Regarding the use of 'extended barrels'........

[Gary in Pennsylvania]

OK.

I'm not too much one to succumb to that which is a 'fad'......but I gotta admit - I like the 'extended barrel' look.

In other words, an OEM pistol with a 4" barrel refitted with an aftermarket 4.5"-or-so barrel. Sometimes, these 'extended barrels' have compensation ports machined right in at the end - which one would think actually offers a sort of "utility"


But I'd be wary nonetheless - I'd worry that the action of re-holstering or general sitting down (or whatever) will give a higher probability of pushing the slide out-of-battery.

I carry OWB in a Blackhawk! Serpa.....so the forward slide is exposed enough as it is.


Do any of you use extended barrels? I agree, they look cool (PICS PLEASE!)....but have any of you experienced your slide getting accidentally pushed out-of-battery because of this?

 

[DZL HOG]

Some of the extended barrels are threaded on the end for compensators. And sometimes they use smooth covers to protect the threads when a compensator is not being used, and it may look like an extended barrel.

Other than that purpose I really dont see the need, but Im no expert. I guess it could give a lil more accuracy on a longer shot.

 

[Loomis]

Sort of utility?

Come on, man. Compensators are way more than "sort of utility".

 

[rcmodel]

Yea!
Compensators are a real BLAST!

If you like blasts.

rcmodel

 

[KBintheSLC]

I don't care for compensator's personally. The only gun of mine that has an extended barrel is my Glock 20 with a 6" match barrel. I only bought that because the tighter chamber is easier on brass than the stock barrel. I also use it when shooting hard cast lead bullets. However, I don't notice much of a performance increase from it accuracy wise. Actually, it makes my Glock unreliable and is therefore only suited for range use.

If you are looking to add an after market barrel to your carry gun for duty use, I would say don't do it. I assume that the folks who engineered your gun know whats best for it. I would never ever carry my G20 for SD with that after market barrel in it.

 

[Daizee]

An extra inch of barrel sticking out the front of the slide won't affect accuracy (unless the barrel itself is more accurate than the previous one). It might give more velocity, tho. Extending your sight radius - i.e. the slide - will improve practical accuracy.

-Daizee