As many of you know, I've owned one of the early production Beretta Centurions for a few years now.
I have always liked the short slide on it. Makes it real handy. At least easier than the full size slide versions. Another positive for this particular gun, it came with trijicon night sights direct from the factory so that's another feather in its' hat and it was made early enough that is has all metal parts before they decided to throw a lot of plastic parts inside of there. Guide rod, trigger, etc. Nowadays, folks pay extra in the aftermarket to upgrade their metal parts. Places like Wilson Combat make a decent living from that.
One of the reasons I bought that gun was the rare chance that I could find a decent shape surplus M9 barrel assembly because they are extended enough to thread due to the shorter slide. You can see in the above posts that the 92 isn't my first choice for a suppressed handgun, but as LES has stated, the locking lug in the new production M9's seem to be a little better. Further, the Centurion action spring is a mere 12 pounds and it probably won't be strong enough to cycle with the suppressor attached as is, but I believe that adding one of Wilson combats flat coil springs may help, or perhaps get one of their 15# springs may will almost certainly do the trick. Of course I will try to shoot it first before changing anything, but as is, with the can attached the slide is sluggish near the end of its' forward travel.
Back to the subject at hand, I was able to find a brand new, and sealed in the wrap surplus M9 barrel on ebay of all places. And for a smoking deal of $89
and free shipping. This was for the entire assembly. Pin, locking lug and barrel. The whole 9 yards.
OK, that's just not right and is "making me" buy it and just too much temptation so I jumped. The barrel came this morning. 2 whole days after I ordered it. And yes, I did leave positive feedback for the seller.
Quick shot of the M9 barrel straight out of the bag to show the difference in added barrel length on the short Centurion slide.
So after checking the fit and function of the new barrel, I got started determining where to stop the threading. For those that don't know, on these pistols (and most like them) when the slide is back, the barrels do not sit in the same place in relation to the guide rod and the front of the frame as they do when the slide is in battery, so you have to be careful where the threading stops, otherwise the guide rod and the frame may batter the rear endcap of the suppressor when the gun cycles.
After I decided where I needed to make the shoulder, I had to adjust and readjust and readjust the position of the barrel in my 3 jaw chuck until it was as straight as I could get it, I held my breath and crossed my fingers and proceeded to turn the barrel down to .497" and stop on my mark and then changed my gears in my lathe to thread it.
Afterwards mounting the can to the barrel and checking fit for concentricity with a tight tolerance drill steel rod, and thankfully, there won't be any issues there and the final step, I blued the exposed metal with 44/40 cold blue. While blueing isn't a perfect match to parkerizing on the rest of the barrel, it will work with no issues.
I used the Beretta 92 thread recipe from AAC for the specs of the threading. Except for determining the shoulder placement because their spec was for a full size 92/M9. Not the shorter Centurion.
This photo is the best description that I could do to explain what I meant earlier about the placement of the shoulder of the barrel when the slide is open. I got as close to the guide rod as I felt comfortable doing without risking damage to my endcap and while giving as many threads as possible.