I have a variety of Lone Wolf drop in barrels for my Glock 20. Every one, to a T, had a tight chamber. Between the consistency and LW's words, I believe this to be a feature. These chambers definitely had feeding issues, but no other issues and were above Glock stock in accuracy. After, opening up the chambers and polishing, feeding problems went away.
Question: Is this the main gripe with LW? What other problems are people having with LW barrels?
I have a ported LW bbl for my G20 and so far, I'm not seeing a difference in accuracy. Can't really feel a difference in recoil either. Need to shoot more loads for comparison.
This is must my conjecture and opinion, but I think a lot of guys buy them expecting the earth to shake and don't see a lot of difference. Except may less reliability due to tighter tolerances of the chamber.
And then they get upset that the earth didn't move, and they make a lot of noise about it.
I purchased several LWD barrels most were caliber conversions, they have been good investments. But I had gotten some LWD barrelsrecently for the G-20 just because the price was right for a threaded option 10mm.
But no other problems, right? Maybe I'm asking leading questions but if the implications are LW barrels are problematic or have any issues at all, I have not seen much evidence of such. Thanks.
Like sqlbullet stated, the tighter tolerances may affect feeding due to less wiggle room. In particular the tipping angles especially with those wider flat nose bullets, as the noses slide up the feed ramp (hopefully not push to left as it strikes the ejecting casing) and strike the upper chamber as the slide pushes forward trying to slide the case head up the breech face to fully chamber into battery. Things like limp wristing, may play into things for those not knowing what to expect, with guns that may not fit some people well.
My personal experience has been great with the LWD 10mm and conversion barrels. Remember I have the Wolff non captive recoil rods and extra power springs i my setups. Also I am anal about my handloads that I run through all of mine... ;D
I have not had feeding problems with any LW barrels except my 9mm G20 conversion, but that is the magazine's fault and not the barrel since the G20 10mm magazine was not designed to feed the 9mm cartridge.
My experience with LW barrels has been mixed. I can't say if any one of them is more precise than a stock Glock barrel, but I have had a few that are worse. My 6" 10mm Alpha Wolf barrel is less precise than my stock 4.5" barrel. My 357 sig barrel shot 3-4" to the left, but after I sent it back for warranty and they bent it, it now shoots 1" to the left. My 38 Super barrel also shot like crap. 4 out of 6 of my LW barrels are good: The other 2 are junk.
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Lone Wolf barrels run about $100-$120 for a basic barrel. BarSto is double that. The Glock OEM barrel is about $50 more. These are budget barrels, not premium barrels. The fact that 4/6 met or exceeded OEM quality is pretty good.