snap caps and hollow points by hand and it feeds fine. The only thing is that now it seems a little tight right at the point where the barrel drops down as you rack the slide. It is almost like a little pop sound/feel when I run the slide slowly. It also seems to catch just a bit when I pull the slide back to put the slide stop back in. Once the slide stop is in that problem goes away. I don’t notice any of this with the spring removed. To be honest, I don’t think I would have even noticed this if I didn’t have the old barrel to compare to and I wasn’t so cautious.
So my question to anyone with experience with fitting barrels, am I good to go, or should I take just a bit more off the hood to loosen up that lockup? Or maybe there is something else that needs to be checked (be nice)?

Thanks,
Dave

[scooter123]

IMO you are good to go. Both my Sig P239 and P229 had the barrel hood fitted snuggly enough that a light tap with a brass rod was required to pop the barrel free of the slide to clean it. As you might imagine they also had a slight "hitch" if you cycled the slide by hand. Both pistols now run smoothly and there is zero indication of any excess wear.

[DaveCA]

Thanks. A "hitch" is a perfect description of what I'm feeling. I've put some gun grease on it and racked the slide about a hundred times and it seems to be smoothing out.

[JohnHL]

DaveCA,
Fastbolt posted an excellent description of the barrel fitting process on this forum and possibly you can find it with the search function.
Recalling the salient points (and I am not a gunsmith or armorer, just an enthusiastic hobbiest, like yourself):
Turn the slide upside down and insert the barrel. Seat it with a PLASTIC hammer if need be.
Turn the slide right side up. If the barrel falls out of battery by gravity, you are OK.
If the barrel doesn't fall out, file the barrel hood tab, one stroke at a time, like you said, until you have a tab to breech face clearance of .007".
This is what I recall. Double check on that clearance spec. but it sounds like you're OK.
John

[DaveCA]

I found that post from 2010, it was " 3rd Generation Replacement Barrels". That Fastbolt has a ton ton of good info in his posts! Over 1800 of them, I think I've got some reading to do. But it does look like I'm set up right, so now to get some range time in.
Dave

[armorer951]

According to my manual, the barrel should be fit as you described in your post, keeping the end of the tab square with the breechface. The finished gauge between the tab and the breechface should not exceed, or close on a .006 gauge. My notes also say the top (rounded) edge of the tab should be lightly stoned or "crowned" after fitting to remove the sharp edge, if necessary. Both of my factory fitted barrels will fully close on a .002 gauge, but not on the .004.

[DaveCA]

Thanks armorer951. Stoning the top sounds like a good idea, I'll do that before I go to the range.
I recently rediscovered steel marking blue dye. That stuff is great for fitting parts and finding where parts are binding. I was using a sharpie for that, but this blue dye goes on evenly and dries quickly. For the barrel I would press it into place and where the blue was worn off was the high spot I had to file. When I was done the barrel tab was just about a perfect flush fit against the breech face. The stuff I use is made by Dykem.