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My Slide Cracked!?!


Ssanders224

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I don't think the finish had anything to do with the crack or crack propagation

There has to be something impacting the slide to cause it to crack in the first place, as there isn't enough of a jerk from normal cycling to cause that type of material fatigue. My money is on that the guide rod channel is striking the frame somewhere just in front of the barrel lug channel. Can you post a picture of the top of your frame?

Would a shokbuff or something similar (aluminum buffs) have prevented the slide cracking though? To me it sounds logical for the shok buff to get really battered before anything else goes. That is why I have one always on my pistol

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Two different slides, two different builders. You need to start looking at the areas that they have in common. Ammo, spring weights...

It was the same Gunsmith.

That being the case I'm willing to bet that is where the problem is.

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What ammo did you run through the Caspian top end? If you reload , have you chrono'd it? Do you chamber check the rounds? Did you notice any other places that seemed affected ? Any bulge in the chamber?

I run my reloads. They are consistant at 168 PF. Yes, I chamber check, and never had a problem with my reloads. I'm pretty darn anal about them.

How is the slide finished? Blued, Hard chrome, etc.???

Blued.

I don't think the finish had anything to do with the crack or crack propagation

There has to be something impacting the slide to cause it to crack in the first place, as there isn't enough of a jerk from normal cycling to cause that type of material fatigue. My money is on that the guide rod channel is striking the frame somewhere just in front of the barrel lug channel. Can you post a picture of the top of your frame?

There are no unordinary marks on the frame or slide. No evidence of odd impacts or wear. Everything seems to be fit correctly.

I shot the gun in a match Sunday, and nothing changed. I'm going to keep an eye on it, and continue shooting the gun.

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What ammo did you run through the Caspian top end? If you reload , have you chrono'd it? Do you chamber check the rounds? Did you notice any other places that seemed affected ? Any bulge in the chamber?

I run my reloads. They are consistant at 168 PF. Yes, I chamber check, and never had a problem with my reloads. I'm pretty darn anal about them.

How is the slide finished? Blued, Hard chrome, etc.???

Blued.

I don't think the finish had anything to do with the crack or crack propagation

There has to be something impacting the slide to cause it to crack in the first place, as there isn't enough of a jerk from normal cycling to cause that type of material fatigue. My money is on that the guide rod channel is striking the frame somewhere just in front of the barrel lug channel. Can you post a picture of the top of your frame?

There are no unordinary marks on the frame or slide. No evidence of odd impacts or wear. Everything seems to be fit correctly.

I shot the gun in a match Sunday, and nothing changed. I'm going to keep an eye on it, and continue shooting the gun.

If that is the case, I would see if you can have someone just weld the crack up and refinish the slide....

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I had an open gun that was slightly shortened and when I used an 8 lb recoil spring everything was fine. When I went to a 9lb spring I noticed that the reverse plug was getting battered and it turned out that the the spring was stacking up and going 'solid' due to the extra width. (http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=160859&hl=+reverse%20+plug#entry1795044) I am sure that if I had continued to shoot it that way I would have eventually cracked the slide.

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I had an open gun that was slightly shortened and when I used an 8 lb recoil spring everything was fine. When I went to a 9lb spring I noticed that the reverse plug was getting battered and it turned out that the the spring was stacking up and going 'solid' due to the extra width. (http://www.brianenos...ug#entry1795044) I am sure that if I had continued to shoot it that way I would have eventually cracked the slide.

I never thought of the huge impact spring length has.

From reading the thread, the reverse plug should actually touch the head of the guide rod when fully compressed, otherwise this results in the reverse plug getting battered.

Thanks for the heads up.

I now wonder why these spring manufacturers just dont then make the correct recoil spring length in the first place for a 5 inch pistol...

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6 weeks ago my #2 backup gun slide cracked, look above for the post, Wednesday night while cleaning backup #1, I noticed that it cracked at the front of the breach opening, this is also an STI Slide. This gun was run with a shockbuff probably has 50K rounds or more on it. My #1 has a caspian slice, no cracks yet, however, the cone on the cone comp is splitting. I have a call in to sti.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Definitely , SVI is only solutions and best customer service !!!

I got set straight on that point last Sunday at a match, fellow shooter has been shooting two open guns since the 1980's no cracks and he is shooting @190pf in 38S, he says Les Bear is the best slide and seems to have the proof in hand! Or is it they don't make them like the use to?

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I have seen all brands of slides cracked, STI and Les Baer lead in the numbers. In a lot of cases the slides aren't lightened, standard profile with sight cuts and standard cocking serrations.

Rich

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Looks to me like a poor execution of the design, inadequate radius (as referenced above) and possibly too-hard surface hardening IF that was even done.

Plus I suspect that even with a reasonable spring weight, the lightening cuts speed up slide velocity to make it all worse.

Me, I'd totally trust it with a v-groove and weld, IF the rod is appropriate steel AND the radius is proper AND proper radius is added to the other side. But that would probably cost almost as much by the time it's re-machined to proper specs.

IIRC, the M3 submachine gun receiver needed an added/increased radius to avoid cracking. So did the original M1 Garand op rod.

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