A 30 luger 1911 barrel, who can do it?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Ron Wood

Rich,
I always enjoy your posts. I think I might be tempted to sacrifice one half of a pair of no longer useful body parts to have your skills and tools. Keep the project photos coming!

Ron -

I didn't intend to highjack Matt's thread...It just happened...

Matt - Even though the barrel is identical to the one already fitted to the Colt Gov't Model, the new barrel will have to be 'fitted'...The locking lugs need to be lined up, the barrel hood needs to be located, the link cutout on the bottom of the barrel (where the takedown lever/slide stop fits) needs to be checked & recut if necessary, the barrel bushing needs to be checked & fitted...

You need the complete package on hand...

In theory, if you had a working 9mm Colt Gov't model and just bored it out and sweated a 7.65 Luger liner in place, it would only need minor tweaking...My way needs major tweaking...

[sheepherder]

Well, finished turning, milling, chambering, and a [very] little polishing, and this is what I have...(first pic)...I don't have any spare links or link pins (or a 9mm magazine), so I ordered those from Numrich today. It still needs a *lot* of hand fitting to this Colt frame/slide...I might just put it on one of my in-the-white 80% M1911A1's...

...BUT...Whilst (cool word!) I was measuring the headspace on my Series 70 Colt Gov't Model 38 Super, I was aghast (aghast I say!!!) to find it was .038"!!! That's thirty-eight thousandths!!! I chamber my barrels at .003" - .004" typically...

The second pic shows a Winchester 38 Super round in the 38 barrel, and a reload/resized 7.65 Luger in my 30 Luger barrel...at .005" headspace...(I was off by a thousandth...second time...have to check where I'm going wrong)...

The 38 Super case measures .900" exactly (I expect that from Winchester) and since the 38 Super indexes on the case mouth, there is no excuse for Colt to have this much headspace...I've fired it with no problems, but this is definately something that quality control at Colt should have caught...I bought it used, so there's no point in trying to get it warranteed, but I'll have to look into a new Series 70 Colt 38 Super barrel...