I was reading about all the in's and out's of rifling last night: hammer-forging, button rifling, broach cut, polygonal vs. land and groove, all that jazz. I read that Glock factory barrels consist of hammer-forged polygonal rifling, but I noticed that some aftermarket match grade barrels (Lone Wolf and Storm Lake) use broach cut, land and groove. I used to have an Xdm; they have hammer-forged Enfield rifling ( whatever that is). My question is this: with all these different types of rifling and different processes used to manufacture it, is there really that much appreciable difference in accuracy and, more importantly, barrel life? Thanks, God bless.

In handguns I doubt you'll see a difference. Perhaps in leading. The one thing that hammered barrels have over others is they take an obstruction better.

In regular non precision applications you will never wear out a pistol barrel.
All rifling types do have advantages or negatives. 99% of people will not see any significant difference in on target performance inside 25 yards with the different barrels. Once you go beyond 25 yards blocks do tend to start opening up groups and in certain competitive applications a replacement barrel MIGHT help.
In the matches I shoot out max range is 25 yards and my stock glock runs sub 3" 25 yard groups at that distance- giving me 10/x ring accuracy on the police b27 target. If you need more accuracy out of a pistol than that you probably need to switch guns not barrels!

I agree. I'm really more interested in barrel life.

You need tens of thousands of rounds down range through a single barrel before even beginning to think about it's life.

To put it in perspective the most demanding pistol sport for accuracy is bullseye pistol with one hand slow fire taking place at fifty yards a typical high master pistol shooter will get one well over fifty thousand and possible 100 thousand before accuracy of the barrel itself deteriorates. If talking about 1911's by this time he may have gone through a half dozen bushings and links though. Pistol barrels last a very very long time. Unless you are at the highest levels of competition and shooting 25 thousand or more rounds a year you will
Likely never need a new barrel.

Probably more than that.....  Pistol bullets do not produce the friction down the barrel like rifles so they take so much much more to wear out.  I am willing to bet you will be poor and out of ammo long before you wear out a pistol barrel.

You will spend at least $30,000 on ammo trying to wear out a Glock barrel.  Would buying another $200 barrel really be a concern at that point?

Not to mention how long it would take to shoot off (assuming $10 for 50 rounds) 150,000 rounds.

There was a guy from Argentina on Ben Stoeger's podcast not too long ago who said he shoots 100k/year. There are a few people in the world who could wear one out eventually, but not many.

100k a year is really not a lot for serious competition shooters. That's 274 rounds a day. And when you consider that there are pros who get paid to shoot and only shoot, get free ammo, etc...shooting 100k/year isn't hard for those guys.


But the average shooter probably won't shoot 100k rounds in his/her lifetime.

You'll probably wear out the frame first.

Does anyone know the benefits of 1:20 twist rate (KKM) versus 1:8 (Blacklist/KKM), 1:9.84 (Glock), and 1:16 (most aftermarket)???
I ONCE read that 1:10 almost over-stabilized light 9mm rounds; but I have no idea if the poster knew what he/she was talking about.

Should a 1:20 do better with faster or lighter bullets in theory vs 1:8??  My best groups with the KKM barrel were 147gr (AE), but my 115gr stuff was hotter (S&B) and maybe not as high in quality.  The 124 AE did okay--some tight groups some not so tight (probably more related to the Indian than the arrow).  

I know in ARs the faster 1/7 twist rate is needed for 77gr bullets vs 1/9, which is likely better for 55gr.
I'd like to believe it could all be put to rest with a ransom rest and a few aftermarket barrels--and 5-6 different brands (2 of each weight--115, 124, and 147).