I bought two Lone Wolf barrels for a couple of Glocks that I have to shoot lead bullets with and have had nothing but problems with them. I traded around and ended up with around 6,000 cast lead bullets and have been trying to find a great barrel to shoot them in. Glock discourages the use of lead bullets in their factory barrels with the rifling that they use so I moved on to some aftermarket searches.

Lone Wolf does of a lot of caliber conversion barrels where they allow you to downsize your caliber, ie. shooting 9mm in a 40S&W barrel. A search of the references about those conversions lead me to pass on them but I wasn't interested in them anyway, just a solid shooting barrel.

After receiving my two barrels I tested some of my hand-loads in a Glock 30 and a Glock 27. Failure to feed would occur with about every other shot out of magazines that had functioned perfectly with factory ammo. I researched some of the causes and found out that Lone Wolf claims their Taiwan made barrels are "match grade" which actually is another word for tight and short chambers. I messed around with seating depths until it got to be ridiculous and actually became concerned about the increase in pressure due to some of those depths. I polished feed ramps and chambers to not avail. I maxed out my two RCBS sizing dies until they could produce no more additional sizing and still got the FTF's only now is was down to once every second shot.

I used my Glock factory barrels to test 3 different loads in each of those 2 calibers and the factory barrels handled those loads just fine. Glock barrels seem to have a reputation for having generous sized chambers but I didn't notice previously, that this reduced the accuracy from those factory barrels and it should made functioning easier. Now, I know that "match grade" is supposed to mean tighter tolerances and increase accuracy but to get to the accuracy you have to get the darn bullets in the chambers. I did not notice any improvement in accuracy with the LW barrels.

So I called Lone Wolf service department. Wow.... I was told that no barrel goes out to customers without it being in "spec" and that I must be the cause of the cycling problem. I asked if they ever had any FTF complaints and never received an answer to that question. In the end, I was told that if I wanted to, I could send the barrel back to them and for $30 and the cost of postage both ways they would ream out the chamber. It struck me odd that I would pay additional funds to cure a warranty problem when the barrel was not functioning with hand-loads and some factory ammo. I told them, to stuff it and ordered two KKM barrels the next day. The money is not the issue but the principle and the attitude they expressed is.

I don't think I could sell these two now paperweights in good conscience to someone else and just pass along my problem to them.

Anyone else struggle with Lone Wolf barrels for Glocks?

I have had a LW barrel in my 19 for well over 3 years and 2000 rounds- all cast.
No problems yet.
Sorry to hear of your travails.

Gary

Unfortunately, the only FTF issues I have ever heard from the Wolf barrels was with the sub compacts like you have. I have never had an issue from mine on my Glock 19. I shoot lead in it all the time. 122 grain flat points.

The only reason I changed the barrel was my Glock is a compensated one and I did not want to clean the lead from the gun all the time. I would not hesitate to shoot lead through a factory barrel that was cleaned at the end of the day. The ones with majority of the problems were the 40S&W barrels, and that was 10 years ago.

The Glock barrel is in the middle with after market barrels on either side. You can see whay Glocks will feed anything thrown at them. You can also see why Glocks leave the infamous "Glock bulge" on fired cases.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
Unfortunately, the only FTF issues I have ever heard from the Wolf barrels was with the sub compacts like you have. I have never had an issue from mine on my Glock 19. I shoot lead in it all the time. 122 grain flat points.

The only reason I changed the barrel was my Glock is a compensated one and I did not want to clean the lead from the gun all the time. I would not hesitate to shoot lead through a factory barrel that was cleaned at the end of the day. The ones with majority of the problems were the 40S&W barrels, and that was 10 years ago.

Interesting info on the sub compacts. I just did a search on a couple of shooting boards like Glock Talk and a couple others and the following Glock models reported having problems with feeding when they used a Lone Wolf barrel.

17
19
22
23
20
34
21

None of those are subcompacts and there was a mention from two former distributors of Lone Wolf barrels that they no longer carry the LW product due to customer complaints and returns.

Obviously these people and my self have had different experiences than you with the Lone Wolf barrels.

I brought a lone wolf barrel in 40S@W it wouldn't feed with the hand loads I needed it to.

I brought it From Brownells and used there no questions asked return poilicy.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I brought a lone wolf barrel in 40S@W it wouldn't feed with the hand loads I needed it to.

I brought it From Brownells and used there no questions asked return poilicy.

I'm glad things worked out that way for you, unfortunately I ordered direct from Lone Wolf and talked directing to the customer service(???) department.

Sometimes it is better to have someone in between you and the manufacturer as a buffer and as a leverage option.

Not sure of your brass source. If it has been fired through a Glock barrel, it may benefit from this type of die: http://www.redding-reloading.c...thru-base-sizing-die

Your FTF may be due to a case bulge below what your resizing die can reach.

I solved the problems with those two Lone Wolf barrels for a couple of Glocks I have, in that they seemed to have very short and very tight chambers.

I bought two KKM barrels!!!

Using the same equipment as before and rolling out some 40S&W ammo with Lazer Cast lead, I conducted a drop in test on about 25 rounds from the batch. I had both barrels side by side and would drop the same round into both of them. Interesting results.

All the rounds would chamber in the KKM and about 90% of those 25 rounds would not completely chamber into the Lone Wolf barrels. They would go in about 2/3 of the way and then hang up.

If you want a tight short chambered Glock barrel for shooting lead you know where to get it.

Apparently Lone Wolf has heard the cries of some of their former customers about the dimensions of their barrels being short and tight.

The owner has posted on Glock Talk that if you send in your old barrels he will ream them out to the "Colt" dimensions for free this time instead of charging you an additional $30 + postage to send in your barrel.

You need to send it to their shop with an attention "GT hole Requested" written on the outside of the package.

Address:
Lone Wolf Distributing
57 Shepard Road
Oldtown, Id
83822-3549

Remember to add the "GT hole Requested" to your package.