Just finished reading an article in the June American Rifleman on the Wiley Clapp Colt/TALO Commander. There is a pic that shows what appears to be a fully throated chamber mouth that “features a shallow trough in the throat to enhance feeding.” It looks like a crossbreeding between a throated barrel and an older GI barrel:) I am unfamiliar with this concept. Can someone bring me up to speed on this mod? Part of me says Colt wouldn’t do it if it was snake oil. OTOH - I can’t say that I’ve seen it in any other high end 1911s (not that I look at a lot:)
It is. Rather than cut a deep ramp or throat all the way across the bottom of the chamber, Colt cuts a shallow ramp across the bottom and then a deep ramp in the center which looks like a dimple.
Colt’s been making their barrels that way for a while. It seems to work ok but I still re-cut them.
I have several Colt 1911s with this barrel and have never had any trouble feeding various rounds including 230 Ball, Golden Saber, Corbon HP and lead truncated cone.
Old school GI barrel - Gunsmith cut throat - Colt barrel dimpled throat on the right.
I have a couple of the new Colt barrels and the “dimpled” barrels works well with no problems feeding any of the ammunition I can find.
I thought that was interesting. I always thought it was surprising that many gunsmiths will re-contour the ramp back to the wide type when they get a new Colt for custom work. Why would it be necessary to perform this work if the “dimpled” barrel seems to work OK?
I don’t know if it’s necessary but I do it anyway. It widens the throat or ramp of the barrel more than the way that Colt cuts it but I don’t cut it any deeper than I do on a non-dimpled barrel.
There is no down side and I sleep better at night knowing that I’ve done everything that I can to make the pistol reliable
![[b]COLT Dimple Throat Barrel[/b]](http://www.thesixgunjournal.net/images/throatsxi7.jpg){kind=link}