Cracked Slide

[Steve4102]

I just picked up my 2nd Witness. This one is a 40 S&W Compact 2005. Took it out for a test drive today with a few different kinds of ammo, Had some cheap Blazer Aluminium, Winchester WW and Blazer Brass. It had a few feeding problems at first, but after about 50 rounds it cleared up and shot great. After a few more boxes of ammo it started to through fliers and the accuracy was gone. Took it apart for inspection and found the slide had cracked about 1 1/2 inches from the muzzle, the recoil spring is all bent and mangled and the barrel has a deep gouge or grove just under the locking lugs.

I have read that some of the older Witnesses had problems with the slides cracking, but I thought that issue was resolved. Is this still a problem with the 40 S&W Compact or did I just get a lemon?

Thanks

Steve

[Nealio]

It almost sounds like you had too soft and too long of a recoil spring. This could cause the coils to bind up which then would shock load the slide (same as the slide hitting the frame). Since it was a compact someone could have put a full length spring in it.

As I posted before, the only instances I have heard of a slide cracking were when the slide was hitting the frame due to the recoil spring being too soft. If you were getting coil binding on the recoil spring, this would have the same effect.

- Nealio