Possible slide damage? Please advise. UPDATE: It broke off!

[beltfedleadhead]

I've been wrestling with my P64 since yesterday, trying to get the damned slide back on. It's been off before, and went on with a little hassle, but I got it in a few tries.

Not this time.

The spring is on properly, the end has been ground down. I know it fits. The problem is, the slide doesn't fit even with the spring removed. I took it apart, and noticed a little bent piece directly below the firing pin. It's the tang on the left in the photos. It hangs down a bit more than the right side.

I want to tap it back into shape, but I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like this or not, so I thought I'd check in here and make sure, and there is a small gouge on the frame where it's meeting the "bent" piece.

Can anyone confirm that this is irregular? It should be easy to fix if it's indeed out of spec.

Thanks in advance!

[juniustaylor]

Certainly it is bent out of shape. If you have a "warranty" from where you bought it, you should contact them and ask about replacement. However, if you don't have any warranty, then you should be able to shape it back with a little force. I'm sure you're not an idiot and you're not going to hee-man man it, just use discretion and it'll probably straighten up just fine. But, you are correct, it is bent a bit.

As for the gouge on the frame. If it is right around the chamber area, this is extremely common. It would appear that someone at some point in time was disassembling it and let the slide go when it was either going together, or coming apart and it wacked the frame leaving gouges from those little pieces. That could be why one of them is bent. Seems logical.

[beltfedleadhead]

Ok, so I got a small ball peen hammer and a brass punch, placed the slide on a cloth-covered pine block, and tapped the bent piece VERY lightly.

It broke off.

Here's the kicker: The slide cycles like BUTTER, now. It was always a little rough, but I assumed that there were tool marks to blame. It's like a whole new gun now. It feeds ammo just fine, ejects them just fine.

If you look at the 11 o' clock position of the breech face, you can see that the metal piece has broken off.

[juniustaylor]

If it cycles okay and fires okay, it should be okay. That stinks it broke off, but if it works like a champ, then that's great.