Barrel and mag switch is all that's needed. S&W 9mm barrel or aftermarket?

Thanks.

I bought a S&W factory barrel and it dropped right in. Fired a few hundred with it and no problems so far.

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Freedom isn't free.

S&W barrel is usually least expensive. Some claim they use the 40 mag but I never tried it. Works perfect with 9mm mags.

seeing this information makes me wish i had purchased a .40 instead of a 9mm. Now the question is, why cant you go the other way? is it because of the slide being machined for a 9mm and not large enough for a .40?

Yep. 40 barrel with not physically fit in the 9mm slide.

Is the 9mm barrel in the .40 slide not too loosey goosey then?

what was said above would lead me to believe that, but .5mm on each side isnt too much concern, its tight in the chamber, its the extraction i would be worried about.

I dont see any reason you couldnt take your slide to a machine shop and have it milled to fit .40

or the question is, where can i get a replacement barrel and slide.

That's why companies like Storm Lake and KKM make specific conversion barrels in 9mm that fit more precisely in the 40 slide.

However, lots of people have had success with factory 9mm barrels in the 40 slide.

The extractor is soo close that the difference is pretty much unseen. 40 to 9mm or 9mm to 40. They both work flawless with factory 9mm barrels.

And for the record, my .40 converted to 9mm is more accurate than my 9mm is from the factory.

Here are two pics of the 9mm and the .40 in the slide. The first is the 9mm. You can see the gap between the barrel and the slide at the tab where the loaded chamber indicated is. When in use the barrel centers it self but I pushed the barrel to one side so you can see the amount of play between the barrel and the slide. The gap look big but it's only about 1/32". The second pic is the 40 in the 40 slide.
The question was asked if you can go 9mm to 40. You can if you are willing to remove a small amount of material from the tabs on a 40 barrel so it fits into a 9 slide.
My wife and I have been shooting with this setup for about a year with no noticeable difference in accuracy.

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Understood.

Factory or aftermarket barrel?

If you can find a factory barrel go with that. They are under $70 and they work great. The problem is, no one has them right now. The good news is, you can find 9mm magazines for very reasonable prices. If you're committed to doing this you should pick up a couple mags while you can. Just a few months ago 9mm M&P mags were going for upwards of $100 on ebay. Check out 44mag.com.
https://www.44mag.com/category/smith_and_wesson/a

I just dropped a threaded factory 9mm factory barrel into my VTAC 40. I haven't taken it to the range yet, but I am having a lot of failed to extract with snap caps.

Does the VTAC have a different extractor?

Factory is the way I went.

Last i heard MidWay was getting shipments in and out on the barrels.

This might be one reason that M&P 9mm barrels are scarce right now.

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Thats kind of what they "claimed" was the reason for the 9mm scarce.

Both of which i highly doubt are the effective reason.

Surely makes u wonder why .22lr has become so scarce. =-)

Thanks for the info everyone.

Midway has Storm Lake 40 to 9 available, if you don't mind paying double the factory price.
Storm Lake Conversion Barrel S&W M&P 40 S&W to 9mm Luger 1 16 Twist

I put a Storm Lake barrel in my .40, love it. I do use the .40 mag. but it won't feed the last round. Couldn't find a stock barrel. Going to get a few 9mm soon.

The reason the mag doesn't like to feed the last round, is that some mag feed lips are just slightly wider than others. My 40 mags feed the 9mm rounds perfectly, including the last round. I purchased new 9mm mags, when I purchased a stock S&W 9mm barrel. But when I tested using the 40 mags to feed the 9mm cartridges, I found the 40 mags worked perfectly. I have seen other posts with the issue of the last round not feeding properly. Since the 9mm cartridges are slightly smaller diameter, than the 40s', I would suggest to just "slightly" narrow the feed lips width. Not too much or you might have problems with feeding the 40s'. Then test for the last round issue. I was lucky and I did not have to modify my stock 40 mag feed lips. They feed the 40 cartridges fine, and when I swap barrels to 9mm, the same mags work great with the 9mm cartridges. I have two 6 rounds mags and two 7 round mags, and they all work fine with the 9mm. Of course the 9mm mags I bought work perfectly too, but you can't load the 40 cartridges into them, as the mag width is too narrow and the cartridges drag on the sides.

Bob