The Truth About Lone Wolf Barrels for Glock

I decided to write a long piece about Lone Wolf Distributors' (LWD) barrels for Glock, when I noticed that wrong information about these barrels are still prevalent. I own samples of these barrels, and I want to share what I found about them based on my personal shooting experience with them.

'For Shooting Reloads on Glock'
If you look around the local internet firearms forums or local sales/auction sites, you will notice that most of them recommend the use of these barrels so you can shoot reloads on Glock pistols. Glock pistols come from the factory with its own patented type of "Polygonal Rifling", which they claim lessen friction between the barrel and the bullet, thus increasing the velocity of the bullet as it leaves the barrel.

Unfortunately, such rifling tends to build up more deposits in the barrel at a faster rate, which, if the build up is sufficient enough, could cause certain types of catasthropic failures during firing in one form, or the other. This is the reason why Glock in their manual specify that lead bullets NOT be used using the stock or factory barrel. 

The aftermarket Lone Wolf barrels, on the other hand, are made with conventional rifling, and thus will accummulate fouling at a slower rate. Because of this, it is safer to use with lead bullets. Since most, if not all reloads use lead bullets, then people assume that you can use Lone Wolf barrels with reloads. This turns out to be not 100% true, as we shall see later.

'Failure To Feed Problems'
I own two Lone Wolf barrels, one for my Glock 23, and another for my Glock 22. I bought them not necessarily because I wanted to shoot reloads on them (thankfully), but because they are threaded, and I wanted to use compensators on my guns. Both have one thing in common, and that is they consistently have Failure To Feed (FTF) problems on both of my Glocks when using reloaded ammo.

What happens is that the slide fails to fall into battery when chambering a round, with the slide being stopped about a quarter an inch from the tip of the barrel. At this point, the slide is LOCKED, it won't move forward, or backward, and requiring strong manipulation to unlock. The best way I found was to hold the slide with one hand, and then slap your other hand into the frame. They do get cleared eventually, but with a lot of effort, and considerable delays in your shooting time.

Most of the time I ask the Range Officer or somebody else to clear the FTF. The failure rate is about 10-20%, meaning for every 50 rounds of reloaded rounds I fire on these LWD barrels, around 5-10 end up in FTFs.

'Smaller Chamber Diameters'
The reason for these FTF problems, is that these LWD Barrels have chamber diameters are on the lower end of the dimensional tolerances for .40S&W rounds, and since they have smaller diameters, these will have fit problems with reloaded rounds. This is because some reloaded rounds tend to have slight bulges on their cases which occur during the reloading process.

It doesn't mean that these rounds are "bad", its just that sometimes during reloading some portions of the case bulges out a bit when the bullet is inserted into the case. These bulges increases the size of the outer diameter of the case, and when these are paired with the smaller chamber diameters of LWD barrels, you will have fit problems, and thus the FTF issue.

Take note that I NEVER have any such FTF problems with reloads using the stock Glock barrel, and this is because Glock's barrels have chamber diameters that are either at optimum diameter, or at the higher end the chamber diameter specifications. Because of this, reloaded ammo with slight bulges on them do not result in interference or fit problems. That is part of the Glock's legendary reliability.

'Parting Shots'
Also take note that aside from these FTF Problems with reloaded ammo, I do NOT have any other problems with LWD Barrels. They are ACCURATE, work 100% RELIABLE WITH PRIME OR NEW AMMO. As of this writing, I have shot about 200+ rounds of Prime ammo in both of my LWD Barrels, IN FULL AUTO, and not once had it caused any problems for me.

Its not that you can't shoot reloads on your LWD Barrels. You can, but you need to cherry-pick each reloaded round by physically inspecting each for bulges, and discarding or replacing those that has them. Another way is to manually fit each reloaded round into the chamber, and then discard/replace those that don't fit well. You can do this if you have a spare LWD Barrel, or by removing the barrel from your pistol.

One possible solution I read about in the internet, was to have the chambers reamed, or widened by a Gunsmith. I asked one respected local Gunsmith (who will remain unnamed for now) about this service, and his advise was not to do it because the chambers will eventually "widen up" in time, so it would be redundant if you widen the chambers right away. Since he did not advice it, I did not push him on this issue, as also I am not sure if he was capable of doing it.

He said to just break in the gun with prime ammo as much as possible, and I have been trying to do that ever since. He did not specify how many rounds are needed, though, so I am doing it by trial and error, just keep shooting my LWD Barrels with prime or cherry-picked reloaded ammo until it finally starts to function 100% with ALL types of reloaded ammo.

I hope that this blog will inform everyone who intends to use LWD Barrels on their Glocks, so they will know what possible issues they face before buying these barrels, and make more informed decisions.


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--> Lone Wolf Glock 22 Barrel Chamber Reaming