New Hicapa Barrel Sticking

[Styrak]

Hey there. I bought a threaded Hicapa 5.1 barrel since...well...silencers and tracer units are awesome.

Manually, the slide cycles fine but if I tip the gun downwards, the slide seems to stick on the barrel. I see when I tip it down that the chamber is not moving back/lowering so the slide can move past like it normally does.

I'm wondering what I can do to fix this, because I would really like to be able to shoot people at a downward angle as well!

[m102404]

I've never been able to find a fix for this...don't think Illusion has either.

The lugs of the barrel are jamming in the top of the slide. I suppose you could sand/grind them down until they don't interfere...but it wouldn't help with accuracy at all....

[Kos-Mos]

If I remember correctly, the only solution that was found was to use a comp/silencer to have some pressure on the barrel or something... I have bad memory but there was a tread about that somewhere. The guy ended in using a silver ring on the tip of his barrel to make the slide hit it and replace the barrel...

Try that.

And also, you can try to file down the leading edge of the chamber lugs a little to help it disengage. same for the rear edge of the slide...

At your own risk however... I did it on mine because it had slight issues with the chamber catching like that (once in 30-35 shots), more of a preventive mod than to solve a problem. It did seem to help...

[Styrak]

God dammit....

So you're saying basically there's no solution unless I want to experiment.

[RacingManiac]

Never found a spring to do it, but supposedly if can do a threaded barrel like the SD setup(as in a 2 piece outer, with a barrel threaded on to the chamber), put a spring that has ID that's big enough for a inner barrel, OD thats small enough to fit inside the outer barrel, you can try to fix that spring onto your inner barrel(tape supposedly works), while letting it put some spring pressure on the chamber such that it will more readily retract...

[m102404]

Setups like the JB Comp work because they clamp onto the inner. You can jam a bit of spring (recoil spring works with a bit of tweaking) in between the comp and the outer barrel. Same with any Comp that attaches to the inner.

Or a strike kit type setup...but the spring kept jamming up between the outer and the inner when I tried it on my last build.

Madmax did a setup with a press-fitted bushing on the inner barrel and a spring setup inside/in between the inner and outer barrels....works awesome...but that's Carl, not us mere mortals.

Basically you want something that pushes the outer back to ensure it's out of the way when the slide cycles....rearward assist like.

[RacingManiac]

I guess a secondary option is one of those AS "no interference" barrel with barrel lugs thats not engaging the slide....though I am not sure how well they work....

BTW, is this problem happening with and without the tracer/silencer unit attached?

Most GBB don't work that well with extra weight hanging on the tip of the barrel(since I don't think there is anything actually pushing the barrel back other than the lugs with slide cycling and compare to RS the gas pressure just isn't that strong), and the RS pistol silencer usually uses the Nelson device that uses the exhaust gases to actuate an adaptor to temperarily detach the can from the barrel(for fraction of a second and the can is still collared on the barrel, just temperarily unclamp itself) to allow the gun to cycle and return to battery.

[Styrak]

Yeah it's happening with or without a silencer attached. I'm also going to try switching out to my metal slide and see if anything changes.

[safx]

Is this the kind of solution you guys
were referring to:

[ILLusion]

I've fixed this problem on multiple barrel setups, but it can only be done on barrel setups that allow the chamber to separate from the outer barrel portion.

Essentially, what's done, is a spring is applied to pre-load the chamber against the hop up unit. What happens, is that the outer barrel's natural state is to pull back - the only thing that keeps it forward is the slide when in battery.

Once installed, regardless of which way the pistol is pointed, when the slide racks back, the barrel will automatically pull back and no longer relies on the internal lugs - this greatly increases the durability of the slide in that area, and also saves the nice shiny finish on your chamber (avoids scratching.)

It looks like what safx posted a picture of.

I use an old recoil spring (you only need a couple of winds... 4 or 5 is sufficient) and I widen it a little bit to allow friction-free movement. It's then secured in place with electrical tape. Just need enough winds to allow the outer barrel to still fit over it.

I've also found a solution for one-piece metal barrel setups (like the ones I custom make) that fixes the barrel in place. Same idea as the Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa Xtreme barrel. I can also make these in 5.1 threaded length - these fixed one-piece metal barrels are actually your best solution if you're looking for something threaded to hang something off of. Regardless of the size/weight/length of the attachment, it will not affect performance.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by Kos-Mos

If I remember correctly, the only solution that was found was to use a comp/silencer to have some pressure on the barrel or something... I have bad memory but there was a tread about that somewhere. The guy ended in using a silver ring on the tip of his barrel to make the slide hit it and replace the barrel...

Try that.

That solution was for a different problem.

[Styrak]

Switched to my metal slide (Davidson Custom, same style/design as Shooter's Design) and the barrel works perfectly.

Probably for the best anyways, since a metal barrel would have chewed up my stock TM plastic slide.