Frank34 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 So STI replaced the slide on my 40 single stack after it broke. Now when I load it I could see the brass between the breech face and the extractor side of the barrel hood. This was definitely not like this when sent it to them. I fired a couple hundred rounds through the gun and didn't have any problems but I don't know about this gap. Is this safe. I know I wouldn't buy a gun like this but now I have one. Let me know what you think. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 OK in what sense? Looks like they took a slide out of the reject bin. It's probably safe, unless you carry it, and suit wool or dust gets in there. Not exactly a slick looking item there. I would send it back to STI and ask them to put a slide on with a better cut. Just looks sloppy. Heres my carry gun. Use it once in a while for SS. Bullet in chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWallace Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I have a 2011 .40 with the same thing. I was told that was the chamber indicator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiker88 Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Just checked my Trojan .40 and took a pic (see attached) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiker88 Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Ooops...pic file is too big to attach to my post. It does look like your pic with some brass showing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nugget Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I have a 2011 .40 with the same thing. I was told that was the chamber indicator It is. The brass is fully supported and safe. All of my sti barrels have this feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank34 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 I checked the gun safe and all my STIs are like this so I guess I'm ok. All my 45 1911s have no gap between the barrel and slide. Maybe it is a loaded chamber indicator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bountyhunter Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 (edited) Wonder why the barrel looks like it has acne? Pretty rough looking. Edited June 24, 2015 by bountyhunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Service Desk Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Wonder why the barrel looks like it has acne? Pretty rough looking.I think it is just oil..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdwardBlake Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 My DVC 40 has the same cut. Chamber indicator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank34 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 Yeah that's just oil from a fresh cleaning. No issues with the barrel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheers623 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 (edited) Hope my post sheds some light. This is not a defect, there are two design issues at play here. First, STI machines their slides with very large ejection ports to aid in allowing the brass to clear the port without hitting the inside of the slide in that area. If you look at older vintage 1911s you'll notice that the ejection port is quite a bit smaller and was one of the first areas to be modified by gunsmiths when building custom 1911s...back in the day. Now every manufacturer designs their slides with much larger openings. STI just happens to open theirs up lower than some others in this area. Because they make pistols in so many different calibers and many have a C-more red dot sight sitting right on top of the port, they really want to give as much room for the cartridge ejection pattern as possible. The second issue at play here is the barrel. Another reason you're seeing brass is because STI machines a relief cut on the right side of the chamber to give ample clearance for the nose of the extractor. STI has gone thru a few different designs with their extractors and all of the various other manufacturers all have a slightly different amount of material or different profile on the nose of the extractor. In some cases the nose will be too long and contact the side of the barrel at the right side of the chamber when a round is chambered. This can keep the slide from going fully into battery at worst, and batter the nose of the ejector and side of the barrel at least. By making this relief cut on the side of the barrel, it eliminates the need to file the nose of an extractor to clear this area. It also can serve as a handy loaded chamber indicator. I've noticed that this seems to be more of an issue with fit on .40 caliber pistols than others for some reason. Most barrel manufacturers do some kind of relief cut in this area, it just depends on how they do it. As an example, on all of my STI pistols that have STI barrels with this relief cut, I can just fit and tune an extractor and never worry about this area needing to be fitted. However, one pistol I have with a KKM barrel and almost no relief cut needs to have every extractor I tune for it filed down quite a bit on the nose to allow the gun to close up and go into battery. It doesn't matter what extractor I use in that gun, they all need to be filed down. I've tried STI, Ed Brown, Wilson, and Aftec and the nose of all of them contact the KKM barrel because KKM does this really shallow, almost dimple-like cut out. I suppose I could have it machined out but just decided to fit a few spare ejectors to that barrel/slide combo and leave it alone. Anyway, I hope that gives you more info than you ever wanted...and helps. Cheers623 DVC Edited June 25, 2015 by cheers623 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank34 Posted June 25, 2015 Author Share Posted June 25, 2015 Thanks for the info. Totally makes sense. I'm glad I don't have anything to worry about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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