KKM vs LW vs Stock Glock Barrel

[Killermonkey21]

Hello all,

I am about to return home from Iraq and will be getting into as much practical/fun pistol shooting as possible. IPSC, IDPA, Steel Challenge, etc. With that, my primary arms will be a Glock 22 (Gen 2) and Glock 23 (gen 3). Both have stock barrels, with the 22 having a ding in the crown and an unknown amount of rounds through it, with just under 1k from me. The 23 is under 500 rounds through.

I will be almost exclusively reloading my own rounds when I return so here is my question.

I have yet to have a malfunction with either pistol using full power factory ammo and accuracy is about as good as I could expect from my less than expert hands. I want to purchase an aftermarket barrel for each of them, but I would like the accuracy to either stay the same, but need a fully supported chamber and preferably rifled barrels so that I could use lead and reloaded rounds without too much concerns.

With that said, does anyone have any experience with KKM vs Lone Wolf in the reliability and accuracy department? How about in relation to the stock Glock barrel?

Any and all information would be appreciated in regards to their relationship to each other. Thanks.

-SGT John V.
2nd ID, US Army

 

[PO2Hammer]

I had a KKM .40s&w conversion barrel for my Glock 20 that was the most accurate .40 I've shot to date. I was getting 2 to 2-1/2" groups from my 10mm stock barrel, and got the same with the .40 conversion barrel (25 yards).
It shot better than my Glock 35.
The KKM barrel was very impressive, perfectly smooth rifling, not a tool mark anywhere.
Never seen a Lone Wolf barrel.

 

[PO2Hammer]

BTW, thank you for your service.

 

[Nasty]

Welcome Home...

I use the LW barrels in my 27 (357 & 9mm) and they function perfectly with more than acceptable accuracy.

 

[klash545]

you can't beat the stock barrel.....the reliability of aftermarket stuff is hit or miss

 

[KBintheSLC]

I have 2 LW barrels for my G20... one is a 6" 10mm, and the other is a 4.6" 10mm to .40 conversion. Both are very well made, highly accurate, and generally reliable... though my 6" 10mm barrel has feeding issues unless I use a 22lb recoil spring. The .40 conversion barrel is totally reliable so far with both the stock spring and the 22lb'er. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend LW for Glock owners looking for a match/reload barrel.

For defensive use, I would probably just stick to the stock barrel since the looser chamber tolerances tend to make it more reliable.

Thanks for your service to our country.

 

[rklessdriver]

I had a LW 9mm conversion barrel for my G23. Function was 100% and accuracy was more than acceptable. Good product IMO and if I ever have another Glock .40 cal I intend to reload for I'll happily buy another one.
Will

 

[mohunter55]

i have a glock 19 9mm replacement barrel and a glock 22 .40 s&w replacement barrel. I bought both for shooting lead reloads in my glock. The 9mm was great right out of the box, the glock 22 was sent in since i was getting failures to feed with factory WWB. It took about a week and a half from the time they got the barrel until the time i got it back. I am able to use Lead Semi Wadcutters and truncated cones in my .40 and have not had a hiccup since the barrel was returned in 200 rounds fired. My glock 19 lonewolf barrel has never had any hangups and it has had several thousand lead and fmj rounds though it. If you buy a lonewolf and have any problems, they will take care of you. I can not speak to the kkm and I only use the factory barrel for carry.

 

[Killermonkey21]

I think I'll end up buying the LW barrel. LW is relatively local and if I ever had a problem I could always drive that way if I had to.

Just wondering, but both KKM and LW have fully supported chambers in .40 SW, correct?

And no worries, I carry Gold Dots for self defense in my G23, with the G22 being the reserve pistol, so I will keep the factory barrel when carrying for SD. Besides, if the pistol gets confiscated it'd be bad enough losing a $500 pistol with $100 sights without adding a $120 barrel to the mix.

I appreciate all of the info and advice. And thank you for the thanks. I know that all service members, past and present, appreciate being appreciated. Take care.

-SGT John V.

 

[mohunter55]

yes, kkm & lw barrels claim they are fully supported on their sites. I have a 40 s&w case gauge and when i fire a round through the glock factory barrel, there is no chance it will fit back in the gauge. When i fire the round through the lw barrel, it slides right back in the gauge. The chamber on the LW is much tighter. This stops the brass from expanding so much and is easier on your brass. This also can lead to some of the issues people can have with reloads and their barrels. Most problems are resolved by using a grx-push through die, a egw undersize die (which i use), or sending your barrel into lone wolf with a few of your reloads and they will make your barrel custom fit to the reloads.

 

[mohunter55]

for what its worth, i did not need to use the egw die, my rcbs dies worked just fine. but i ordered it before i got the lw barrel and it provides better case tension, so i use it.

 

[Killermonkey21]

mohunter- Thank you, thats very good to know. To make sure I understand you correctly, if I use one of those dies (I'll be getting a Dillon progressive press) I can use my older .40 cases that have been shot through a stock Glock barrel to resize them?

 

[mohunter55]

Here is the standard email lone wolf will send if you are have problems:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I suspect you have a reloading problem. This is easy to verify. Remove the barrel from the slide. Drop a factory round into the chamber. If the factory round fits slightly lower than the top of the barrel hood you are looking good to go. If the factory round does not sit slightly below the top of the barrel hood you will need to return the barrel to LWD and we will fix it right away.

The problem is most likely caused by an expanded or swelled case head that has not been fully resized. Ammunition that is fired from an original Glock factory barrel produces (very) expanded case heads. This expansion occurs because of the large chamber used in Glock factory barrels. Many reloaders think they are full length resizing their brass but this simply is not true. The sizer die has a beveled area located at the entrance of the die mouth. This beveled area helps guide the straight walled cartridge into the die. The case rim is held with a shell holder. The area of the cartridge that is between this beveled area and the shell holder never gets resized completely.

If you drop your reload into a LWD barrel and the case head (rim) sits above the barrel hood this is a good indication your brass is bulged and not resized correctly. Here is 2 ways to fix this problem:

1 Run your loads through a case gauge before shooting. Many reloaders currently use Dillon or Midway stainless case gauges however these manufactures are known to have liberal tolerances. If your Dillon or Midway case gauge works with the LWD chamber you are good to go. If not, we recommend you use the EGW case gauge. The EGW is known to run tighter tolerances. Once the reload is fired from the LWD barrel you should not have a feed problem again.

2 You can return your barrel to Lone Wolf and include 4 or 5 dummy rounds of your reloads (no powder or primer) and we will open up the chamber to accommodate your loaded round.

*If you are reloading 40 S&W or 10mm we recommend you use the Redding GRX push through die to remove 100% of the case budge.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

until the Redding GRX push through die came out, they used to recommend the EGW undersize die, which is what i have and works great. Some also have problems with their reloads being too long for aftermarket barrrel chambers. I set my rounds to 1.125 and have had no problems. I highly recommend the EGW die. I can't speak to the GRX dies as I've never tried it, but i dont like the idea of it simply because it would not be able to be ran on a progressive press. The EGW die is a lee die that if i remember right sizes a little farther down on the case and sizes the case .001 smaller. My rcbs die seems to resize the round enough to still fit the lone wolf barrel, but i use the egw undersize die because i believe it provides better tension. For 100 bucks you can have the Lonewolf barrel. If you have problems it will cost you 5-6 bucks for shipping and Dan (their armorer) will make it right. JR and the crew at lonewolf have been a pleasure to work with and odds are you will not have any problems at all, but sometimes problems do occur when swapping out aftermarket parts, which is why i highly suggest lone wolf....they make things right.

 

[Weevil]

I've got a KKM for my G20.





I got it for reloads and lead bullets. Superb accuracy and even though I use the stock barrel for actual carry purposes I'm not real sure why anymore. The KKM has been 100% reliable and that's with a steady diet of reloads and lead bullets that's nearing the 3000 round mark.

I really doubt that the KKM would suddenly start to choke if I used good quality SD factory ammo.

Even so I carry the stock barrel because they're supposedly more reliable.

 

[Hk Dan]

Storm Lake and Lone Wolf will approximate factory accuracy. My KKM is very accurate, but it's a G21-10mm conversion; I have nothing to base the accuracy on; the G21 is very accurate, and so it the 10mm.

In all honesty, I'd just load plated rounds instead of lead. Too much smoke from those things for competition shooting--you'll see what I mean. It's like a civil war re-eanctment or something. Plated bullets aren't a lot more expensive, and they don't have ANY smoke.

Now, I've loaded and shot lead bullets from my GLOCKs and HK USPs. I know, sue me already--turn me in to the BATF and revoke my posting privileges. For all the falderall, non of my GLOCKs have blown up and they haven't had "excessive fouling". Keep the chamber clear of lead shavings and you're fine.

 

[Weevil]

Well it's not just "shavings".

Lead has a low melting point and the burning powder produces some intense heat, so you're always gonna leave a certain amount of molten lead in the bore.

Sure you may get away with it especially if you clean your barrel very regularly but with a polygonal barrel it doesn't take all that much to seal it with lead and cause an overpressure incident that blows out a case.