Ransom rest comparison of aftermarket Glock barrels

[Nephrology]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I thought you guys might find this thread on Primary & Secondary to be interesting if you haven't seen it yet.

They ran Glock OEM, KKM, Wilson Combat, S3F and ZevTech barrels side by side in a ransom rest with a variety of ammunition types & weights. Without wholesale reproducing their findings, the results in a nutshell were:

OEM: Some of the best and worst results we had were OEM barrels, consistency from barrel to barrel isn’t there. The need for an aftermarket barrel may be case-specific.


Wilson Combat: Seemed inconsistent, simply not better than OEM, got half way up the rankings once. The barrel did group respectably with HST and Gold Dots.

KKM: Flat-out destroyed all the other barrels with 147 gr XTP, and barely won out with the 124 Gold Dot. However, it performed average most of the time coming in 3rd. The gold dot superiority makes sense as it was designed for 124 gr for the military. So if you are planning on running 124s this is worth looking into. As 124 was not the focus of the test the data is limited. The * in the data is we shot HST through it twice, both times had 2 severe flyers, the better group is recorded in the summary, it’s still the worst HST group of all the barrels.


S3F: Was the clear winner at 25 yards with the cheaper ammunition and got second with 147 gr XTPs. At 50 it was not. An S3F barrel would be for you if you are more concerned about the accuracy for the cheaper ammo or not focusing on accuracy past 25 yards.

Zev: The most accurate barrel with the 147 Gr HST, at 25 it wasn’t a notable amount better but at 50 yards it was. While the second best performer at 25 yards it was clearly the best shooter at 50m with 147 gr ammunition. So if distance is your goal this barrel is by far superior. Zev seems to do better with average to center ranking than group size.

Ammunition seems to matter as much, if not more, than the barrel as does intended distance. If you decide it is worth it to buy an aftermarket barrel, get one that likes the ammo you intend to use. Hands-down the Great Lakes XTP 147 +P was the best performer we tested for accuracy. As many feel, HST 147 standard pressure is the ideal duty load everything, but the KKM outperformed the OEMs with this round by over three-fourths of an inch and that’s notable.

Biggest anomaly: Zev seemed to shoot better the further into the test it went. Its 50-yard group with 147 HST +P from Great Lakes was actually better than the 25-yard group. We have no idea why this happened, but we will admit that the testing system was the most consistent on the 50-yard test (nothing moved at all for anything inside any barrel’s individual test). This also leads credence to the bullseye approach found in the bigger data compilation of average to center. It would be ideal to do a similar test with all of these barrels at the 1,000 round mark to see how/if the results change.

Are they worth it? Hands down if you shoot sub 5,000 rounds due to budget limitations, the barrel is not worth upgrading. Beyond that? It is up for debate, the better feedback you get, the faster you learn, look at the numbers and decide for yourself.

Thoughts? I have a 3rd Gen G17RTF that has always had disappointing accuracy so I am tempted to buy one of the above down the line. Seems like the S3F wouldn't be a bad one to go with at all, but it's not high on my priority list right now.

[TiroFijo]

I would take it with a grain of salt. The accuracy also depends a lot from tha barrel to slide fit, and this obviously varies from specimen to specimen due to dimensional variations in both barrels and slide...

[LittleLebowski]

Intrigued by the S3F and cheap ammo.

[voodoo_man]

Intrigued by the S3F and cheap ammo.

I can tell you from personal experience it works exceedingly well.

[Luke]

It could be the energy drink I just drank, but that was hard to keep up with what was what with what.. I didn't not click the link though, just read what was posted.

[StraitR]

A ransom rest is attached to the frame, and the gun will always come back to the same spot after firing, that's the point. Here is where slide to frame fit will matter. RR's work great to show accuracy on tightly fit pistols (Ex. bullseye guns) with very little mechanical play, otherwise, shot dispersion will also include variances from frame/slide/barrel fit.

Testing accuracy from multiple barrels in a glock would be better served from a bag, not a RR. Sights are attached to the slide, not frame.

[JHC]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I thought you guys might find this thread on Primary & Secondary to be interesting if you haven't seen it yet.

They ran Glock OEM, KKM, Wilson Combat, S3F and ZevTech barrels side by side in a ransom rest with a variety of ammunition types & weights. Without wholesale reproducing their findings, the results in a nutshell were:



Thoughts? I have a 3rd Gen G17RTF that has always had disappointing accuracy so I am tempted to buy one of the above down the line. Seems like the S3F wouldn't be a bad one to go with at all, but it's not high on my priority list right now.

Very cool report!

I've seen my KKM G17 barrel improve an older OD Gen 3 G17 a great deal. This pistol exhibits some slide to frame sideways play. The KKM helps it.

But I cannot measure any improvement in a tight (slide to frame) Gen 4 G17.

I've also seen some very good results with 124 grain Lawman I recently picked up. So there's that KKM to 124 grain correlation perhaps.

This is a really interesting report.

[TiroFijo]

From the report, things that make you go hmmm about the validity of some results...

"Biggest anomaly: Zev seemed to shoot better the further into the test it went. Its 50-yard group with 147 HST +P from Great Lakes was actually better than the 25-yard group. We have no idea why this happened, but we will admit that the testing system was the most consistent on the 50-yard test (nothing moved at all for anything inside any barrel’s individual test)."

[GJM]

After trying KKM, Wilson, Bar Sto and Briley barrels, I would first put some effort in evaluating different ammo as step one. With Gen 3 17 pistols, I have found Speer Lawman 115 ball to shoot exceptionally well out to 100 yards in a number of different OEM barrels. It is relatively available and inexpensive, although a little hot as a everyday practice load. With the Gen 4 19, Speer Gold Dot 124+ P has turned in crazy good five shot groups for me at 50 yards.

[okie john]

This is an interesting test. My thoughts, in no particular order:

• Most of our accuracy standards were originally developed for bullseye shooting. I'm the last guy to dismiss an accurate pistol, but it could be that these standards are no longer relevant, or much less relevant than we're thinking except for professional face-shooters. I'd love to have 2" groups at 50 yards, but while 6" at 25 yards would be frustrating, it would probably be adequate.
• I get the impression that the Ransom Rest was much better understood 20-30 years ago. I'm not convinced that we've figured out all of the TTPs that let us get the best results with polymer-framed pistols.
• I would like to have seen results with 10 or more examples of each barrel.
• The barrel break-in process that the authors mentioned is probably underrated. Things need time to settle down. I'd like to see the test repeated after each barrel has had 1k rounds downrange.
• Barrels are picky and peculiar. Some shoot best when they're clean. Other shoot best dirty.
• I think that we all understand slide-to-frame fit pretty well. But I'm less convinced that we know everything that we need to know about the locking block.
• Ammo plays a huge role. Most guns shoot one or two loads better than others, but I think that some guns just aren't accurate with anything. They're still probably accurate enough for most of what we do with them.

"Biggest anomaly: Zev seemed to shoot better the further into the test it went. Its 50-yard group with 147 HST +P from Great Lakes was actually better than the 25-yard group. We have no idea why this happened, but we will admit that the testing system was the most consistent on the 50-yard test (nothing moved at all for anything inside any barrel’s individual test)."

I seem to recall something in Hatcher's Notebook about this, but I don't have a copy handy and can't quote it. I will say that I occasionally shoot a 50-yard group that's smaller than most of my 25-yard groups. Unfortunately, comparing average group sizes at 25 and 50 yards from lots of different handguns indicates that this is an anomaly, not a trend. I think that if the authors were to test more barrels and more ammo, then they might see the same thing.


Okie John