ATLDave said:
The question is whether any difference would show up in the splits. I'm not expressing an opinion on whether it would, but that would be the relevant measure, not how heavy they feel.
I would argue that IMPROVED SPLIT TIMES would be a
relevant measure ONLY if you're shooting competitively, and you shoot at a sufficiently high level that a slim fraction of a second will makes meaningful difference in the final scores.
But that would be possible only if metal guide rods allowed a quicker return to battery than a plastic one.
Does it? Otherwise, the question of reliability and durability would seem to be far more relevant.
On the Smith & Wesson forum a number of folks have commented about experiencing bent metal guide rods that disabled their guns; those guns included BHPs and Berettas, not just S&W weapons. Others participating in the same discussion used metal instead of the plastic guide rods that came with their guns, and had problems. One Kahr user said that switching to steel made his gun inoperable; reinstalling the factory plastic made it run as it should.
Interestingly, one participant on the S&W forum claimed that installing a metal guide rod in his S&W 410, which came with a plastic guide rod, reduced (improved) his group sizes slightly. While he may have seen a difference in group sizes after the swap, I'm not sure it was due to the guide rod change. That's because the bullet leaves the barrel BEFORE the barrel has fully disengaged from the locking lugs, and the speed with which the barrel disengages isn't really affected by guide rod material. Here's a YouTube video showing (what appears to be a .45) the bullet leaving the barrel after the slide has moved just a fraction of an inch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySO0EWIlOKc (You have to use the STOP/START button very precisely to see it happen, as it's happens VERY QUICKLY. Notice, however, how little the slide has moved when the bullet is out of the barrel -- the bullet and slide aren't moving at the same speed!)
Given those factors, unless someone can show us that a metal guide rod will somehow cause the slide and barrel to lock up more consistently or reliably than a plastic one when the next round is chambered, I will consider the use of plastic to be a non-issue, if the gun maker uses plastic.
