Montana, how do you check the fit between the hood and the slide? Other than the obvious method of just pushing on it to see if it locks up tight.
On anything other than match grade gun, I like to see around .005-.008" clearance around all the rear of the tang & the non-port side & and a couple more on the port side & see that there is no battering on the barrel face from the slide.
(With a match grade gun you would have started with an oversize tang & would have fitted it a little closer especially on the rear surface)
I also make sure that the underside of the tang is chamfered & polished so as not to impede a round going into the chamber.
With today's better commercial guns, the tang fit is rarely bad enough to be an issue.
Another area that usually needs some attention & can impact the barrel/slide returning to battery, especially on a new gun,is the corners of the locking lugs in the slide & on the barrel.
Assuming that the basic mating of the lugs allow good lockup, I always chamfer the back edges of the lug recess on the slide & the front of the lugs on the barrel.......doing this will allow the barrel to both unlock & return to battery easier.
This is accomplished with a file on the barrel lugs then polishing, & with a scraper on the slide.
The absolute max chamfer is 25% of the lug surface & usually about 15% is plenty sufficient.
MM
