Will I gain anything with a new barrel?

[NewToGuns17]

Hey guys. I just bought an Ed Brown fueled slide and was wondering if I should also buy an apex gunsmith fit barrel. I currently have the stock one in there. It shot well with the stock slide, I haven’t shot it with the new slide. I’m more so asking because I spent a bunch in the slide so wondering if I should
Do a barrel as well. I heard it improves slide to frame fitment but also heard that the tighter the fit the less tolerant the barrel is of being dirty or have foreign intrusion or even heat.

 

[Gman556]

Did one for my stock slide, and made it tight. Accuracy improved quite noticeably.

4000 rds in a 3 month period and no reliability issues at all.

Only reason it may not see that volume of rds in the future months is I bought a Walther, and it's hands down a better pistol just out of the box, and I like it better.

 

[.38SuperMan]

I have a custom built 45 I had built 35 years ago. This was in the days before all the custom frames and components and had it built on a Springfield mill spec frame. The slide was tightened in the process and over the years of shooting tens of thousands of rounds in IPSC competition I’ve never had a function problem. If the gun is built right and you feed it good ammo it’ll deliver flawless and accurate performance. I still have the gun and periodically shoot it and it still functions flawlessly and is just as accurate as when it was new.

A couple of tips on 1911’s, they like to be well oiled and cleaned after every shoot. They’ll take the dirt and mud but proper cleaning, proper weight springs that aren’t worn out, well lubed and ammo tailored to your gun are the way to insure accuracy and reliability.

I own several 1911‘s and have had several expensive custom one. Off the shelf guns vary a lot in fit. I have one Colt 38 super LW Commander that’s the loosest and sloppiest 1911 I’ve seen outside of milatary issue guns. It shoots good but tolerances are terrible. My Springfields are excellent, tight and accurate. You might be shocked but I own several Kimbers and everyone is super tight and very accurate. My Eclipse Target 5” 38 super is so tight it’s hard to get apart but it functions 100% and has never malfunctioned plus it’s killer accurate and built like a tank. Even the 4” and 3” ones I own or have owned have been really tight and accurate and functioned 100% since day one. Clean, lube and shoot and they deliver.

 

[NewToGuns17]

I’m looking to do this barrel at home. I see a lot of reports of needing to adjust the tolerance at the locking block (on the barrel) as well as the side of the hood, back of the hood and potentially end of barrel. I don’t have a ton of experience with the tolerance fitting of these areas. I am mechanically very savvy but if I’m not going to be able to squeeze every bit out of the barrel, I’d rather go with a semi drop in or drop in. Is KKM still reputable? Was the 2.0 barrel/slide an improvement overall? I’m sure the ed brown slide holds a better tolerance than the s&w OEM slide which makes me wonder if that’ll help with the OEM barrel or if I should invest in another barrel.

 

[NewToGuns17]

I see KKM offers a barrel that some report having similar fit to a gunsmith fit barrel…

 

[Gman556]

I have a custom built 45 I had built 35 years ago. This was in the days before all the custom frames and components and had it built on a Springfield mill spec frame. The slide was tightened in the process and over the years of shooting tens of thousands of rounds in IPSC competition I’ve never had a function problem. If the gun is built right and you feed it good ammo it’ll deliver flawless and accurate performance. I still have the gun and periodically shoot it and it still functions flawlessly and is just as accurate as when it was new.

A couple of tips on 1911’s, they like to be well oiled and cleaned after every shoot. They’ll take the dirt and mud but proper cleaning, proper weight springs that aren’t worn out, well lubed and ammo tailored to your gun are the way to insure accuracy and reliability.

I own several 1911‘s and have had several expensive custom one. Off the shelf guns vary a lot in fit. I have one Colt 38 super LW Commander that’s the loosest and sloppiest 1911 I’ve seen outside of milatary issue guns. It shoots good but tolerances are terrible. My Springfields are excellent, tight and accurate. You might be shocked but I own several Kimbers and everyone is super tight and very accurate. My Eclipse Target 5” 38 super is so tight it’s hard to get apart but it functions 100% and has never malfunctioned plus it’s killer accurate and built like a tank. Even the 4” and 3” ones I own or have owned have been really tight and accurate and functioned 100% since day one. Clean, lube and shoot and they deliver.

Nothing like a good 1911.

Everyone should own at least one good 1911 in their collection.

OP, Tight tolerances don't always mean a gun is going to be unreliable if it's done right, and uses good ammo.

I bought an early Kimber when they came out of NYC and it ran with every kind of ammo I put through it, even old military surplus, and the slide to frame fit was tight as a virgin.

Larry Vickers of Delta Force used custom 1911's for years, some of them he even built himself.

 

[Gman556]

I’m looking to do this barrel at home. I see a lot of reports of needing to adjust the tolerance at the locking block (on the barrel) as well as the side of the hood, back of the hood and potentially end of barrel. I don’t have a ton of experience with the tolerance fitting of these areas. I am mechanically very savvy but if I’m not going to be able to squeeze every bit out of the barrel, I’d rather go with a semi drop in or drop in. Is KKM still reputable? Was the 2.0 barrel/slide an improvement overall? I’m sure the ed brown slide holds a better tolerance than the s&w OEM slide which makes me wonder if that’ll help with the OEM barrel or if I should invest in another barrel.

When I fit my barrel all you had to do was the back of the barrel hood at the breech face and the recoil pad and that was all you needed to do.

I never heard of the sides of the hood or anything as far as an apex semi fit gunsmith barrel goes. If you buy the jig that comes with it it will come out perfect. I would never try to do anything like that freehand.

Apex also has a video on how to do it with their jig and file.

https://youtu.be/QqCu1jnVwZ4

 

[NewToGuns17]

Nothing like a good 1911.

Everyone should own at least one good 1911 in their collection.

OP, Tight tolerances don't always mean a gun is going to be unreliable if it's done right, and uses good ammo.

I bought an early Kimber when they came out of NYC and it ran with every kind of ammo I put through it, even old military surplus, and the slide to frame fit was tight as a virgin.

Larry Vickers of Delta Force used custom 1911's for years, some of them he even built himself.

I have a Dan Wesson Valor V-Bob, does that count! Lol
And a Springfield ronin, but the build quality is miles apart.

 

[NewToGuns17]

When I fit my barrel all you had to do was the back of the barrel hood at the breech face and the recoil pad and that was all you needed to do.

I never heard of the sides of the hood or anything as far as an apex semi fit gunsmith barrel goes. If you buy the jig that comes with it it will come out perfect. I would never try to do anything like that freehand.

Apex also has a video on how to do it with their jig and file.

https://youtu.be/QqCu1jnVwZ4

They don’t do the semi fit anymore. From what I’ve read, the semi fit MAY have only needed two spots touched up. The gunsmith fit barrel leaves more material.

 

[Gman556]

They don’t do the semi fit anymore. From what I’ve read, the semi fit MAY have only needed two spots touched up. The gunsmith fit barrel leaves more material.

This is wrong.

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

The gunsmith fit barrel just need two spots filed. they still have the same instruction video up.

Yes there is more material but in the same places. The rear of the hood at the breach face, and the "fitting pad" at the lock.

The semi fit barrel was the same thing, but with way less material to remove, and most of the time would just drop in.

 

[BE Mike]

You need to actually test for accuracy with your ammo/ gun setup now. You should at least shoot it, preferably in a machine rest, at 25 yards or greater. Unless you actually know how your settup performs now, you don't have a clue whether or not you need more accuracy. There are way too many people who spend way too much money on parts to "upgrade" their guns, when they have no real idea how the gun/ ammo shoots. Also, if you shoot poor ammo, a match grade barrel won't help.

 

[Gman556]

You need to actually test for accuracy with your ammo/ gun setup now. You should at least shoot it, preferably in a machine rest, at 25 yards or greater. Unless you actually know how your settup performs now, you don't have a clue whether or not you need more accuracy. There are way too many people who spend way too much money on parts to "upgrade" their guns, when they have no real idea how the gun/ ammo shoots. Also, if you shoot poor ammo, a match grade barrel won't help.

OP Should definitely try this first, and if you don't own a machine rest which can cost over $500 the best way to do it is to get a regular pistol rest, put a folded towel in the V, and have it draped down to where the but of the grip would rest , but don't let it touch there and only let the palm of your hand rest on that spot, but just enough so there is no wobbling up and down.

I've tried this before without any kind of padding by just resting in a pistol rest and I actually got tighter groups when I shot freehand, because when recoiling the pistol will not settle in the same place every time and this can throw your groups off.

You also need to be consistent with how you hold it in the rest or your results will be all over the place.

If you can borrow or afford a mechanical rest then that would be the best way, with the best results by eliminating all human error.

It has been my experience that the M&P line have not been as accurate as Glock's or other striker fired pistols IE: HK, Walther ect:

Also remember these pistols are for defensive purposes, and are plenty accurate for that purpose with a few ridiculously inaccurate specimens I have seen in some cases.

There is no good reason to spend all kinds of $ to make one more accurate that will just be submitted to evidence and you may never get it back sometimes even if justified.

This is why I leave all my carry pistols stock.

But also remember I am just some anonymous hand job on the Internet, so what do I know? Same goes for everyone.

Sometimes you just have to see for yourself.

 

[NewToGuns17]

I hear you all and maybe got a bit ahead of myself. I was happy with how the gun shot before replacing the slide. I weighed the price difference between new sights, slide cut and all slide internals VS getting an already machined slide with everything in it and the ed brown fit the bill. I wanted to be able to mount a trijicon RMR on the pistol. When I installed the barrel in the slide the fitment seemed loose to me. I was leaning towards the apex but to do it the right way would have cost me a fair bit and I wasn’t looking for single hole groups ( not that I could). I figured for $185 the KKM barrel would be a good alternative. I bought an optic ready stock VP9 barrel/slide/RSA with matching serial numbers and was able to keep the slide together when I want to run just irons. I had planned to do the same with the m&p but never got to picking a barrel. So I guess it was somewhat of an accuracy/fitment purchase but also so I could have my irons slide together with the original RSA and barrel.

 

[stansdds]

Hey guys. I just bought an Ed Brown fueled slide and was wondering if I should also buy an apex gunsmith fit barrel. I currently have the stock one in there. It shot well with the stock slide, I haven’t shot it with the new slide. I’m more so asking because I spent a bunch in the slide so wondering if I should
Do a barrel as well. I heard it improves slide to frame fitment but also heard that the tighter the fit the less tolerant the barrel is of being dirty or have foreign intrusion or even heat.

What is the purpose of this pistol? Strictly target shooting or self-defense? A fitted barrel will usually be more accurate than a mass produced factory barrel, but such accuracy is generally not required in a self-defense pistol. A tightly fitted pistol can be reliable, but super tight tolerances can be a reliability issue should the pistol get dirty, like dropped in a mud puddle or shooting dirty ammo.