Good Evening Gents,
So I got this job in the other day and among the task list was fitting a Bar-Sto 357SIG barrel to the fellow's 40RECON.
Seems a lot of old stock Bar-Sto and Briley tubes have been popping up here and there of late so I had a mind to share this repair so you Gents have a better idea of what's necessary to get one of those un-fit or semi-fit tubes to run right.
The owner did a bit of work fitting the barrel but at some point was making no further progress and it found it's way to my workbench.
Problems... In battery but the slide is well proud of the frame at the rear. Cycling the slide by hand... very sticky/binding feel to open a closed breech.
What we're gonna do here is proceed step by step as if the barrel were completely unmodified.
First we fit the barrel hood or tab to the slide. This is done so the locking lug on the barrel meshes cleanly with the slide's lug when the barrel is cammed upward as the breech closes.
Fitting is done by filing the rear face of the tab here...
Using a 2 cut pillar file cut a little at a time and checking the fit frequently. Once we have the barrel dropping into the slide cleanly with zero binding we're done...With step 1
Here the barrel drops right in and there is 0.0025 clearance between he tab & breechface...
So far, so good, now on to Step 2...
By shortening the barrel hood or tab, we have effectively shortened the chamber. Now we must check the headspace.
Pull out the 357SIG Go & No-Go gauges and check. Here's the Go gauge in the chamber and it's clearly proud of the tab by about 0.050". I'm not even gonna try checking that in the slide, just break out the finish reamer and cut the chamber deeper...
Using a Manson Precision removable pilot reamer lubed liberally with Viper's venom cutting oil. It took a couple cut, clean, gauge, & repeat until the barrel goes into battery cleanly on the "Go" gauge...
Headspace gauge checks good. "Go" gauge chambers fine, "No-Go gauge does not. Step 2 complete.
On to step 3...
In step 3 we're going address that problem of the slide proud of the frame when in battery by fitting the barrel's bottom lug. This pic will give you an idea of what needs doing here. I'm holding the pistol with the slide rear flush to the frame as it should be when in battery but here with the slide stop removed. You can clearly see in there a bunch of barrel meat is in the way of the slide closing up properly...
These next two pics are of a un-molested Bar-Sto 1006 barrel. I'm showing this to illustrate the amount of extra meat on these barrels that permits precise fitting to a particular weapon.
There are two things we need to do here to the 357SIG tube. One is raise, or lower depending on your perspective this flat area so it doesn't bind on the slide stop pin as the barrel cams into battery. We need to keep this flat parallel to the bore axis or slightly taper towards the muzzle
And two, we need to cut this radius lug aft towards the breechface. We just want to move the lug bearing surface rearward without changing the radius and keeping it exactly perpendicular to the bore axis...
After a bit of work with a parallel round file and a 4 cut crossing file, here's what the 357SIG lug looks like...
I smoothed things out a little bit more with a extra fine cratex cylinder, cleaned up and checked the fitment...
That's exactly what we want to see but, unlocking still has a sticky binding feel so on to step 4...
Checking how the barrel feels in the frame with the slide absent, it appears the fit is too tight between the frame's camming lugs.
We apply some blue to both sides of the barrel and once that dries, assemble the gun and cycle the slide several times...
Then pull the barrel out and see what's rubbing and where...
Similar missing dye on both side tells me the barrel is a touch too wide to fit the frame cleanly. Corrected by careful filing with a 2cut narrow pillar file on both sides equally...
No more binding or sticky feel but one more item to tend too...
Step 5...
It's not terribly clear here but if you look close you may note that the feedramp is on top of the magazine tube...
I while back I had a 1006 on the healing bench with a rather botched Bar-Sto fitting that mashed and crimped a magazine tube into the frame. Upon firing as the barrel cammed downward and unlocked it came down onto the front of the magazine tube and rolled/smashed it forward and flat.
Part of the goings on here is the fact that Bar-Sto changed the camming lugs position moving them forward same as was done by S&W with the TSW guns to delay unlocking a bit.
That along with the extra meaty feedramp necessitates a bit more fitting.
Simple matter trim the ramp by about 0.025", just enough to clear the magazine tube and not mash anything. Took care of that with a file and a Ikohe belt sander then gave the ramp a bit of extra polish with a cratex cylinder...
Sorry for the poor focus but you can still make out the magazine tube is now clear of the feedramp.
All back together, lubed and ready to go for a spin
Easy Peasy
Cheers
Bill
So I got this job in the other day and among the task list was fitting a Bar-Sto 357SIG barrel to the fellow's 40RECON.
Seems a lot of old stock Bar-Sto and Briley tubes have been popping up here and there of late so I had a mind to share this repair so you Gents have a better idea of what's necessary to get one of those un-fit or semi-fit tubes to run right.
The owner did a bit of work fitting the barrel but at some point was making no further progress and it found it's way to my workbench.
Problems... In battery but the slide is well proud of the frame at the rear. Cycling the slide by hand... very sticky/binding feel to open a closed breech.
What we're gonna do here is proceed step by step as if the barrel were completely unmodified.
First we fit the barrel hood or tab to the slide. This is done so the locking lug on the barrel meshes cleanly with the slide's lug when the barrel is cammed upward as the breech closes.
Fitting is done by filing the rear face of the tab here...
Using a 2 cut pillar file cut a little at a time and checking the fit frequently. Once we have the barrel dropping into the slide cleanly with zero binding we're done...With step 1
Here the barrel drops right in and there is 0.0025 clearance between he tab & breechface...
So far, so good, now on to Step 2...
By shortening the barrel hood or tab, we have effectively shortened the chamber. Now we must check the headspace.
Pull out the 357SIG Go & No-Go gauges and check. Here's the Go gauge in the chamber and it's clearly proud of the tab by about 0.050". I'm not even gonna try checking that in the slide, just break out the finish reamer and cut the chamber deeper...
Using a Manson Precision removable pilot reamer lubed liberally with Viper's venom cutting oil. It took a couple cut, clean, gauge, & repeat until the barrel goes into battery cleanly on the "Go" gauge...
Headspace gauge checks good. "Go" gauge chambers fine, "No-Go gauge does not. Step 2 complete.
On to step 3...
In step 3 we're going address that problem of the slide proud of the frame when in battery by fitting the barrel's bottom lug. This pic will give you an idea of what needs doing here. I'm holding the pistol with the slide rear flush to the frame as it should be when in battery but here with the slide stop removed. You can clearly see in there a bunch of barrel meat is in the way of the slide closing up properly...
These next two pics are of a un-molested Bar-Sto 1006 barrel. I'm showing this to illustrate the amount of extra meat on these barrels that permits precise fitting to a particular weapon.
There are two things we need to do here to the 357SIG tube. One is raise, or lower depending on your perspective this flat area so it doesn't bind on the slide stop pin as the barrel cams into battery. We need to keep this flat parallel to the bore axis or slightly taper towards the muzzle
And two, we need to cut this radius lug aft towards the breechface. We just want to move the lug bearing surface rearward without changing the radius and keeping it exactly perpendicular to the bore axis...
After a bit of work with a parallel round file and a 4 cut crossing file, here's what the 357SIG lug looks like...
I smoothed things out a little bit more with a extra fine cratex cylinder, cleaned up and checked the fitment...
That's exactly what we want to see but, unlocking still has a sticky binding feel so on to step 4...
Checking how the barrel feels in the frame with the slide absent, it appears the fit is too tight between the frame's camming lugs.
We apply some blue to both sides of the barrel and once that dries, assemble the gun and cycle the slide several times...
Then pull the barrel out and see what's rubbing and where...
Similar missing dye on both side tells me the barrel is a touch too wide to fit the frame cleanly. Corrected by careful filing with a 2cut narrow pillar file on both sides equally...
No more binding or sticky feel but one more item to tend too...
Step 5...
It's not terribly clear here but if you look close you may note that the feedramp is on top of the magazine tube...
I while back I had a 1006 on the healing bench with a rather botched Bar-Sto fitting that mashed and crimped a magazine tube into the frame. Upon firing as the barrel cammed downward and unlocked it came down onto the front of the magazine tube and rolled/smashed it forward and flat.
Part of the goings on here is the fact that Bar-Sto changed the camming lugs position moving them forward same as was done by S&W with the TSW guns to delay unlocking a bit.
That along with the extra meaty feedramp necessitates a bit more fitting.
Simple matter trim the ramp by about 0.025", just enough to clear the magazine tube and not mash anything. Took care of that with a file and a Ikohe belt sander then gave the ramp a bit of extra polish with a cratex cylinder...
Sorry for the poor focus but you can still make out the magazine tube is now clear of the feedramp.
All back together, lubed and ready to go for a spin
Easy Peasy
Cheers
Bill
Last edited:
), but bottle neck cartridges conjure up rifle-like apparitions in my mind. 
