Les baer Slide

zzcutter · Dec 29, 2013

Hello all,

I have an inquiry to engrave a Les Baer 1911 slide. I did a little research and found out they harden them to 40 rc. Does anybody have any experience with these slides?

Thanks, ZZ

Glenn · Dec 30, 2013

It will be faster and less painful to put you finger in your shop vise and tighten!! 40 rockwell is very hard even carbide is challenged when used in a lathe.

Beladran · Dec 30, 2013

you could gut the slide and anneal it.... If its just going to be a show and tell pistol I wouldnt even worry about heat treating again.
you know early 1911 slides wasnt even heat treated. It wasnt untill the 40's that they started to even do a little heat treat and that was on the front around the barrel bushing and around the slide release. (if i remember right)

Southern Custom · Dec 30, 2013

The stainless slides are 416 which is not bad. No experience with the carbon steel slides.
Layne

monk · Dec 30, 2013

i don't know such a popular caliber. what if sometime later someone decided to take it out of the display case and try shooting it ? the 45 is low pressure, but in the annealed state, the slide might become damaged. if it's heat treated, i would do so after the job was done-- just to be safe.

scott99 · Dec 30, 2013

Hi, here I go again. ALL COLT PARTS ARE HEAT TREATED !!!!! IF YOU SHOOT OR SOMEONE ELSE SHOOTS A COLT 45 AUTO WITH AN ANNEALED SLIDE IT CAN BLOW BACK OFF THE GUN AND STRIKE THE SHOOTER IN THE FACE. This goes double for a race gun like a Les Baer.

Why do you think they heat treat parts in the first place? The simple fact is they do it to provide the most strength from the steel so it can withstand the tremendous pressure when fired. I know that some guns are engraved with out retreating, because they are soft enough to do so. ALTERING THE HEAT TREATMENT OF A GUN IS VERY DANGEROUS !!!!!!!

I had a freind who was a custom reloader,very careful very well educated, he had a large sign in his shop above his work area it said REMEMBER YOU ARE DEALING WITH PRESSURES THAT CAN BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF!!! It was a very large sign.

I am not trying to ruffle anyones feathers, please do not take offence. If you don't believe me call the maker and find out what they think of altering heat treatment. If nothing else it will end any warrenty the gun has.

Please look into this a bit more, I know you don't want to hurt or kill someone.

Respectfully scott99

Beladran · Dec 30, 2013

Not ruffling my feathers at all!
Talk of race guns makes me wanna show off some of my gun porn

9mm major open rig
Cogan custom 9mm

G35 I built for limited

SVI limited 40cal

Ugliest an my fav

That revo has right at 150,000 rounds down the pipe an I'm sending it back to the smith for the first time this coming den just to have a little slop taken out of the cylinder.

Ok I'm done lol now I got the itch

zzcutter · Dec 30, 2013

Thanks for the input everybody. We are looking into having the manufacture anneal it and re-harden. If they won't, then I will pass. It is to bad since the owner ordered it with a plain slide with the idea to have it engraved one day. So hopefully the manufacture will help him out. I will post how we make out.
Thanks, ZZ

scott99 · Dec 30, 2013

Hi, nice looking set of tools you have there.

scott99

tim halloran · Dec 31, 2013

Jon: I live about 20 miles from Les Baer. I think you would have better luck having your customer buy a slide that is not heat treated, that is if less will sell you one. The major factor involved in gun manufacture today is Liability, and durability. You might have better luck sending the slide to Doug Turnbull to have it annealed, then re hardened. The thing about Les Baer guns is the slides are hand lapped and fitted to the frame as well as the barrel bushing so that they are very accurate. If you have it annealed it could compromise the fit of the slide to the frame and make it useless, due to the heat involved in the annealing and re hardening.

atexascowboy2011 · Dec 31, 2013

Tim
The only problem with that, to my knowledge each pistol is hand fit to the slide and purchasing a slide to fit the first frame would be costly. That is part of what makes Baer's so accurate.
Jeff

LVVP · Dec 31, 2013

Looks nice

SamW · Dec 31, 2013

I have in the past engraved a few M21s for the USRAC custom shop and was told by the manager of the shop their frames were about 42 c...they were hard and tough but engravable with carbide and pneumatic hammer...though taking a good bit more time.

I would suggest you ask Les if he can give you the names of engravers who have worked on his product and then contact the engravers.

Dulltool · Dec 31, 2013

I say that all the pressure is in the barrel and not the slide. Heat treating is for wear. I know of one gun company that makes a 9mm with a all zinc slide.

Just say'n

scott99 · Dec 31, 2013

Hi,the same pressure that pushes the bullet out pushes the slide back, HARD.

scott99

Dulltool · Jan 1, 2014

The 1911 is a locked breech weapon. It unlocks when the pressure is low. The only thing bad that can happen to a 1911 slide would be from defective ammo.

scott99 · Jan 1, 2014

OK you win a weakened slide won't hurt anyone, The pressure on the slide is just a puff,It never has any pressure on it at all, The lock up makes all the pressure go away.LOL

I have seen slides break but that must have just been a dream. You go out and shoot what you want. Ignore basic engineering. GOOD LUCK.

Thats it, I will not comment again on this subject, it would seem you (DULLTOOL) won't even look into the subject. So just keep going as you will.

scott99 PS.what do you think holds the lockup, O NO its still the slide.

Dulltool · Jan 1, 2014

Hey Scott,
If you have any chill pills I would think about taking one or two.

Please show me a photo of a slide that flew off a frame of a 1911 and hit the shooter in the face... that was caused by a slide that wasn't heat treated.
1911 slides do fail because of double powder handloads or defective factory ammunition. This bad ammo will blow up barrels and do take the slides with them.

Stay calm and Semper Fi,
Dennis
68-74

scott99 · Jan 1, 2014

Hi,I don't have such a photo,and by the grace of God the man was not hit directly in the face. It was found after the fact that the Gentleman concerned had put new sights on his pin gun. He did not have the arsenal staking tool and had been told to siver solder the front sight in place from the inside. He did not know that the "siver solder" mentioned was supposed to be silver bearing sight solder like Brownells sells.Instead he used hard siver solder, the 1400 degree stuff. He had heated the slide at the front red hot to accomplish this. and cold blued to cover it.

This temperature was enough by far to blow the heat treatment, anneal the slide if you would. The ammunition was factory ball, not reloads. I don't even know why I try and tell you about this. Apparently I would have to drag a body to your door to make a point.

AS to the "chill pills" I am not excited by this topic, just SAD. I don't have the pills you suggest but I do suggest you READ A BOOK, any book on the subject. Now I hope you reply to this one, I would just like to see how stubborn you are about accepting BASIC Gunsmithing skills. I also hope you don't get some poor guy new at this to make a horrible error due to your bad advise.

Don't be so afraid of new information that you hear. Don't accept it right off but at least confirm what you think is right. Because right now you are a font of misinformation.

As to the Semper Fi they always taught me the truth in the Corps, and thats all I am trying to do here.

scott99

Haraga.com · Jan 1, 2014

Scott, a couple posts earlier you said that you wouldn't comment anymore on this subject. What happened?

Les baer Slide

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

~ Elite 1000 Member ~

Moderator

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

~ Elite 1000 Member ~

:::Pledge Member:::

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

Elite Cafe Member

~ Elite 1000 Member ~

Sponsors