Match barrels for extended range pistol accuracy?

[Savage Hands]

Thanks for the info! I'm going to get a Bar-Sto next in my new Gen 4 G17 after trying a drop in WC and KKM in my old Gen 4 G17, in my short test I didn't see a noticeable improvement in either.

[okie john]

Thanks for the info! I'm going to get a Bar-Sto next in my new Gen 4 G17 after trying a drop in WC and KKM in my old Gen 4 G17, in my short test I didn't see a noticeable improvement in either.

Try several different loads and shoot as much as you can at 50 before you give up on the WC barrels.


Okie John

[Joe Mamma]

I have had a good experience with a Wilson barrel in a G17. I would definitely buy it again. Here's something I posted on another site.

* * * * *
I recently put a Wilson barrel into a G17. I shoot this gun competitively and it had just over 56k rounds through it (all on the factory barrel and I have owned it since new).

I noticed the groups had been pretty bad over about the last 6 months to year. I was never sure if it was the gun (maybe the barrel, maybe the frame loosened up, maybe one of many other reasons) or me or ammo or something else. But eventually I decided it probably wasn't me. I didn't care enough to scientifically test it. So I just bought a Wilson barrel and was planning to return it if the gun didn't shoot better.

The barrel dropped right in with no fitting. There were a few interesting things I noticed. First, I did all my shooting at 25 yards, and I noticed the zero shifted and the groups got tighter over the first 100-200 rounds or so. That definitely wasn't me. something was changing with the gun/barrel. Also, I noticed the gun was significantly different when dry firing. With the factory Glock barrel, the sights/slide would always move a tiny bit (when you look very closely) because the gun was just loose/old. But with the Wilson barrel, there was essentially no movement.

When I shot it, it shot noticeably better with the Wilson barrel. I only shoot factory ammo and I used at least 3 different common factory rounds when doing my informal testing. I had good results with everything.

Maybe a new factory Glock barrel would have helped, and maybe it would have helped more than the Wilson barrel. I don't know and like I said I didn't care enough to scientifically test it. But there is absolutely no question that my gun shoots significantly better with this barrel.

Edited to add: I've had no extraction, feeding or other problems with the Wilson barrel.
* * * * *

Joe Mamma

[mizer67]

[IMG][/IMG]

Wow, that's freaking impressive!

Here's a picture of that group I mentioned with the Jarvis in my Gen4 G17.

That's an NRA 50 ft. smallbore target (TQ-3/5 I think) with my SIRT lying beside, which as ~3 & 7/8" bullseyes. It was either the first group out of the barrel after it was fitted, or one of the first.

This was with a 124 gr PD JHP and 4.85 gr of N340 at 1.085" OAL and once fired Speer brass.

[ASH556]

The fitting of the barrel must be what makes the most difference. I was curious after my initial reply in this thread so I went to the range Saturday and fired 8 5-shot groups to test the theory. I used two different loads: 115gr "Match" Atlanta Arms (supposedly the AMU load) and 147gr Subsonic Magtech. I fired two overlapping 5-shot groups with each barrel/ammo combo resulting in 4 10-shot groups. The results were interesting in that the stock barrel with the Magtech was the best group and the KKM barrel with the "Match" load was the worst.

Pics: