Anyone have a wilson combat glock barrel?

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JBrady555

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Hey folks I'm entertaining the idea of getting a dedicated lead barrel for my g17. Lots of folks recommend lone wolf which is a decent option for the price, but I can get a wilson combat barrel from my lgs for a competitive price also. I'm not seeing many reviews on the Wilson so I thought I would ask here if any of you have any first hand experience. Thanks for any info.
 
I havent seen the Wilson, but have wondered about the Bar-Sto barrel from the Glock store. They claim 1 to 2 inch groups at 25 yards for what ever that's worth.

Russellc
 
These are 9mm barrel twist rates of various brands:

Glock - 1:9.84

Bar-Sto - 1:16
Briley - 1:16
KKM - 1:20
Lone Wolf - 1:16
Storm Lake - 1:16
Wilson Combat - 1:10

IMO, fast barrel twist rate of Wilson Combat would be fine for jacketed bullets but for lead bullets, I think slower twist rate may be better and bullseye match shooters prefer slower twist rate barrels for accuracy.

I have both KKM and Lone Wolf barrels and they produce very good accuracy with KKM producing slightly tighter shot groups than Lone Wolf.
 
Well, guess what? Wilson Combat changed the barrel twist rate to 1:16 and it is not a drop in and may require fitting - http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Match-Grade-Barrel-9mm-Glock-17-449-Stainless/productinfo/379/
  • Match-Grade - Superb Accuracy (2" Or Less At 25 Yards With Good Ammo)
  • Polished feed ramp, bore and supported chamber
  • 1 in 16" twist conventional broach rifling will accept lead, jacketed or plated bullets without fear of pressure spikes caused by polygonal rifling
  • Fully Machined From 416R Stainless Steel
  • Heat-Treated To R/C 40 For Maximum Service Life
  • Critical Manufacturing Tolerances Are Held To Less Than .0005" (One Half Thousandth Of An Inch!)
  • Glass Smooth Chamber And Perfectly Concentric With The Bore
  • In Our Barrel Test Fixture We Routinely Obtain ½" At 25 Yard Groups
  • Detailed Final Inspection Prior To Receiving The Wilson Name On The Hood
  • Critical Lock-Up Contact Areas Cut To A Dimension That Provides A Good Lock-Up in most guns
  • Compatible with all Generation of Glock pistols
... Due to variations in pistol dimensions, installation in some pistols may require very minor material removal which most people can easily do themselves.
Click to expand...
 
JBrady,
Are you sure it's necessary? You may encounter the same problems as you're having now (your other thread). Have you played with all of the variables yet? I know some mentioned slugging your barrel to see if you're getting a good seal and such. Im not that experienced with lead, and I know some say it's a no no with Glock barrels. Stepping on your toes is not my intent here, I'd hate to see you spend the money on a barrel when your load just needed to be tweaked or something.

I might be talking over my pay grade and experience level here.
 
If the Wilson Combat barrel the LGS stocks is truly 1:16 and not 1:10, I think you would be fine using it for dedicated barrel for lead bullets.

If the price was comparable to KKM barrel, I may lean towards KKM which has 1:20 twist rate and it has produced smaller shot groups than my Lone Wolf barrel which has 1:16 twist rate also.
 
Potatohead said:
JBrady,
Are you sure it's necessary? You may encounter the same problems as you're having now (your other thread). Have you played with all of the variables yet? I know some mentioned slugging your barrel to see if you're getting a good seal and such. Im not that experienced with lead, and I know some say it's a no no with Glock barrels. Stepping on your toes is not my intent here, I'd hate to see you spend the money on a barrel when your load just needed to be tweaked or something.

I might be talking over my pay grade and experience level here.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it's necessary or not, I'm just desperate to start tightening up my groups. I'm not going to buy a barrel until I try a few more load variations with what I got, but if I do decide to get one I want the best drop in/semi drop in that I can. I don't mind doing a little fitting but it needs to be minor if any.
 
Great... Shoots well? Though we've barely tested his, the trigger seems nice in SA, but Im no trigger expert.
 
Trigger is pretty stiff for a 1911 style platform but thats not a bad thing for a single action pocket gun. Run lots of ammo before deciding on what your gonna carry. It will choke on some stuff. I carry critical duty 135gr flexlock hp. Seems to run good.
 
OP, I have to ask -- what are your groups like? What are they like with factory ammo? What distance are you shooting? Are you shooting supported - bench rest? Do you group as well or better with other guns? Is it only the lead that is causing the bigger groups?

BDS, as noted above, has done extensive accuracy testing with some different barrels and many loads. It may be a good idea to heed some of his suggestions.

I'm using the Lone Wolf in my G17 and am satisfied with it. Then again, I'm not shooting any type of competition - bullseye or otherwise. I use the Lone Wolf because it's threaded and it's one of my hosts for my can. I have been loading lead through it (not the can) recently and have been pretty happy with it. At 7 yards I can put most rounds into a nice cluster. At 10 it opens up, of course, but I can still keep them pretty close. At 25 I will hit a head size target, but it's not what I would call a group, and at 50 I can hit the steel gong (12") more times than not. All of this is standing off hand.
 
If you are doing baseball size at 8 yards, with good ammo or reloads -- then it's probably not your ammo --- how do you shoot with other guns? A G17 is generally capable of having them touch at 7-8 yards. If the shooter does their part.
How good is your trigger control? Does the break surprise you? Do you keep the group at your point of aim? Or are they somewhere close?
One modification that I think helps Glocks is the trigger mods -- I have the Ghost Rocket on mine and it really makes it a lot smoother/lighter compared to the factory trigger.
All of this is IMHO and of course YMMV
 
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I may be a little better with my p95 but not much. I have a glock minus connector in my 17 but it still feels wierd through the squeeze. Its just not smooth.
 
OK. If you know someone with the Rocket or the Wolf one, try them out. I think they do help in taming the roughness of the Glock triggers. I know that you have posted in the reloading section with some other questions, but let's address the group size with "good" ammo.
I'm air quoting it, because, once you master the trigger control, and have your reloads where you want them, then the ammo really doesn't change much at 7-8 yards, where we are shooting. Ammo will show differences at 25 yards in group size (benched), but for informal off hand shooting at 7-15 yards, not much IMHO.
The groups I mentioned above, and the targets at the various ranges can be duplicated for me regardless of the ammo - my reloads using plated, lead round nose, lead cone, or fmj. Federal, Blazer brass and aluminum, Wolf, Tula, Silver Bear, and who knows what else.

Back to the other questions:
How good is your trigger control? Does the break surprise you? Do you keep the group at your point of aim? Or are they somewhere close?

If you have a good shooting coach/mentor you can work with, it may help. But there are some tips I can suggest that helped me.
1 -- trigger control
2 -- trigger control
3 -- trigger control
4-9 -- trigger control
10 -- sight alignment/sight picture
11 -- any thing else

One trick that I use to help me zero in -- is a small area/point to aim at. I find that if I have a set point on the target to aim for instead of a broad empty area, then it helps me stay tighter. Sometimes I use the small paste circles from the shoot and sees.
Get a couple of dummy rounds made up or buy some snap caps, have a buddy load your mags and when you shoot, see what happens when you hit the dummy round. Do you flinch, jerk, anticipate the recoil or otherwise mess up the trigger break?
 
Point of aim is pretty close to point of impact. When they drift off its to the left a little. I aim for trigger break surprise but it doesn't always work.
 
Try this first for improving accuracy.

Dry fire while watching the front sight. When the striker is released, does the front sight jump or move? If it does, practice until it doesn't. Once you reach the point where the front sight does not move, then next do live range fire.

At the range, before you commence firing, dry fire slowly and verify the front sight is not moving. Instead of starting out at 10/15 yards, set your targets at 7 yards. You should be able to get 1" shot groups at 7 yards on average with typical factory barrel and typical factory load.

Once you are able to consistently produce tight shot groups on par with 1", then move your target to 10 yards and repeat.
 
I dunno if I would keep a full size gun that only delivers baseball size groups at 7-8 yards. My personal standard at that distance is all of the shots in one ragged hole and I shoot the same bullet and powder charge in all of my 9mm's. I would test my ammunition in a gun with proven accuracy. If it performs as expected I'd dump the Glock.

It does sound like your shooting technique needs work. Buying different parts is a waste of money until you have mastered the basics.

p.s. How much caffine (coffee or soda) are you drinking before going to and at the range.
 
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