Monday, February 23, 2009

More Frame Battering?

I noticed this when I was cleaning the Kimber with the aluminum frame this evening. Look at the worn area on the frame, just below the barrel ramp. It looks like something is peening it pretty bad. I put another 100 rounds through it today, Winchester 230-gr JHP, with seven different magazines (3 Wilson 47s, a Novak, a Pro-Mag, the original Kimber, and a Les Baer) and only the Kimber and Novak had metal followers; the other five had plastic followers. So what's causing this wear?Below on the left is the gun on Feb 1, and on the right is the gun today, with 720 rounds through it.
I blogged about this three weeks ago, with only 100 rds through the gun.

Edited to add: the Witness with the 38-Super upper ran faultlessly today and sent 150 rounds downrange without a complaint. The Springfield nine had half a dozen failures to extract; tough to clear, 'cause I had to lock the slide back, drop the mag, rack the slide to eject the spent shell, lock the slide back again, insert the mag and release the slide to chamber the next round. Oh, well. Malf-drills are part of it, too.
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6 comments:

  1. drjimFebruary 23, 2009 at 11:13 PM

    Feeding hollow points through it by any chance? I seem to remember a thread over at 1911.org that showed a Kimber doing this.

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  2. Turk TuronFebruary 23, 2009 at 11:17 PM

    Yup, JHPs. That's all that I have been able to find on the shelves.

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  3. drjimFebruary 23, 2009 at 11:24 PM

    If you bought it new, get a hold of Dennis at Kimber and send him the pictures. I think the consensus was that it should NOT do this. Maybe that part of the ramp didn't get heat-treated/anodized properly.
    I'll see if I can find the post over at 1911.org

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  4. drjimFebruary 23, 2009 at 11:35 PM

    All I could find was that certain magazines with a "Devel" type follower could cause the ramp to get dinged up.
    What mags are you using?

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  5. Turk TuronFebruary 24, 2009 at 12:02 AM

    I use the original Kimber mag, plus three Wilson 47s with plastic followers, a Les Baer that looks like a clone of the Wilsons (or vice-versa?), a Novak with a metal follower and a Pro-Mag with a plastic follower. I've put aside a Chip McCormick mag and a Wilson with a metal follower because the follower can shift too far forward. All seven of the mags I used today either have a "skirted" metal follower, or a plastic follower.

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  6. drjimFebruary 24, 2009 at 12:18 AM

    I'd guess that would rule out the mags....

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