I have a Custom II and when cleaning I looked down the barrel and noticed some odd markings. On the top of the barrel about the first inch forward of the chamber, there appear to be some very slight waves or ripples. They are directly under the locking lugs. At least I think they are called locking lugs. They are the 2 raised lines on the top outside of the barrel whose purpose (I believe) is to lock the barrel in place when it is in battery.

My questions are ...

1. Does everyone else that has a Kimber Custom II (or any Kimber really I guess) have these same slight wave marks? Are they normal for a Kimber?

2. Are they normal for all 1911's?

3. Or am I the only one that sees these things and probably I got a barrel that is a bad forging and I should send it back :(

It's funny you should mention this.  I too have noticed what you are describing in the barrel of my Warrior.  The gun has superb accuracy so I never questioned there being a defect in the manufacture.  My guess is it has to do with the method of rifling the barrel.  I'm not totally sure what method kimber uses but I’ve never noticed in any other firearms I own.  Some I know were hammer forged and I can't identify the same markings in those barrels.

I'm going to monitor this post because I too am curious if anyone has a definitive answer to your question.

Edited out errors.

Good to see I'm not alone. Although it would be better to see more people say the same thing.

I emailed Kimber about it. If I get a reply I'll post it here.

All Kimbers are like this.  It has to do with when the locking lugs are formed.  The guy from Kimber called it "ghosting" and said it was just an optical illusion.  I beg to differ because fouling builds up in what would be the low spots, but it's accurate...

In case any one is curious this is the reply I got from Kimber. This is just the part of the email that relates to this. I asked a few more unrelated questions.

As for the markings in the barrel, with button rifling this is normal and most Kimber barrels have this look internally. If you have any further questions please let me know and I will be glad to help you. Thank you and best regards,

Thanks for following through with the info.  It settles my curiosity.

Thanks for this thread guys...I just bought a new Kimber Pro Tactical II and I noticed these marks also.  My pistol was very accurate out of the box, like mentioned above, so I didn't worry too much about the marks. But I was VERY curious as to what they were or what had caused them.  My other custom 1911 Springfield has a Nowlin match barrel in it and there are no odd markings inside the barrel at all.

My custom II stainless has them as well.  It was a bit disconcerting when i saw them as I was doing the initial field strip and cleaning before shooting the first time. Shot great though, didn't worry about it