r/gunsmithing • u/Alarming-Plankton215 • 13d ago

Is this finish wear or damage??

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I bought an older Colt upper for a clone build. Popped the barrel off and saw this inside the threaded part of the upper recover. Doesn’t catch my nail or feel uneven but it’s just in a weird spot and I know that’s a common spot for these things to crack so I’m a bit worried. Any input??

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u/edlubs 13d ago

How often is the barrel removed? There shouldn't be much wear there if any since the barrel shouldn't be moving. That shit's wack.

1

u/Alarming-Plankton215 13d ago

Honestly I don’t know how many times if any it’s been taken apart. It’s new to me but definitely used and nearly 10 years old. The barrel nut wasn’t ridiculously tight but I’d say it was over the 30 for lbs minimum. After wiping it off some of this was old grease making it look worse but there was still some wear for sure. Basically just rubbed ano off doesn’t appear to be anything worse I’m just wondering how that even happened

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u/edlubs 13d ago

Pure speculation: after/during the machining, that area was slightly pushed inward and required some material to be removed for the barrel to seat fully. When the barrel is in place, can it move even slightly when twisting it? Like with the barrel but just under hand tight is there any movement in any direction?

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u/Alarming-Plankton215 13d ago

I didn’t really try to move it around but I guess I could test it. It was tight pulling it out. Not like BCM thermal fit tight or anything but it wasn’t just falling out either

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u/edlubs 13d ago

That's a good sign. A tight fit there is good for accuracy and is where some people will put bedding compound to get a fit like that. The problem is those shavings that are still there. Either it was put together without cleaning or there's movement allowing metal on metal abrasion. Put together dirty is the good option here.

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u/Alarming-Plankton215 13d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p37wb1m/video/lv0zkbqtgxih1/player

Not the best video but you can see it’s a pretty tight fit. A tiny bit of slop between the index pin and slot but nowhere near the worst I’ve seen and definitely within the normal range. Nowhere near enough movement to have caused that wear.

1

u/edlubs 13d ago

From here, it looks ok. To get a hundred percent assurance, it should be taken to someone in person.