Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns I don't normally borescope my pistols .....

I was out shooting my RIA 1911 45 that I've had for over a decade, and has gone through several thousand rounds. Shooting lead semi-wadcutters, I had a first, a round with no powder. I could tell right away something was up and sure enough the primer pushed the bullet just far enough into the barrel that I was done for the day. When I got home I used a dowel to tap the bullet out and took the opportunity to clean it up as well. When I was done cleaning, I figured I'd scope the barrel so see if the squib did any obvious damage. I was amazed to find these radial marks down the entire barrel, and some that looked pretty deep. I guess it's time for a new barrel.

Has the accuracy degraded?

That barrel interior looks pretty typical for an older RIA 1911. While such radial tool marks don’t do much to inspire confidence, they have not proved to be significantly detrimental to performance, as it seems you’ve learned over the years you’ve had the pistol and the thousands of rounds you’ve fired through it. However, with newer equipment and tooling, the interior quality of RIA’s barrels has been improved since then. If you’re so inclined, you could contact the head guy at RIA Customer Service (louarmscor.com) to inquire whether you might be able to acquire a new barrel at no cost under the RIA Limited Lifetime Warranty or, if not, maybe get a price reduction to have a new barrel expertly fitted to your pistol by one of RIA’s experienced gunsmiths. If you ask real nice, you can count on getting one of three answers: Yes, no, or hell no. But, I’m thinking you’ll likely be pleased.

With a $3-400 MSRP on a 1911, it is never good to look too close at any part(s) of that gun. If it goes bang, get happy. There is no free lunch.

How does it shoot? Is it still shooting well? Is it leading pretty bad?

If it shoots well, still, and isn't leading much, who cares much about what it looks like thru a borescope? Let the results guide you, not appearances.

If it bugs you really badly, do as exchipy suggests, or buy an aftermarket and have it fit up. Even then, it might not shoot as well as the current, unappealing in appearance, pipe.

When I was competing regularly, I ran nearly 100K rounds of cast bullets thru two or three different barrels, with no discernible wear ( I was swapping from one compensated barrel to another, and back to the original factory barrel) and none of them showed any signs of wear. (Colt, Wilson, Centaur Systems). When I sold the pistol, it shot better than it did when brand new, though it DID have a hard-fit match bushing. I'm now of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" bunch, though I used to experiment a lot with various stuff to enhance my IPSC scores.

Take a look at all your barrels. You’ll see [bleep] and wonder how some guns even hits the broad side of a barn. But they are accurate.

Using a light and a magnifying glass, I can see tool marks in the factory barrel of my pre 64' model 70 Winchester. It's very accurate, and I'd not even consider re-barelling it.

I have a Colt Series 80 made when quality was supposedly spotty at the livery. It has the nicest looking rifling I've ever seen, and delivers what I consider as match grade accuracy with cast lead target loads.

Go figure?

Bore scopes and chronographs have broke a lot of hearts.

It’s twoo, it’s twoo. 😁

Those marks have been there since the gun was new.