Aftermarket pistol barrels (.45ACP & threaded)

[Fulliautomatix]

I'm familiar with the usual suspects, at least their names... Barsto, Storm Lake, EFK Firedragon, Jarvis. Are there any others?

Anyone have first hand experience and/or recommendations?

I'm looking for quality and ease of use. ie: Drop it in, screw on the can and shoot. No fitting required.

Looking for barrels for Kimber Custom II, and USP 45.

Thanks for any insights you can offer.

[T-Rex]

Why do you not want a factory barrel? Both MFR's offer his item.

Other than my Glocks, I use MFR bbls, when available.

[Fulliautomatix]

Really? Where can you get Kimber threaded barrels? If possible I'd like to have both barrels threaded the same pitch, and USP appear to only come with metric threads.

[Fulliautomatix]

PS: I just got off the phone with Kimber customer service/sales, and they said that they don't sell threaded barrels.

[T-Rex]

PS: I just got off the phone with Kimber customer service/sales, and they said that they don't sell threaded barrels.

They sell them on complete pistols, but not as an oem part?

They also sell every part and conversion kits, but no threaded bbls...... weird.


Jarvis
KKM
Barsto
no particular order although I know Jarvis does great work and they offer 16mm x 1.0LH as an option.

[Fulliautomatix]

PS: I just got off the phone with Kimber customer service/sales, and they said that they don't sell threaded barrels.

They sell them on complete pistols, but not as an oem part?

They also sell every part and conversion kits, but no threaded bbls...... weird.


Jarvis
KKM
Barsto
no particular order although I know Jarvis does great work and they offer 16mm x 1.0LH as an option.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I had already scoured their site for the threaded bbls, because I'm familiar with their Warrior models that have them. Oh well.

I'll check out Jarvis then.

PS: Jarvis also makes HK barrels available with .578"x28 threads.

[chrismartin]

Storm Lake makes a great threaded 1911 barrel. You can get them from MidwayUSA, they are usually in stock.
I have three of them now.
That said, 1911 parts, especially barrels are rarely drop in parts.

[Fulliautomatix]

Thinking through this again, I think the way to go would be to get a SWR Octane with the .578x28 piston, along with a spare M16x1LH piston. Then I could get the factory USP threaded barrel (M16x1), and the StormLake 1911 barrel (.578x28). It works out to be about the same $. The money saved on getting both barrels from Midway will likely be spent on the spare piston.

[chrismartin]

Sounds like a good plan. It's what I would do.

It's always best to go factory when you can.
With 1911's, it doesn't matter too much, there will always be fitting needed (at least a lot of the time).
With Glock, HK, Sig, etc. factory barrels are the way to go, even if you have to use a metric piston.

So if I were in your shoes, I'd get the factory HK barrel and a Storm Lake 1911 barrel.
It's what I did, except it was with a Sig P220 factory threaded barrel and a Storm Lake 1911 barrel (also for my Kimber).

[Fulliautomatix]

How much fitting did you need on your Kimber,and what model was it? Reading through the reviews on the StormLake barrel at midway, there are several folks that said it dropped straight in, no modification needed. FWIW, I have a Custom II

[chrismartin]

My Kimber Super Match took a lot of fitting. It wouldn't even fit into the slide at all.
I used lapping compound on the outside of the barrel hood and tapped it in and out until it was nice an smooth. It took a little work, but once it was in, it was not a problem. Basically, either the hood of the barrel was oversized or the inside of the slide was undersized.
This barrel was ordered from Midway. A different SL barrel dropped right in to another 1911 slide, no issues other than getting the hood length right.
Critical areas for the 1911 that need to be checked when replacing a barrel are:
Hood length
Upper lugs
Lower lug fit against the slide stop

If any of these are off, the barrel won't go into battery or the slide will not go all the way forward (Those are two different things sometimes)

All of that said, that's really the problem with 1911's and all barrels. Even the "drop-in" ones may need a lot of work depending on the 1911 itself. Lot of small variations add up. You will find even MORE work if you order a custom "gunsmith fit" type barrel like Barsto's or a custom ordered storm lake. The drop in's take some of the work out, but not always all of the work.

[sillycon]

While I realize this is perhaps a bit off the mark for the typical Kimber shooter/owner it's relevant experience none-the-less.

A few months back, I wanted a "beater" 1911 suppressor host for shooting "run and gun" type shooting matches. I found an ATI Thunderbolt at a local pawn shop for an excellent price (the plunger housing hadn't been properly staked) and scooped it up. Now only needing a threaded barrel, I picked up a "drop-in" Swenson threaded barrel from Midway for ~$60, plus a link and pin.

The barrel needed a few minutes worth of filing to final fit it to the gun (mostly hood length), and I needed to pick through my extra barrel bushings to find one that provided a proper fit. Accuracy-wise, from ~30 yards (yes, 30 yards/90 feet) the gun can easily neutralize a 4" plate so long as the shooter does their part. I haven't shot it from further or at smaller yet to be able to say anything more than that.

I do need to change out the link, however, as at the moment the gun is riding the link instead of the lugs (I guessed and got a .278" link; upon fitting I found that I needed a .275"), but I've got nothing but praise for the barrel itself.

On a related note, I have to wonder how "bad" riding the link really is. I realize it's not the intended or correct implementation of the design, but I've looked at quite a few Paras and every single one of them has been setup to ride the link. I've seen the occasional Colt that rode the link as well, but it's pretty rare. I've not worked on Wilsons or Kimbers, so I don't know how they're typically setup. Regardless, it leads one to believe that with Para continuing to build their guns that way that it's not giving rise to more problems/failures/warranty issues, etc. than a "proper" lug-riding setup would.

Thoughts?