Glock conversions

All you have to change is the barrel and buy G17 magazines. You can get a glock factory, wolf or storm lake barrel and a couple of G17 magazines and you'll be good to go.

Depends if you want it as a defense weapon or just to for lighter recoil when shooting at the range. If you want a 9mm Glock for serious purposes, buy a 9mm Glock.
For a defense weapon I wouldn't trust a caliber conversion for a Glock other than .40S&W to .357Sig or vice versa, since those guns are identical except for the barrel and magazine (specifically the follower).

For a range gun, I think you are good to go with a conversion barrel and recoil spring change, and maybe a 9mm magazine.

Another option would be a .22 conversion, which is a whole upper swap. Kits are offered by Advantage Arms, Tactical Solutions, and Ceiner, although I'd stay away from the Ceiner kit due to their reputation for abysmal customer service (as in the the company owner has been known to get on the phone and yell at customers for daring to call for help with their product).

The factory recoil springs in the 17 and 22 are both 17lb if I'm not mistaken, so I don't know why you would need to change the recoil spring.

If it was "just" a range gun I'd be mighty tempted to just get a conversion barrel and mags and give it a go. The barrel mfg could probably give you the best recommendation on whether other parts (like the extractor) could or should be changed, but while swapping the extractor is easy, I still probably wouldn't want to do it every time to the range, for example.

My second choice would be to just buy a used G17; they are pretty cheap. If you buy a complete top end, especially new, you will be almost to the price of a whole used gun.

I bought the luger extractor when I did the 40-9 conversion. Upon close inspection I found the 40SW extractor actually holds the brass a bit tighter to the breechface than the 9mm extractor.

With either extractor, the brass doesn't eject as good as my stock G19. The shells tend to pop straight up in the air, rather than to the side. They sometimes go forward, sometimes hit me in the face. This might be due to the ejector. I wonder if the shells are hitting the ejection port and deflecting up.

Not that my G19 ejects with a super consistent trajectory. But it USUALLY throws brass to the right.

So I wouldn't buy a luger extractor. It didn't help in my case, and on inspection I don't see why it should.

Barrel and mag.

I bought a LWD barrel 40-9 and it works fine so far no malfs I have on occation used my 40 magazines and they functioned fine for range use.
I would however not use it as a carry pistol in this configuration.I changed nothing,and its every bit as accurate as the factory barrel.I have several 9's that I load for allready but I figured another one for a hundred or so was cheap.

Doogledog said:

All you have to change is the barrel and buy G17 magazines. You can get a glock factory, wolf or storm lake barrel and a couple of G17 magazines and you'll be good to go.

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From what I've read you can not safely drop a G17 9mm barrel in a G22. You need to get a Lone Wolf (or other) 40/9 conversion barrel.

^It won't be as accurate and POI will be high, because of play at the muzzle end. But I don't see where there's a safety issue.

For just a little more, you could get a used G17. A barrel and 2 magazines will run at least $150 and used G17s are going for under $400 at some retailers. If you want to do a conversion get a .22 conversion for the G22, there is a difference between money spent and well spent.

I put a LWD 40-9 barrel in my G24, and using just the barrel, and a 9mm magazine, I had a lot of stovepipes, and failure to ejects. I added a 9mm ejector/extractor, and now it runs wonderfully. With the long and heavy G24 slide, its really a pussycat shooting 9mm.

For what it's worth, here is my experience. All you need is the Lone Wolf 40-9 conversion barrel and G17 magazines. Takes less than a minute to swap. Even my G22 mags will feed 9mm just fine for target practice and so far no problems. If you have the Gen 4 G22 and use the stock recoil spring you will have stove pipes using the cheap target ammo (WWB). If you use quality ammo no failures so far. +P 9mm ammo is by far the best because somehow it makes the felt recoil less than the cheap ammo. This is from personal experience and absolutely no other mods have been made to the Gen 4 G22.
Mike

Hunter700 said:

Hey all I have a g22. It's too snappy for my wife and I'd like to get either a 9mm conversion barrel or an entire 9mm slide and barrel. I've been doing some research and I can't get a straight answer about what you need. Some say change out the barrel, recoil spring, extractor, 9mm magazine. Other say barrel and recoil spring only. I know red wolf has the barrrels for 100$ or so. I'd really like a whole new upper. Think that would be the fastest. Anyway, appreciate your input.

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Have you looked into getting a new wife that is more recoil tolerant? In some cases a replacement wife can be found, and many of them will even pay their own way...

If a new wife is not practical your second best bet is a Lone Wolf 40-9mm conversion barrel and a couple of G17 mags.

ALL full sized Glocks use the same 17lb recoil spring no matter what caliber you are talking about (9mm, .357 SIG, .40S&W, .45ACP and even 10MM!), so no need to swap springs to run 9mm in a G22.

As others have stated, the Extractors *may* be an issue, but most folks find that it is not. The consensus seems to be that the slightly larger extractor on a .40cal works fine with the 9mm rim.

Purchse a 9mm CONVERSION barrel from Jarvis, Storm Lake, etc. I beleiev there is a slight difference inthe breecg face betwen 9m and 40 S&W slides. The conversion barrel allows for this conversion - without the conversio barrel you might expereine erratric extraction etc.

Gloob: said:

It won't be as accurate and POI will be high, because of play at the muzzle end. But I don't see where there's a safety issue.

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Huh? There is no more play at the muzzle end than there is with an OEM barrel. The outside diameter of the 9mm conversion barrel is the same as the 40s&w barrel. The internal diameter is just smaller to accomodate the 9mm bullet. I am running 2 conversion barrels and I can attest to the accuracy of these barrels.

As to whether internal parts need to be exchanged to make the conversion reliable...No! You only need the barrel & the 9mm mags. I have over 5000 rounds through my conversions and the only problems I've ever experienced were 2 failures to eject on my M&P 40 conversion. Those happened with reloads & happened in the first mag run through the barrel. No problems since. I have not carried either barrel for SD purposes, but if I found myself holding a converted gun on a perp, I would feel no less safe than if I was holding a gun with the OEM barrel installed. Hey that is just my personal experience with the concept. I could be wrong.

The fact that it only takes a few seconds to convert the guns means that you can carry one gun to the range and shoot 3 different calibers out of the same gun...9mm, 40s&w & 357sig. I bought the 357sig barrels for my 40s&w guns since the barrel is the only part you need to exchange with that conversion. The mags are the same as the 40s&w mags.

my change was the next size down 3rd Gen OD framed G23 to "G19" conversion...Storm Lake 40/9 conversion barrel and G19 magazines...nothing else...

I carry mine in harm's way and it has been perfect for about 500 rounds so far...both American Eagle 124GR FMJ and Speer Gold Dot 124GR Hollowpoint...the majority of it with the Speer Gold Dot...it has been just as accurate as the stock barrel...

I wouldn't carry it unless it was perfect...

Bill

I have shot several tens of thousand rounds of reloads through Lone Wolf 40 and 40-9 conversion barrels in G22 and G27 without issues. For my Gen3 Glocks, stock extractors have been reliable and eject spent cases behind me and to the right. I need to use G17 mags when using conversion barrel in G22 but G27 feeds 9mm reliably with stock mags. If you have feeding issues when using conversion barrel, check the condition/feed angle at the mag follower/chamber ramp area and replace follower/spring as necessary.

For me, how spent cases eject (straight up, forward, etc.) when using LW barrels depends on the powder/charge. Not enough charge and spent cases won't eject backwards/up fast enough to clear my head and may get hit forward by the extractor as the slide travels back forward.

My reasons for using Lone Wolf barrels are primarily the tight chambers that won't allow bulging of the case (especially the 40S&W) and the standard land/groove rifling for shooting of lead bullets. I do have G17 but prefer to shoot 9mm lead reloads out of G22 with the conversion barrel. BTW, $100 is much less than $450-$550 you would spend for another Glock and factory mags are cheap (around $20).

Accuracy is comparable to factory barrels and concern over reliability may be more attributed to dimensions of the finished rounds and tight LW chambers.

I would not have any problem using LW barrels/loads that have been fully tested for reliability/accuracy in MY Glocks for SD/HD use but would recommend others conduct their own reliability/accuracy testing in THEIR Glocks before using them for SD/HD purposes.

for range use, I would be fine with a 9mm conversion barrel only. For defensive use I would go the extra step and most likely buy the 17, 19 etc.

For conversion barrels go with Storm Lake, KKM, or a Jarvis if you can find it. Skip the Lone Wolf products. Pay about $50 more for better products and great customer servivce-especially storm lake's people. MHO...

I have a police trade in Gen 3 Glock 22 with a Lone Wolf BBL in 9mm that shoots fine except that it throws brass in my face sometimes, it's not 100% but close enough for
my use. You can cheap 17 mags through CDNN on line.

Depending on the ammo/load, factory Glock barrels will also eject cases toward my forehead/face.

If you are reloading, increasing the powder charge will toss the cases further up and out and clear my right shoulder.

Just a barrel and mag change for me has been flawless so far in about 3000 rounds.

I am a cheap bastard, so I went with the Lone Wolf and have not had a singe issue with it. I did get the 40-9 conversion barrel, but as some others have said, a 17 barrel will drop right into a 22 and work just fine.