Storm Lake Barrels in Standard Length

[jobes]

Maybe a stupid question but would there be any advantages going with the stock barrel length from Storm Lake? I understand the tolerances are tighter and materials are different so will this make my shooter (G23) unreliable?

[NorCalHeroes]

Some people have reported failures to feed into Wolf barrels since the chamber tolerances are better (in other words, some ammunition was slightly out of spec and wouldn't feed) and/or the feed ramp doesn't have as good an angle as stock due to the lack of throating. I understand the LW barrel is fully supported, which removes the "unsupported case" cause of kabooms (but not the "overloaded powder" cause) reported for Glocks. In addition, the LW barrel has traditional rifling and therefore can take lead bullets, beneficial to reloaders and hazardous to those breathing the air at ranges (vaporized and micropulverized lead particles in the air).

My personal take on a Lone Wolf barrel (assuming they are as well made in terms of raw materials, fabricating, and hardening as oem Glock) is as follows (I don't talk about lead bullets because I don't shoot them):

1. Given the number of reports on Glock kabooms in .40, I'd probably use a LW barrel if I got a .40 for almost all range shooting. Then for "nightstand protection" I'd most likely switch back to the Glock barrel (feeds and ejects reliably) or pre-test the cartridges I intended to load in the magazine by seeing how easily they fit the chamber by fitting them in by hand. And I'd probably use fmj, not expanding, to minimize feeding issues.

2. I probably wouldn't worry about barrel or case kabooms in 9mm since the Glock is optimized for 9mm in terms of barrel thickness (it will apparently take NATO submachine gun 9mm) and the amount of throating is based on a lot of testing and field experience with 9mm (remember most .40 kabooms date to the early days of the Glock .40, I am not so sure this is still a problem). So I would stick with the stock barrel unless I needed to shoot lead bullets or was worried my nephew would stupidly use lead bullets if I lent it to him for a range day etc.

3. In .45 I'm not sure what I would do. .45 is a big barrel and I'm not sure if Glock up-sized the slide to accommodate greater barrel thickness (barrel kaboom issue). On the other hand .45 has lower pressures. The .45 is hard to feed; the stock Glock has aggressive ramping and throating, which is good for reliability; the LW is fully supported (I believe) which might be better for preventing case ruptures. All in all if I were shooting reloads I would use LW, if factory, Glock.

Actually in example #2, 9mm, above, if you are shooting reloads, which is contra the Glock manual, LW might be a better choice. All of Glock's design assumptions are based on "one use" brass. Although .40 deforms in Glock chambers the most following ignition, the other calibers are also subject to stress.

Ok -

reloads or lead bullets us LW. Reliability use Glock.