Fitting 1911 barrel - The barrel link

[MartyK2500]

I am just getting into literature on how to fit an 1911 barrel.
I will eventually get to the barrel link, but was wishing to know the big picture of barrel links.

As i understand, the #3 link is the standard profile.
Each time you go down a number the measure between the 2 barrel link holes get shorter 5 thou center to center
As you go up each numbers have a longer space between 2 holes 5thou center to center.

What effect does this have exactly?


I once had a brand new 1911 STI that would not feed .40 out of the box. I fed 40 in single stacks before and in many STI but this one would not feed.
Dropped it at a smith, said the barrel was improperly fitted from factory, he refit barrel, but when it came back it had a different barrel link in it, and the gap between barrel feedramp and frame feed ramp had closed quite a bit.

Wondering if longer/shorter barrel links had any effects on this or if he just reinstalled a #3 of his choice

 

[dogzilla]

Barrel link affects lock up, don't know how it would affect feeding. If I recall, to check your fit, you would either smoke the inside of the slide or use plasti-gauge. Close the slide and see how much of the barrel is contacting the slide or measure the plasti gauge (or plasticene) (Memory is fuzzy, it's been years). Too long of a link and you can shear the link pin, too short and you don't get good lockup

 

[MartyK2500]

Makes sense
As Rodger at the time said he set my barrel lugs so that they would have a 50thou lockup with slide
So bringing barrel feedramp closer to frane feedramp had nothing to do with barrel link probably...