I bought a VG condition P239 from a forum member, that had been a .40. I bought the pistol w/o the barrel. Bar-Sto sent me one of their super accurate stainless barrels, and they fitted it to my slide.

However using defensive ammo, the slide would not go into battery as the flat nose of the ammo was hanging up in the barrel feed ramp area. After trips to Bar-Sto and Gray Guns to fix the problem, without success, I finally found an OEM .357 barrel and it worked correctly.

So even though Bar-Sto makes super quality barrels, even they can screw up once in a while. There was a significant dip at the barrel feed ramp where it meets to locking insert. That always appeared to me to be the problem, but Bar-Sto said no.

Had to buy an entire Gun Parts kit off of Gunbroker to obtain a .357 barrel.

Well that doesn't sound like any fun!

At least you found a solution and got everything going again.

Re: “the slide would not go into battery as the flat nose of the ammo was hanging up in the barrel feed ramp”

Flat nose? What ammo?

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Re: “the slide would not go into battery as the flat nose of the ammo was hanging up in the barrel feed ramp”

Flat nose? What ammo?

Okay, not true flat nose, but the end is not round as in training ammo. I mostly used Gold Dot, 124 grain. Other defensive ammo did the same thing.