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First I will say that one of the best groups I ever shot with a 1911 was a Kimber with the factory barrel. This was 14 years ago and at that time they were using, or said to be using, barrels from CMC. I don’t know if that was really true and I don’t know what they are using now.

I’ve seen several Kimber barrels that had this distortion inside. Looks to me like locking cuts are done after the bore is created, and that tool pressure from the machining of them causes ripples on the inside. The one pictured here, you can clearly see it, put I can’t detect a restriction with gage pins and I can’t “feel” it with a little brass probe. By the end of the day I will have shot this one and I predict it’s going to be fine accuracy-wise. These ripples may be as little as half a thousandth. Here it is as received, dirty:


And, cleaned up.


Here's a different Kimber I saw last week. Again the ripples are collocated with locking cuts:


Here’s a Colt Commander barrel, brand-new gun that may be test-fired only, certainly fewer than 50 rounds through it and more like 20 max. The chamber is pretty eccentric from the bore. The throat of the chamber, that is, the angled part that eases and squeezes the bullet into the rifling can be seen at the bottom to be pretty generous, visible on lands and in grooves. At the top, it is visible on the lands only and not the grooves. The barrel is pretty rough in general, with tool marks following the twist of the rifling, and chatter marks running counter-axis throughout. At a glance the ones that are visible at the bottom (there are more) look like the ones on the Kimber but I cropped this picture big enough to show that the right-hand side of the barrel hood is visible at the top. These marks occur throughout.
I sent this back to Colt but as I suspected they would not replace it without having the gun to fit it to. Sorry, it’s welded up and “in the shop”  . I really just wanted them to see it so that they might know it had slipped out. It will not be used on this custom Commander of course but it would have been nice to have a better one in its place anyway. I will eventually shoot it and honestly I won’t be surprised if it shoots OK for a factory Commander barrel.

Ned I recently sent a barrel back with imperfections like shown in the Colt barrel. The barrel I sent back was out of a Wiley Clapp Commander that I have carried for the past couple of years. Brent at Colt said it was chatter marks from their broaching machine and sent me a new barrel. My issues were discovered by a local gunsmith who was doing some work on the WC for me. I didn't expect much from Colt as the pistol has had several modifications done to it but when I got in touch with Brent he had me send just the barrel and then he sent me the new one.

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And this eternal resting place Is known as Fiddlers' Green.

Well in my case they stuck to policy. I get the policy but had hoped that me telling the guy (not Brent) that I fit barrels all the time, might result in a simple exchange. My guy was apologetic and understanding, but nope.

Timing on this was really quick though, I had the old barrel back within 10 days. Sounds like yours didn't drag out either. Is it possible that Colt Customer Service is working on their Molasses in January reputation?