Barrel-Ology

Not all barrels are created equal. There are many reasons to change out a barrel: Some are worn out and some are not configured the way you want them. Fortunately, there are plenty of choices on the market for replacements.

Got Threads?

One of my clients wanted just that. He loves his SIG P226 and P239 both in .40 caliber. After shooting them for a few years he decided he wanted to quiet things down a bit and add suppressors, but the “as sold” pistols didn’t have threaded barrels. He uses his SIGs with optics as his boar hunting sidearm.

In steps Bar-Sto Precision Machine. Bar-Sto and the Stone family have been making barrels for decades in hundreds of shapes and sizes. I procured two “Match Target” barrels long enough for threading. Bar-Sto offers Semi Fit and Match Target barrels. Both are 416 Aircraft stainless. The semi fit is designed to drop in with very little fitting. The target match requires milling and should be installed by a qualified gunsmith.

Bar-Sto provides a schematic of their SIG barrels and shows in detail areas that require fitting and more importantly those that don’t. The barrels I received were not finish reamed, but they can be purchased fully reamed if desired. The quality of the barrels is excellent, with perfect flats and no sharp corners. The crown was very well done at 11 degrees.

I used the original SIG barrel as a guide to measure the locking flat height in front of the barrel hood. I removed less material than the original had for a more precise fit. In the SIG barrel design material is removed from in front of the barrel hood flat. I also removed a few thousandths from the locking underlug. After each cut on the mill I test fit the barrel using layout fluid to gauge my contact. I like to go very slow rather than over cut and have to weld up a mistake.

Both barrels took about an hour to mill and then a bit to set up on the lathe for reaming with a Clymer finish reamer. My client uses factory ammo so I used it as a go gauge for fitting. Test firing went perfectly. Now the barrels are off to Ion Bond for black PVD coating to keep the rigs stealthy

Purchase A PDF Download Of The American Handgunner Jan/Feb 2021 Issue Now!