Glock Cal.and barrel question

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Nagano21

New member
I am on the quest to purchase a new hand gun. I am torn between a few options. I like Glocks from shooting experience, and I am really into Sigs, however their feel sometimes gets to me due to their large handles. After talking to my brother who has a new G23 I was telling him How I want to purchase what I mentioned above, and was leaning towards the 23. However to make it more complicated I am torn btw a .40 or a 9mm. I already own a sigma in .40 and I like the large caliber. However with a 9mm I can hold a little extra in the Mag as well as I am able to better control my shots. He mentioned to me (which was the first time I had heard of it) that I can get say a Glock 23 and buy a simple 9mm barrel and a couple 9mm mags and thats all. While it makes sense I would imagine there being more to it than simply popping the slide off and a mag out, and thats it... Can anyone else explain this to me further... Thanks
 
H

HSMITH

New member
Conversion barrels for glocks are just that simple, pop the new barrel in and change mags. Your 40 mags will probably run 9mm OK too, most of mine will.
 
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waynedm

Moderator
Negative.

The .40sw will switch directly over with the .357 sig and that's it. In order for the 9mm to swap into the 23 you'd have to change the barrel, magazines and slide. The slide from the .40 shouldn't work because face is wider than the 9mm and the extractor won't grab it. At least I'm pretty sure. I can always try it out at work in a day or so to double check.
 
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givo08

New member
The .40sw will switch directly over with the .357 sig and that's it. In order for the 9mm to swap into the 23 you'd have to change the barrel, magazines and slide. The slide from the .40 shouldn't work because face is wider than the 9mm and the extractor won't grab it. At least I'm pretty sure. I can always try it out at work in a day or so to double check.
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. All you need is a 9mm CONVERSION barrel (not just a standard 9mm barrel). Maybe mags, but as a poster earlier said, the .40 mags may work with 9mm.
 
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waynedm

Moderator
I know for a fact the 9mm won't work in the .40 mags. No matter the barrel, the extractor still won't work correctly on the 9mm.
 
J

JohnKSa

Administrator
9mm will usually load and feed in .40 mags but it's better to use the right caliber mags. Although the rim dimensions are different between .40 and 9mm, it's often the case that a 9mm conversion barrel will work just fine in a .40 gun. Usually the conversion barrel maker includes a caveat about possible extraction problems, but from what I've heard, most people have little or no problems.
 
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glockopop

New member
I was actually just looking into this last night on the BrianEnos.com forums, which are frequented by top competition shooters and regular guys who are big competition shooters. Lots of guys on those sites use 9mm conversion barrels and have for years, and most have changed out the ejector and extractor to the 9mm part, but several of them never did and it still worked fine, just didn't spit our the spent cases with as much "authority". None of them said anything about using the .40 mags. Just make sure you get a conversion barrel.

http://www.kkmprecision.com/g35.html

http://www.stormlakebarrels.com/item.aspx?PID=43178

http://www.lonewolfdist.com/products.asp?prod=4&curRecIdx=181
 
A

Ausserordeutlich

Moderator
I know for a fact the 9mm won't work in the .40 mags. No matter the barrel, the extractor still won't work correctly on the 9mm.
Click to expand...

Wayne, is that in theory, or from your empirical observation? ;) I've shot hundreds of rounds through a friend's G22 with a Lonewolf 9mm conversion barrel, with no failures. If you go to glocktalk.com and do a search, you'll find many posts that report the same results.
 
N

Nagano21

New member
I think the majority rules here and looks safe to say that a G23 with a 9mm conversion barrel and some 9mm mags will work fine.

Thanks for all the help.
 
D

Dead-Nuts-Zero

New member
Yes, I know this is an old thread, but I find it very interesting and perhaps someone could help me out with a few questions.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

From the links posted in this thread, who makes the better 9mm conversion for a G23?

Storm Lake at about 100 bucks for a 9mm plain conversion.

OR

KKM at about $200 for 9mm match.




Would the regular conversion from Storm Lake be a good choice for use in average friendly range fire with the boys (using reloads)?
Without making this too complicated of a question/answer, what do you think about them if you happen to have one or both?


Another question, can a longer 9mm conversion be used in a G23 and if so, who makes them?



Any opinions would be interesting. :cool:
 
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