Glock and Kaboom
I have two glocks and I bought my ex girlfriend (when she was my girlfriend) a glock. Now, I'm an engineer and did a lot of research into the percieved issues with glocks going Kaboom. All my glocks have after market barrels because I reload. "Issues" with Glock factory barrels Long Loading Ramp Glock factory barrels have a long loading ramp on the barrel to improve reliability. This feature lets factory glock barrels load a much broader range of rounds without issues of the round entering the chamber properly. This gives the Glock barrel a similar ramp profile as a 1911 patterned gun with a "lowered" ramp - a common reliability modification to a carry 1911. The lowered ramp leaves the bottom portion of the head and web of the round outside the chamber - that the top of the ramp. If you're firing ammo within pressure specification limits, you wont have a problem, the case is strong enough there to support the pressure. If you're firing over-pressure reloads or rounds that have been repeatedly pushed into the ramp, or you're using heavily reloaded brass (many times fired) the brass may fail at this point and force expanding gas into the magazine well, trigger assembly and your trigger finger. - Kaboom! Loose Chamber Tolerances Glock Factory barrels have fairly loose chamber tolerances, expecially at their throat (I don't know if the longer competition barrels have tighter tolerances or not) but this allows the brass to stretch a little more with each firing. Again, factory new brass don't have a problem with this, but heavily reloaded rounds can fail due to work hardening (brass losses some of it's flex with each firing and resizing) The looser chamber is similar to a 1911 barrel being "throated" another common reliability improvement on carry guns. It improves reliability by allow more "freedom" as the round loads into the chamber. Polygonal Rifling Glock uses a hammer forged polygon rifiling scheme. This rifling scheme places more pressure on specific areas of the bullet than convential land/groove rifling as the bullet is deformed from round to polygon (hexagonal in the case of a .40 S&W. With copper jacketed bullets, this increased pressure is not an issue, the jacket is able to handle the pressure without a problem. Bare lead rounds that don't have a gas-check on the back will leave a "smear" of lead in the barrel, which builds up over time and restricts the bullets flow through the barrel. This builds up chamber pressure and can cause the case web/head to fail (see ramp profile above). Now, a newly cleaned polygonal rifled barrel firing copper jacketed bullets actually has less friction than a similar land/groove rifled barrel. This actually gives glock barrels a slight velocity advantage over a similar length convential rifled barrel with the same ammunition. Most aftermarket barrels have Match grade chambers (tighter tolerance) land&groove rifling (broached or button) and a fully supported chamber via a steeper ramp profile. This addresses all of the above Kaboom issues, but may result in a slightly "pickier" weapon that doesn't like certain ammo. I have storm lake barrels for my glock 20 and an KKM "EDM - Electro-Discharge Machining" barrel for my glock 23. I have not found any ammo they wont shoot well and have had 1 failure to feed on my glock 20 (more than 5k rounds through it) The failure to feed may have been related to more than 300 rounds through it, not cleaning it, then taking it back out 2 weeks later. You can pay about $90 - $200 for a standard (non ported) replacement barrel for a glock 23, the more expensive ones tend to be higher quality (typically more accurate) - I can hit an IDPA target at 100yards about 70% of the time with my glock 20 with it's storm lake barrel. You can also get extended and ported after market barrels, they cost a little more, stick out of the gun and throw muzzle flash into your sight picture, but they reduce muzzle climb and recoil. One last thing - Most after market barrels are stainless steel, which provides a different "look" to the glock, black frame, black slide, silver chamber and barrel. But the Stainless steel is less corrossion resistant than the glock Tenifer finish.
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