Match grade barrel???

I wonder if there is a shooter alive that is good enough to be able to discern a difference between a match and stock pistol barrel. Just curious.
 
Depends on your intended use, GSSF? IDPA? IPSC?? Just to shoot your own handloads??

Gotta say that Lone Wolf makes a nifty barrel, have zero complains other than the ugly wolf on it...
it kinda grows on you, but I find it oooogly...LOL
however, one can now order them BLANK...nothing but the caliber marking.

Storm Lake has a great rep, but is a wee bit more expensive.

Wilson Combat, is, of course, Wilson Combat. Sign over your firstborn ;)


Oh, and Welcome Aboard!
 
I have a KKM Precision Glock 19 barrel. For a drop in barrel the fit was very good, as little wiggle as I could possibly expect without needing a gunsmith. I did find though that it forced the cartridges down a bit more when feeding and I'd get situations where the brass of the cartridge beneath the feeding cartridge was getting scratched a bit.

I will say this. When I took the pistol to the range and did standing groups at 25 yards, the difference wasn't that dramatic. The KKM had slightly tighter groups, but honestly while standing I'm not good enough of a shooter at that distance with my vision to really get much out of it. I put the KKM in the safe and went back to the stock barrel. Do I think there are good shooters that would notice the difference? Absolutely. I also wasn't shooting off a bench (because I don't shoot pistols off a bench). I also think a lot of the aftermarket that exists today convinces people of the "need" for products.
 
The problem with a "match grade" barrel is that either there exists no known or agreed-upon standard for such a moniker, or it has long been forgotten or outright ignored. These days, "match grade" barrel on a handgun means as much as "new & improved" on the bottle of dish soap you just bought.

I bought a KKM barrel for my Glock 29 because I wanted to properly shoot .40 S&W from this pistol and the KKM does that irrationally well and the pistol shoots so darn good that it almost annoys me. (almost) And a lot of folks choose to replace Glock barrels because of a lack of case head support or their perception of same, or to get traditional land & groove rifling rather than polygonal rifling in the OEM barrel.

Is there a "best" aftermarket barrel for a Glock? Hmm, would be tough to answer well -- especially for most folks who tried ONE and stuck with it. I haven't met anyone yet that hated their Lone Wolf barrel, but I went with KKM and if someone else makes a better G29 to .40 S&W conversion barrel than the one I have, it would have to fart unicorns to impress me more than my KKM barrel.

No, I take that back. The unicorns would not impress me more than what I've gotten from my KKM barrel. And a bonus is that my KKM barrel didn't come with a completely RIDICULOUS cartoon wolf on it. And Lone Wolf can sell you a barrel without that awful looking thing on it... but you have to pay them more for that. :eek: That annoys me enough to add it to this post. I'm sure some folks like the cartoon wolf, much like they have skulls and "Punisher" emblems on their guns, too. :p Variety being the spice & all that good jazz.
 
I have a Wolf extended and ported on my G34 and cant really say that its more accurate in my hand.
What I bought it for is to shoot lead and lots of it.
 
I find the term "match grade barrel" to be bs marketing hype. A good quality barrel professionally and perfectly fit to the individual firearm might justify the term "match".
 
I'm inclined to think if the barrel isn't bent, the mfg. calls it a "Match" barrel. That said, I have several handguns that shoot well enough for me to feel they're equipped with "Match" barrels.
 
I wonder if there is a shooter alive that is good enough to be able to discern a difference between a match and stock pistol barrel. Just curious.
Click to expand...

Oh there are, trust me. I had the pleasure a couple of different times of shooting next to, and scoring for, a High Master Bullseye shooter. It's amazing. Words can't describe it actually. It seems humanly impossible of what they can do.

Now that I think of it, it wasn't that much of a pleasure. Trying to find ten .45 holes, all bunched together in a small 2 inch group on a target can be a test. Targets like mine, ten holes spread out like a shotgun pattern are easy to score. :o
 
When I buy a Glock, I also get a Lone Wolf drop in for it. The stock barrel is reserved for SD duty.

I'm sure Storm Lake, etc. are all competitive in terms of performance.

I wouldn't even bother, except I load my own ammo and the aftermarket barrels are much nicer to the brass (much less bulging, due to the tighter fit). So for me, it's not about accuracy or whatever else.
 
The best match barrel for any pistol is one that's been properly fitted by a skilled gunsmith. In a typical locked breech autopistol, the inaccuracy due to the gun has FAR more to do with how well the barrel fits the gun than with anything inherent to the barrel itself.

If you're finding that you are usually shooting groups at 25 yards that are hovering around 3" or smaller, then you might be able to improve things by going to a gunsmith fitted match barrel. If you can't shoot 3" groups at 25 yards then you're wasting your money on a match barrel. Spend it on ammo and range time instead.
 
There are match barrels

Both Wilson and Lone Wolf make quality service barrels for pistols. I have no experience with Storm Lake. However Bar-Sto, Kart, and KKM make match barrels that were made for precision competition. Even getting one of these barrels is no guarantee of accuracy so most high-end gunsmiths have fixtures that they can test fire the barrel in BEFORE they fit them to the pistol. If they won't group to their satisfaction from the fixture, they are not worth the effort to fit. This is how a gunsmith can make a pistol that will shoot under 2" groups @ 50 yards.

As far as the above, if the price is close the same, I would buy a KKM for the Glock. YMMV
 
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