GLOCKs are perfect. Well, they’re profitable. Wildly profitable. If Gaston Glock’s mob set out to improve GLOCK perfection – as oxymoronic as that might seem – every penny spent upgrading the gun would come out of the company’s bottom line. And, potentially, raise the gun’s price. Why bother? Why perfect perfection and punt profits? How many pistoleros say “I wish my GLOCK was more accurate?” Enough, apparently, for Wilson Combat to stretch its 1911-o-centric brand to sell upgraded GLOCK barrels. For $159. Is it worth it? How much accuracy do you need in an everyday carry gun? As much as possible, I reckon. In other words, shut up and take my money. Or does that decision evoke the old “fool and his money” paradigm?

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61 COMMENTS

  1. Upgraded a custom AR build with a match grade Wilson barrel. And yes, it was a significant enhancement.
    If Wilson claims it can tweak the plastic fantastic, dishwasher safe,
    G pistol, I’d be willing to see a TTAG test drive. Lone Wolf shouldn’t get all the aftermarket glory.

      • Among others. I admit to having quite a few LW products, though. They’ve worked for me and they’re only like 45 minutes from my house so that’s kinda nice. The WC piece looks good though, of course. Shiny 🙂

        • Jeremy, I’ve only had the LW myself but heard good things about the BS. I like to be cheap and have the capability of shooting lead. 🙂 The WC will be interesting (and you are lucky with LW being that close!). It would be interesting if you could do a test comparing the factory with LW, BS, and WC. I think the ideal test would be to use a Ransom Rest and truly take out any variables to see actual mechanical accuracy.

  2. Yeah I always thought it was pretty ludicrous that you have to do so much work on a pistol that sells it self as the personification of ‘perfection’.

    • Huh? For any Glocks I have ever owned or shot, only work they needed was to load bullets into the magazine and rack the slide… what “work” did yours need? and no, buying $800 worth of accessories from GlockWerks to make it look “cool” doesn’t count.

      • Seconded. Nothing needs to be changed, but some people like to “Upgrade,” regardless of whether it actually improves anything.

        • Trigger to 3.5 lbs, tritium sights, custom back plate… I guess the sic pacem backplate was overkill

    • The only work a Glock “needs” is to replace the crappy plastic sights with steel ones, if even that.

      I don’t see the point in buying Glocks and then spending a bunch of money to try to get the trigger to feel like a 1911 or to make them shoot like a bullseye pistol.

      But, hobbies, we got em.

  3. Friggin sweet! I love 416R stainless. My Lone Wolf .40-9mm conversion definitely improves accuracy in my GLOCK 23. I hope they also improve case support as well, especially for the .40 Smith.

      • It’s looking to change POI an inch or two at 10 yards. I only have 200 rounds through the conversion so far so that’s just an estimate. I use 180 grain .40 cal and the 147 grain 9mm seems to be the closest. I had some jams with 115 grain reloads that were pretty light.

  5. Hmmm, no threaded versions?
    I was driving through backwoods Arkansas last year and my GPS had me take a shortcut down a lonely looking road on the way to Eureka Springs. Turned the corner and damned if it wasn’t Wilson Combat HQ out in the middle of God’s country where you’d never expect to see it.

  6. I have always wondered how consistently semi-auto pistols go into battery. Any inconsistency in the lock-up between the barrel and the slide from shot to shot would affect accuracy since the sights are on the slide, not the barrel … and I imagine that would dominate any machining inaccuracy in such a short barrel.

    Would these “match grade” barrels somehow improve lockup between barrel and slide?

    • The “match” part of barrels like these is just that, a more precise fitment… both in the ejection port and where the muzzle meets the slide. I was amazed how much tighter my 17 felt when in battery after I got an aftermarket threaded barrel. Reloading is easier too… the tighter chamber keeps the brass from expanding as much.

      It’ll never be as tight as a custom job fit to your exact pistol though.

  8. No thanks. My bone stick Glock 23 was easily as accurate as my Kimber is. Plus, it NEVER malfunctioned. Not once.

    If the Wilson product is perfect, why would anyone need to trim material from their pistol to make the new barrel fit.

    For what they are, Glocks are perfect. Ultra reliable with good accuracy. Giving up reliability to chase a little more accuracy is dumb.

    • fester ,,im a glock fan ,,but everyone knows the .40 is weak in the chamber support area,, alot of reloading rookies are kabooming their glocks ,, but just drop a round in a disassembled barrel and look .

      • What’s this chamber support you speak of? I’ve heard it mentioned a lot in relation to the .40 and 10mm Glocks. Why are Glock barrels guilty of this?

        • im a glock fanatic to say the least ,, look at a round dropped in a chamber ,your answer to your question is in front of you,,i dont own any aftermarket barrels , ive never had a .40 glock blow up on me, ive seen two blow out at ranges ,, ,, ive been shooting since the 70’s ,,only firearm ive seen blow personally were glock .40’s ,any firearm can have an incident ,im not here to glock bash

        • It’s only the .40 glocks, and it’s because the pistol was designed for 9mm. When you use the same frame/slide/barrel size and upsize to 40, it needed more room for the feed ramp. Thus, the “unsupported” chamber…

          Which is largely overblown. It’s only a factor if you reload, and reload multiple times. Glock recommends factory loaded ammo only. So if you reload, use a different chambering for your glock, or a different pistol. Or get an aftermarket barrel, like Lone Wolf or Barsto.

          Most newer pistols were designed with the .40 in mind. Sigs with the milled stainless steel slide (US made), S&W M&Ps, Springfield XD/XDm, and HK USP and newer are all good for .40 with better supported chambers.

        • Over the years Glock has improved the chamber support in the factory .40 barrels quite a bit. If you search ze web you can find comparison pics from old barrels to newer ones.

          Like here:

          http://www.thesixgunjournal.net/an-historical-view-of-chamber-support-or-lack-thereof-in-glock-40-caliber-pistols/

          Me personally, if I had a new production Glock in .40, I would only get an aftermarket barrel if looking to shoot lead or I reloaded my own .40, or if I wanted threaded. If you only shoot factory ammo I don’t much see the point in spending the cash.

      • No matter how much support a chamber has, a dumb enough reloading error can blow it up. I really think the Glock .40 kabooms are more a function of inexperienced re-loaders combined with an intrinsically high pressure cartridge. I’d wager most of the kabooms were double drops or incompatible bullet lengths and weights for the charges used and would still be kabooms with a more fully supported chamber.

        • Also, if it was the chamber support I’d expect to be looking mostly at pictures of case head separations, rather than catastrophic chamber failures.

        • That’s a good point. How much of it is due to improper reloads, rather than the chamber?

          I have no personal experience with reloading, but I’ve read that .40 is more difficult to reload than other common pistol rounds.

          • Reloading .40, you have to be careful of “Glocked” brass. I won’t use any brass but my own and only shoot reloads through my Lone Wolf barrel. It’s a 35,000 PSI cartridge, and the fast burning powders like Clays do not work well with it. I only load 180 grains and usually load on the low end TiteGroup with 4.2 grs, or Unique with 6.4-6.5 grs. The TiteGroup pushes just over 800 FPS for me with a G22 and similar in my Beretta Elite II. The Unique load is pushing in the mid 900’s for when I want something that duplicates defense load recoil a little better. You really have to inspect your cases with .40’s and look for the bulge and run it through the re-sizer or get rid of them (which is what I do, I just don’t like to mess with it).

            .45 is low pressure (21,000 PSI or way less for old-school loads) and less finicky.

        • My beloved Glock 22, that I had for 8 years and maybe 10000 rounds had a KB on factory new CCI Blazer. Blew the mag out and left casing shards all through the barrel. No permanent damage to the gun or me but it sure was unnerving.

        • Hi John,

          That sounds consistent with a case head separation. I’ve had exactly one instance of this occur with factory ammo. It was a .44 magnum and I was shooting it in a rifle so it wasn’t as dramatic, but still unnerving! Generally a “kaboom” refers to catastrophic failure of the firearm itself. I’m glad you and your firearm are ok!

    • The Wilson Combat video would seem to demonstrate pretty convincingly that the same shooter will be more consistent with a better barrel.

      Hickok hit 6 out of 13. With a better barrel he might have hit more.

      • The point is that any of us mere mortals would have gone 0 for 13 regardless of barrel.

        As for Mrguns&gear, disregarding the fact that six shots per barrel doesn’t exactly give you ironclad statistical significance, if you’re going to shoot prone with a gun rest, you may as well use a rifle.

        If you’re going to pimp your Glock, I think you’re better off spending your money on an improved trigger.

      • When I took my CCL shooting test, we had to shoot 50 rounds at various distances. I finished the test with only four holes in my target – normally a bad thing for 50 shots.

        Except I had one silver dollar sized hole over the “heart” and 3 holes when I shot slightly low at the longest distance.
        – I am not a great shot and had no formal training (but I did a lot of plinking as a kid with a .22 revolver) prior to the test.
        – getting “pistol” accurate with the Glock’s simple controls is easy.

  10. I bought a Lone Wolf barrel from Dillons Blue Press magazine for 99 dollars, so I can shoot lead reloads in my G19, and love it. Hard to visualize what a target barrel costing 159 dollars will do in a combat hand gun. trigger and sights would need upgraded also. now we have about 800 dollars invested.

    • Doesn’t the video convince you that the same shooter can be more accurate with a different barrel?

      The question is: how important is that difference in a defensive handgun?

      • Until a ransom rest is used to take out the human error factor and more rounds are fired per group (minimum of 5, 10 would be better), I won’t be convinced. 3 round groups can easily lead them selves to flukes.

  12. My aftermarket lone wolf barrel does improve accuracy, but makes the gun more sensitive to dirt and magazine feeding. I think this comes down to the tighter chamber with increased support and a different feed ramp. A bit more accuracy at the cost of a less reliable system under other adverse factors like dirt, lube, and springs. I feel that for defense or action pistol sports the accuracy increase I got wasn’t significant enough to offset it being a marginally less reliable system. A feed issue will cost me more in time than I’d gain from possibly (maybe?) a small number of one downs becoming zero downs. I kind of feel the same way about using a gun in a defensive role. Other than beavertail extensions, I’ve not kept any aftermarket parts in my Glocks. I’d rather have spent the money on ammo or other guns.

    • You should check one out sometime, if for no other reason than to see what all the hype is about. They’re great guns, and regardless of how you feel about Gaston’s design, it did revolutionize the handgun industry.

      • I just went the other way. I have a shit-pot of Glocks but just got my first full size M&P 9mm.

        It was like a revelation running the plate rack. Not quite as much of a revelation as my PPQ, but yeah I have to say I shoot it better than my Glocks.

        Next month I’ll be hyped on something else lol. 🙂

  16. Erm…. Not really sure what the point of this is. At reasonable ranges Glocks are as accurate as any stock pistol. Sure, maybe this upgrade means the gun can make a 2,000 yard shot or whatever. But how many of us are good enough marksmen to be able to actually take advantage of the increased mechanical accuracy? Not to mention that if you want to be able to accurately make long range shots, you’d be better of with a rifle….. If you want to spend $150 on a good upgrade for a Glock, swap out the sights. Or just use it to buy ammo.

  17. I tag 8″ steel at 100yds with my old trusty G30 (sub compact .45) without many misses. I don’t think I need a barrel upgrade. LOL

  18. I was planning to buy a 45 ACP barrel for my Glock 21 from Lone Wolf. I wanted because it has a supported chamber and I’m setting up for 45 Super. Dose the Wilson barrel have a supported chamber that will allow me to shoot 45 Super?

  20. Glock fanboy says “Glocks are the perfect handgun for any application.” Then follows up with “All I did to mine was change the trigger, get a stipple job, get a new match barrel with more support for the chamber, have the slide worked on to lighten it up a bit, put new sights on it… well then when the Gen 4 came out I got one because it fits my hand better.”

  21. Hate to be “that guy,” but if this were an article about how to improve accuracy in a 1911 with a custom barrel, there would be no negative comments about the platform. For some reason, if one seeks to accurize a Glock with a custom barrel, many people get a little bent out of shape. I wonder why this is?

  22. A recent trip to the range to evaluate five brands of ammo in my 17 ended up with some unexpected results. I also brought my Springfield XDS-9 (3.3″ barrel) and put it through the same paces. The XDS shot tighter groups than the G at all distances out to 10 yards. Given that the Glock is my steel match shooter, I NEED something to fix that performance inequity. A new barrel is the obvious answer (or maybe a big SA XDM?).

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