You might want to look into this a bit. Some folks have more luck than others with these barrels dropping right in and shooting like a charm. "Drop and Plop" I call it.
Then again, some people end up having to take the gun and conversion barrel to a gunsmith and have him 'mill it' and make sure the tolerances are 'just right'--or as good as they can get anyway.
I hear when the setup is right (and again, for some--it's a breeze--no smithing required) they shoot great--very accurate and are easy in and out.
For some reason, the conversion barrels seem to 'drop and plop' into the Glocks much easier, which for some reason, irks me a bit. I shoot both M&P and Glock, but increasingly, I'm bigger on M&P's stock, especially in light of how I feel the 4th gen Glocks came out. I know some think they're fine, and Glock will send you a different spring if you don't like how a 4th gen. handles, but personallly, I see S&W M&P's 'star' shining a bit brighter these days.
I was sort of keen on getting a 9mm barrel for my 40c, (and even perhaps a 357) but I'm not too sure anymore.
I want a small, slim 9mm--it's a 'niche' I want to fill in my 'collection'--with a gun perhaps a wee bit smaller than the 40c.--Sort of along the lines of the BG380, but moving up to a 9mm, a little bigger, a little heavier would manage recoil better and hopefully be an accurate and reliable 'pocket rocket' still. I have my eye on a couple different model guns now.
A 357 in a small gun? Well I could handle the snap, recoil and noise, but I don't think I want to.
When I realized I might or might not have a 'drop and plop' Storm Lake set up, (luck of the draw) I started pricing a couple guns, adding up the S.L. conv. barrel price, possible gun smithing prices the price of the new magazines the barrel would require and realizing that ultimately, if I'm short on time, too dang lazy or plumb forgot to put the 40c barrel back in, I wouldn't have a self defense weapon I feel a 100% secure about, or if I was a total slacker, the wrong magazine and barrel combo, leaving me withan inoperative gun, 'all that' (gives) me 'pause for thought'.
if it's not a ton more money, I'd rather have a new sub compact 9mm, one I could just grab and run with 'as is'.
You may get into one of these conversion barrels for not much more than a $100--$120+, then about $30 for a matching magazine and essentially have two guns for around '$150ish' in a best case scenario, but as for myself, I dunno....
