# Other barrel choice's? Yes or no?



## shift1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Anyone change barrels in their glock such as lone wolf or others? I did once in my first glock 19 back in 1991 and had the gun lock up in the loaded position had to have a gun smith get it open and also this caused damage to the ejection port of the slide. Not caused by the gun smith. I thought of this story again and wondered if any of these after market barrels are as good as the factory glock barrels?


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## GCBHM (Mar 24, 2014)

I'm always hesitant to make changes to my guns. I'm not a gunsmith, so it makes me a little nervous to go making after market changes. I think it's always best to at least seek the advice of a professional gun smith if you're going to make changes like that, which are not factory designed.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

shift1 said:


> Anyone change barrels in their glock such as lone wolf or others? I did once in my first glock 19 back in 1991 and had the gun lock up in the loaded position had to have a gun smith get it open and also this caused damage to the ejection port of the slide. Not caused by the gun smith. I thought of this story again and wondered if any of these after market barrels are as good as the factory glock barrels?


It depends on what you mean by "...as good as the factory glock barrels".

The barrels you mentioned are usually designed for one of two reasons; greater accuracy, and/or use of unjacketed lead bullets (recoil reduction through buying an externally-ported barrel is another possible reason, but porting can also be found in some factory Glock pistols). If your Glock is already average-or-better accurate, a non-fitted drop-in replacement barrel is unlikely to significantly increase the accuracy. If your Glock shoots poorly, a new barrel MAY help, IF the factory barrel is the problem. In my experience, a poorly trained shooter is far more likely to be the problem than an "inaccurate" factory barrel. I have seen a couple of Glocks that shot poorly with several different loads, but eventually, one or more loads were found that they shot well. Before considering a barrel replacement, I'd recommend getting several people who have a proven record of shooting well with Glocks to shoot your pistol from a rested position with a wide assortment of ammunition. If NONE of these shooters or loads can combine to shoot some decent groupings, then a new fitted barrel may help fix your accuracy problem.

Glock barrels are not usually recommended for use with unjacketed (cast or swaged lead) bullets, as problems have been reported which have occasionally caused catastrophic failures of the barrel (known as a "KaBoom" in shooter slang). This wasn't much of a problem for the first 10-12 years of Glock sales, as the calibers offered during this time (9mm and .40) were limited by ammo factories to jacketed bullets anyway. As the caliber lineup expanded into common lead-bullet calibers like .45 ACP, and more shooters began reloading for the Nines and Forties, lead bullet caused problems became more common. Several barrel companies began offering conventionally-rifled barrels for folks who wanted to shoot lead bullet ammo with a higher margin of safely, and many folks have changed to these barrels just for this reason.

If a barrel is sold as "Fitting recommended" or "Fitting required", and no fitting is performed, then the barrel or pistol may be damaged if the barrel is just dropped-in and used. In many (or even most) pistols, any given barrel may drop-in and work just fine, but when tolerances stack-up a certain way, problems like you described can result. Also, low/poor quality ammo may or may not be compatible with certain barrels, which adds another level of complexity and possible failure to the equation.

I always tell folks to exhaust all other possibilities before going to an aftermarket barrel in ANY pistol, because unless you pay big bucks for a custom pistolsmith to install a fitting-required match-grade barrel, AND adjust other parts like the trigger, there is no guarantee that your pistol will shoot better, or shoot enough better to justify the cost. In addition, make sure you're being realistic in your accuracy wants/needs; a Glock/Beretta/S&W M&P defensive pistol was never designed to compete with an all-steel match-grade hand-built bullseye pistol, and to think that you're going to get even close to that level of accuracy with an over-the-counter combat-style pistol and a $150 drop-in barrel is just not in the cards.

Final note: I own over a dozen Glocks, have owned maybe another dozen or so over the years, and I used factory Glock barrels in all of them, usually with very-good to outstanding results. I have owned two "picky" Glocks in the last 25 years that would only shoot one or two loads well, but when I let other less-experienced shooters fire them they didn't notice any difference between those Glocks and very accurate (but still unmodified) Glocks. I eventually sold or traded those two Glocks to other shooters who had a lower accuracy requirement than I have, making sure I told them that I wasn't really happy with the accuracy I was getting, and letting them shoot the pistols before the sale to make sure they'd be satisfied with them (the relatively low price I was asking probably helped).


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## Lee Hunter (May 25, 2011)

I've been a revolver and pistol shooter for many years, and my wife became interested in shooting handguns soon after we were married. But we only recently became Glock enthusiasts. Neither of us have anything negative to say about Glock barrels. However, we each purchased drop-in aftermarket barrels that are ported to help reduce muzzle flip and felt recoil. We couldn't be happier.


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## Desertrat (Apr 26, 2007)

I use Lone Wolf barrels in my G19 and G20....both have been outstanding since I bought them
and no problems at all....and using all types of ammo. I originally got them to shoot my
lead reloads, and they do a great job.


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## just for fun (Dec 31, 2006)

Have a glock 32. Put up with reloading the 357Sig for years. Decided it just wasn't worth the effort and ordered a KKM 40 barrel for it. Should have done it years ago. EVERY complaint I had with the 357 the 40. resolved. Many times over easier to reload, much more accurate, and I find it easier to shoot better than I ever shot the 357.
To answer if I gave the 357 a fair chance, my reply would be that I reloaded the first 1K of cases 5 times then retired them and have reloaded the second thousand twice. Other than my 44 I do not reload anything to max levels, so I have zero fears about reloading the 40 round. Pushing the 165 grainer just short of 1000 FPS. Now if I could just find more powder to load another 1k!!


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