If you are looking for an upgrade in relation to accuracy, Wilson sells an oversize barrel that when fit tight is very accurate.
If you are looking for an upgrade in relation to accuracy, Wilson sells an oversize barrel that when fit tight is very accurate.
I have an early Glock 20 that has the original over-ramped factory barrel. Have fired 2 magazines of factory ammo through it and all of the brass was immediately relegated to the scrap bin. I started searching for all the options in replacement barrels and reading everything I could find about them. Somehow in this search I stumbled onto a summary description of a handgun match where all of the shooters were firing 10 mm pistols. There were about 30 shooters in this match and all but 3 were using KKM barrels. For my purposes the replacement barrel I will buy must have the following features: (1) reliability, and (2) accuracy. These are the must-have features I require, in the order listed.
The match shooters required the same, and their choices showed wisdom from the results of the match. That match summary settled the choice for me, now to wait for the funds to buy this barrel after all the other projects have been paid off.
If your boolits fit properly you don't need one. Get him a good holster instead.
Tom
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Did I ever mention that I hate to trim brass?
Bar-Sto is the company I would buy from. Have 3 barrels from them and they are great. On my Model 20 I considered a KKM because i had read so many good things. I asked about their throat diameter on their Model 20 barrel. They refused to answer.
Irv Stone III personally answered my request. .4015". Bought that and it shoots great with cast boolits sized at .4015".
Buy the Bar-Sto.
I have a Bar-Sto barrel in .357 SIG that I use in an older Glock 22 it has always worked fine. I tried a Lone Wolf .40 S&W barrel for my Glock 22 it had a really short throat and the factory barrel worked better.
Factory barrels are a bit forgiving that precision after-market barrels (Bar-Sto, Wilson, KKM or even LW, among others) due to tight chambers, especially if shooting 147g to 160g.
I PC & slug my barrels to size my CBs just a tad oversized, no barrel-leading issue for either stock or aftermarket.
However, same method when shooting suppressed, leaves lead residue both on barrel (close to muzzle) & can. I only shoot plated or J's suppressed for now until I find a workable recipe. Getting lead out of a can is no fun.
...Speak softly & carry a big stick...
This is perhaps the oldest zombie thread I've seen revived on here. Eight years old!
I don't think the OP is still looking for a barrel to buy his son for Christmas, especially since he hasn't been active since 2013, so...
"Luck don't live out here. Wolves don't kill the unlucky deer; they kill the weak ones..." Jeremy Renner in Wind River
My shooting buddy has had about 5 KKM barrels all were top notch
He had a Lone Wolf very disappointed.
I've purchased three aftermarket barrels for Glock pistols. A KKM, a Storm Lake, and a Lone Wolf. The KKM was top notch and what I expected. The Lone Wolf had mediocre accuracy and I ended up sending it back. It was returned a couple of weeks later dirty and with no explanation as to what they fixed, but it was very accurate when it came back.
The Storm Lake barrel was horribly inaccurate and they refused to even try to make it right. I sent it to a gunsmith on here who tried to fix it and it came back still inaccurate. Storm Lake barrels are garbage, in my opinion.
"Luck don't live out here. Wolves don't kill the unlucky deer; they kill the weak ones..." Jeremy Renner in Wind River
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |