Caliber Conversion Discussion

[DukeInFlorida]

Well, I'm loving my new addition: P229 Sig in .40 S&W.

The nice thing about this gun is that when you buy it in .40 S&W, you can then buy aftermarket barrels, and just by changing the barrel, have three guns in one, 9mm, .40 S&W, and .357 Sig. The .40 S&W and 357 Sig even use the same mags.

I've got 1500+ rounds in .40 S&W (Thanks Kicker) reloaded already, with two 5 gallon buckets of brass awaiting processing.

It's actually my new carry gun!

 

[Jose]

Well, I'm loving my new addition: P229 Sig in .40 S&W.

The nice thing about this gun is that when you buy it in .40 S&W, you can then buy aftermarket barrels, and just by changing the barrel, have three guns in one, 9mm, .40 S&W, and .357 Sig. The .40 S&W and 357 Sig even use the same mags.

I've got 1500+ rounds in .40 S&W (Thanks Kicker) reloaded already, with two 5 gallon buckets of brass awaiting processing.

It's actually my new carry gun!

I'm pretty sure your .40 S&W slide will NOT work with 9 mm ammo even if you change the barrel and magazine. The cartridge base is significantly different to the point that I doubt your extractor will work reliably.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I've got a 3-caliber Glock 30. I have barrels for .45 ACP, 10mm, and .357 Sig. I had to modify the extractor to get it to eject the smaller diameter rounds.

 

[lupis42]

I've got a 3-caliber Glock 30. I have barrels for .45 ACP, 10mm, and .357 Sig. I had to modify the extractor to get it to eject the smaller diameter rounds.

How difficult was that modification?

 

[EddieCoyle]

How difficult was that modification?

Piece of cake - just a few minutes with a stone.

 

[terraformer]

Piece of cake - just a few minutes with a stone.

You mean like this?

 

[drgrant]

I'm pretty sure your .40 S&W slide will NOT work with 9 mm ammo even if you change the barrel and magazine. The cartridge base is significantly different to the point that I doubt your extractor will work reliably.

I could be wrong, but I think BarSto and some others make conversion barrels for the .40/.357 P229s to make them eat 9mm with the existing slide. I'd never ever carry the gun that way for defense purposes, though. It's not a bad idea if you can't afford multiple handguns and just want to get more trigger time with cheap ammo, though.

I'm not all that fond of caliber conversions in general, though... I'd rather just use it as an excuse to buy another gun, but I'm weird like that.

-Mike

 

[terraformer]

I could be wrong, but I think BarSto and some others make conversion barrels for the .40/.357 P229s to make them eat 9mm with the existing slide. I'd never ever carry the gun that way for defense purposes, though. It's not a bad idea if you can't afford multiple handguns and just want to get more trigger time with cheap ammo, though.

I'm not all that fond of caliber conversions in general, though... I'd rather just use it as an excuse to buy another gun, but I'm weird like that.

-Mike

The 40./.357 conversions with factory barrels rock. Same mags, same slide, same everything (except for the followers in glocks that is...) but barrel is a nice touch. Going to 9mm, etc and you may as well buy a new gun. The cost of some of those .22 conversion kits is so high I have to say why bother. Hell, some of them come with slides, springs, etc. You may as well buy a mosquito if you have a 226.

 

[drgrant]

The 40./.357 conversions with factory barrels rock. Same mags, same slide, same everything (except for the followers in glocks that is...) but barrel is a nice touch. Going to 9mm, etc and you may as well buy a new gun. The cost of some of those .22 conversion kits is so high I have to say why bother. Hell, some of them come with slides, springs, etc. You may as well buy a mosquito if you have a 226.

The other thing with the 22 conversions is I've never, ever seen someone come out and post on any gunboard about how great the conversion was, and how they were going to buy more mags for it because it was so much better than (whatever their 22 plinker was). I think there is an unwritten law that every .22 LR conversion on the planet is fussy to some degree or another. Then again, 22 LR in general is fussy.... which is why I only own one of the damn things.

-Mike

 

[lupis42]

The other thing with the 22 conversions is I've never, ever seen someone come out and post on any gunboard about how great the conversion was, and how they were going to buy more mags for it because it was so much better than (whatever their 22 plinker was). I think there is an unwritten law that every .22 LR conversion on the planet is fussy to some degree or another. Then again, 22 LR in general is fussy.... which is why I only own one of the damn things.

-Mike

The point of .22 conversions, at least from my perspective, is to let you get practice time with the same frame & sights as your carry gun, but cheap ammo. I've steered clear because I don't want to condition myself to the low recoil of the .22 conversion, and I wouldn't want to be mucking with it all the time.

 

[ptanks56]

caliber conversions

I bought a 22lr conv for my full size Kimber and it is sweet. Mags are expensive and I bought seven to be able to do indoor competition with it. I had to "fit" The mags to my pistol. The mag cathc and the lenght to the mag baseplate was off so it could be fit to any Kimber. I did the machining myself and fit one wrong, and it has feed jams, but all the others feed great. I love the conversion but i am not sure i would risk buying another for say my sig or for my G-Lock piece.
Tank

 

[BossHarley]

I also own a conversion for my Kimber and it runs flawlessly with CCI mini-mags, less reliable with lower velocity ammo. I would recommend it to anyone.

They sell aftermarket 9mm conversions for the XDM, the conversion is on my Xmas list, but they recommend using 9mm mags instead of the 40's (PistolGear sells it all and makes the recommendation). I definitely wouldn't carry it that way, but for competition/plinking it 'should' work fine (I say it that way since I have no personal experience, just recomendations from others that do own them)

 

[ShadeWPI]

I own an AA .22LR conversion kit for my Glock 20. It's useful for extra trigger time on the Glock 20, trigger pull muscle memory, etc without the recoil or expense of lots of 10mm ammunition. Firing full power 10mm rounds, my aim deteriorates during the 3rd box of 50 as muscles tire.

I haven't had any feed problems with the magazine, but I have only the 1 10rd magazine since I'm using it for slow fire aim/muscle memory drills rather than rapid fire / reloading / target recover drills.

I also used it with new shooters to allow them to handle a full-frame glock with a light recoiling round till they are comfortable enough to switch over to a real caliber.


For my GLock 23, I have 3 barrels: 9mm, .40 S&W and .357sig. I also have a .40 S&W barrel for my Glock 20. The Glock extrator in the 23 (and I presume all of the .40 Calibers) has sufficient travel to fully engage the rim on the 9mm round and I haven't experienced any problems feeding or extracting a 9mm FMJ or profiled hollow-point.

I haven't tried a bare lead or a more blunt hollow-point to see if the off-center positioning of the cartriage might cause a problem feeding.

 

[Jose]

I could be wrong, but I think BarSto and some others make conversion barrels for the .40/.357 P229s to make them eat 9mm with the existing slide.

Yeah...I was thinking strictly of factory parts.

I'd never ever carry the gun that way for defense purposes, though.

I don't see why? I don't fall for the "don't every modify a carry gun". If the shoot is good, the shoot is good. If the mods you make do not render the gun inherently unsafe, it's not an issue.

I even carry S&W revolvers with action jobs and the storage lock disabled.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I don't see why?

I think he meant for reliability and not liability reasons.

 

[drgrant]

Yup- That's exactly it. I don't know if I could bring myself to trust a 9mm conversion barrel in a gun that really wasn't designed to run it. Basically, those particular conversion barrels are really more for utility than anything else.

Note that, this is not to say, that I think that all caliber conversions cannot be trusted. There are a lot of such conversions that are pretty well vetted, for example, most .40 S+W firearms can go to .357 Sig or back, and at least in the case of S+W and Sig, the factory even supports doing this. There are some rarities where it clearly doesn't work, though. The HK USP .40 fullsize will not reliably run .357 Sig for whatever reason, for example. Jarvis used to make a .357 Sig barrel for that gun, but they stopped because basically customers just got pissed off about it not working right. There are also older Glock .40 S+W pistols which should really not be converted to .357 Sig.... the locking block/pin arrangement in the older Glock .40s is not really strong enough to deal with .357 Sig. It's kind of a non problem though, unless you managed to buy a really old G22 or G23...

It's all about personal comfort level in terms of reliability. I just don't think that a .40/.357 firearm with a 9mm conversion barrel is carry worthy, due to
differences in the extractor as well as the slide mass. It strikes me as one of those things where "it looks like it works" but you might be dealing with
a lower reliability margin.

It's definitely not an "Ayoobism" thing. I have lots of guns with trigger jobs, reduced power DA springs, etc. Back when I had a few of them, I
also regularly carried a pistol chambered in 10mm Auto, any "lawyerism" be damned.

-Mike

 

[ShadeWPI]

There are also older Glock .40 S+W pistols which should really not be converted to .357 Sig.... the locking block/pin arrangement in the older Glock .40s is not really strong enough to deal with .357 Sig. It's kind of a non problem though, unless you managed to buy a really old G22 or G23...

If I recall correctly, the original G22/G23 locking block / pin arrangement wasn't really strong enough to deal with the .40S&W recoil either and Glock made the change to the new design because some customers were seeing cracking / failure of their action pins, even firing .40 S&W out of the original G22/G23

 

[Lopro]

Well I will soon find out, just ordered a Storm Lake 9mm conversion barrel for my M&P 40cal . From what I read going from 40 to 9mm only takes the conversion barrel and a 9mm mag nothing else but I will be the first to know if it doesn't work.
I load both 40 and 9mm thought having the choice would be a good idea will see.

 

[Jose]

Yup- That's exactly it. I don't know if I could bring myself to trust a 9mm conversion barrel in a gun that really wasn't designed to run it. Basically, those particular conversion barrels are really more for utility than anything else.

Note that, this is not to say, that I think that all caliber conversions cannot be trusted. There are a lot of such conversions that are pretty well vetted, for example, most .40 S+W firearms can go to .357 Sig or back, and at least in the case of S+W and Sig, the factory even supports doing this. There are some rarities where it clearly doesn't work, though. The HK USP .40 fullsize will not reliably run .357 Sig for whatever reason, for example. Jarvis used to make a .357 Sig barrel for that gun, but they stopped because basically customers just got pissed off about it not working right. There are also older Glock .40 S+W pistols which should really not be converted to .357 Sig.... the locking block/pin arrangement in the older Glock .40s is not really strong enough to deal with .357 Sig. It's kind of a non problem though, unless you managed to buy a really old G22 or G23...

It's all about personal comfort level in terms of reliability. I just don't think that a .40/.357 firearm with a 9mm conversion barrel is carry worthy, due to
differences in the extractor as well as the slide mass. It strikes me as one of those things where "it looks like it works" but you might be dealing with
a lower reliability margin.

It's definitely not an "Ayoobism" thing. I have lots of guns with trigger jobs, reduced power DA springs, etc. Back when I had a few of them, I
also regularly carried a pistol chambered in 10mm Auto, any "lawyerism" be damned.

-Mike

Got it...Makes sense.

 

[Executive]

I have a Smith and Wesson 686 in .357 that shoots .38 as well.

Chris