Found two tiny chips in my slide :-(

[Skydiver]

As I was cleaning my Limited for tomorrow's match, I noticed two chips underneath my slide where the forward most barrel lug meets with the corresponding recess in the slide. They aren't very big, when I first saw them, I thought that they were just bits of unburnt gunpowder, but when the dental pick went into the them it was obvious that they were chips. They are right at the corner of the "overhang" at the 12 o'clock position. I couldn't find any corresponding scratchs or marks on the barrel lugs relative to where the chips were to indicate any defects on the barrel causing the chipping.

I'll post a picture the next time I have a camera handy.

What caused them? Is my gun over sprung that when the barrel lugs going back into the recesses in the slide is impacting and caused the chips? I'm using Hennings 10.75 lbs spring and shooting 173 PF loads.

Should I try to repair the chips? What can I do to repair them?

[CHA-LEE]

This "lug chipping" is usually due to the barrel lugs getting beat up and start catching on the slide lugs as the barrel unlocks and drops down. This can also be due to the slide spring being too worn out and it does not keep the chamber locked up solidly as the shot fires. But this can usually be seen in swipe marks on the primer hits because the chamber is unlocking and dropping down while the firing pin is still forward during the strike.

The first thing you should look at are the lugs on the barrel. The leading edges of the lugs should have a perfect 90 degree angle on them without any ridges or edges. If the barrel lugs have any strange angles you can stone them so the leading edges are not raised higher than the rest of the lug. This will keep the chipping of the slide lugs from getting worse.

As far as fixing the chipped lugs in the slide, you might be able to get a gunsmith to weld in the chips then machine the lugs to the proper height, but that would probably cost you more than just getting a replacement top end. If it makes you feel any better, I have a slide with chipped lugs and it shoots fine with over 20,000 rounds through it after I noticed the chipping. I just keep an eye on the barrel lugs to make sure that the leading edges of the lugs don't get beat up. Mine started chipping when I was experimenting with cutting coils off recoil springs and had a setup that had really weak chamber lockup.

Edited October 23, 2011 by CHA-LEE