So here is my issue. I have a Glock 21 I am trying to run with an Octane 45 suppressor. The gun does not always go into battery. I have tried a Storm Lake barrel and SilencerCo. barrel with the same results. With stock barrel the gun works just fine. With the threaded barrels you can feel a "spot" where something is just hitting at that spot. I can get it to stop there with manually racking the gun. I just received a new guide rod and spring assembly. Stock Glock part.

I had time tonight to take the G21 apart to install the new guide rod. it does the same thing. I did not get to live fire it but cycling the slide I can get it to stop in the same position. A very light wiggle of the barrel and it goes into battery. I think I see my problem. The barrels are made wrong.

The factory barrel where the guide rod sits keeps the guide rod perpendicular to the barrel.

The Silencerco. and Storm Lake barrels do not. I have the photos below to illustrate what I mean. This causes the rear of the guide rod to slide down a little bit interfering with the rest of the gun. The area is not machined 90 deg to the barrel as is the factory barrel.

This is the factory barrel.


This is the SilencerCo. barrel. The Storm lake is the same.


Here is the gun when not in battery.


Here is what I do to get it to go. Touch barrel anywhere and just move it slightly.


This is the gun in full battery.


I am sending the barrel pics to SilencerCo. to see what they have to say. I am very upset with this whole situation. I should have gone with my instinct and bought the Glock factory barrel. Several people told me get the Storm Lake or SilencerCo. barrel, they are better. Now I am kicking myself. I don't want to buy Glock barrel now because I would need a new piston too.

My only other option is to come up with a way or find someone who can cut the area properly. Last option is to abandon the tupperware gun and go with a 1911.

Sulencerco should take it back and not make you get it machined. They are a good company.  Talk to them first.  Call after you email pictures so they can reference the pictures as you talk to them.

Lonewolf barrels were not like this with my fathers. But then again, I've never out the spring on without being in the slide... If you want I can make a call and have him do it and send pictures.

Not sure on storm lake but just giving advice

No I do not want to have to fix a $220 barrel. I have emailed both SilencerCo and Storm lake.

Comparing the two pictures, it appears the step in the factory barrel, where the guide rod sits, is substantially longer (thanks CPT Obvious).  A quick look at the Storm Lake website appears to show their barrels have a much larger step then the barrel you have.  The barrels on the Lone Wolf website show a larger step too.

At this point, I would be tempted to say that your barrel is out of spec, and somehow got past QC.  I would certainly hope that contacting Storm Lake would get them to replace the barrel for you.

In my diagnosis I have come to the same conclusion. Out of spec barrels. Pisses me off because the Storm Lake had trouble so I decided to try the SilencerCo barrel since I have a SilencerCo suppressor. Both have the same issue. The barrel pictured is the SilencerCo barrel but the Storm Lake is the same.

I have sent emails to both companies. I will see what they have to say. I would buy the factory Glock barrel but that requires a new piston because of the different threads. I am kicking myself for not buying the Glock barrel in the beginning. I listened to too many "experts".

I am pretty confident I could fix this by cutting the seat 90 degrees to the barrel. I just don't think I should have to take a $220 barrel and fix it.

I don't love or hate Glocks. I have to say I like the simplicity of the gun and how it feels in my hand. I bought this Gen 2 specifically to shoot suppressed so if I can't get it squared away I will get rid of it. As it is I have 2 out of spec barrels for this gun. I am getting more pissed off typing this.

Any reason you didn't go with a Lone Wolf barrel?

I bought the suppressor locally and the shop suggested Storm Lake so I went that route.

Bust out the Dremel,use an abrasive disk and buzz it down to 90*  In real life it will take between 17 and 23 seconds if you are being careful. Then pat yourself on the back and have a beer to celebrate a job well done.

No emails,no photos,no RMAs,no  engineer evaluation,no new booster and no new parts coming in the same way. Just fix it and move on knowing you are smart and skilled enough to correct it.

Silencerco website says....barrels are compatible with gen 3 & 4 glocks. Tried looking up info on stormlake as well, but didn't find anything. My stormlake barrel works great in my gen 3 G19. Maybe the gen 2 glocks are just a little different?? Not sure.

I am not really feeling like I should have to fix a $220 barrel for a $350 gun. I will see what these 2 companies say on Monday.

Everything I could find says Gen 2 and Gen 3 barrels are identical.

Obviously you seem to have a different issue but..........

It seems some Glocks have issues when you hang stuff on them and I don't know why.

When I put a Surefire X300 (or whatever) on my G19 it would not cycle.  I could fire one round and then it would not go into battery.  Take the X300 off and wala, it ran like a sewing machine.

I haven't heard of issues with the full size Glocks, mostly I have seen this with the sub compacts.



I would recommend an OEM threaded Glock barrel over the others.

I am not going to buy a 3rd barrel. The Glock barrel is a different thread so that means a new piston. If I buy a new piston it will be to hang it off a different gun.

I received a reply first thing this morning from SilencerCo. They are shipping me a new barrel. Once I report my results they will take back the old one.

No word from Storm lake. I will give them until Wednesday morning to reply. Then I will call and see if I can get someone on the phone.

UPDATE 11/24: SilencerCo barrel is on its way. Received tracking number last night. According to FedEx it will arrived Monday 11/30.

Storm lake responded. To paraphrase their longwinded email. "request an RMA, once we receive the RMA we will send you a label. Take it to a UPS place and drop off. Once we receive the barrel we will inspect it and let you know our findings. if out of spec we will replace the barrel". So Storm lake's customer service is much more of a hassle then SilencerCo. and time consuming.

If the SilencerCo barrel is good they will get any future business. Storm lake is out as far as  I am concerned. Took 2 days to reply and now I have to wait to see what they say.

In for info.

I ordered a threaded barrel since they were included in the Black Friday sale.  Got it yesterday, and noticed the packaging says Gen3/Gen4 and I have a Gen2.  I called and asked if there would be an issue with this, and was told they will work fine on the Gen2 guns.


ETA:  Here's to hoping.  SiCo does seem to have great customer service, big plus in dealing with them.

I still say you or anyone else could have dremeled that up for you and been on your way in 3 minutes or less.

I understand that you paid money for it and it should be right. But in my experience if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. And I typically default to that first.

Edge, just go shoot the gun, see if it works.  It's brand new and may take some time to wear in.  My PD trade in Gen2 G19 does the same thing, works fine.  

Sardo, I did shoot the gun. Both with the Storm Lake and the SilencerCo. barrel. Both had the same poor machining and hung up at the same spot. When shooting with no suppressor it cycled fine but you can feel the "hitch" when manually cycling. When shooting suppressed 50% of the time the gun did not go into battery with the Storm Lake and maybe 33% with the SilencerCo. The guide rod catching on the inner workings is not a "break-in" problem.

Brian, I am of the "if you want it done right do it yourself" mentality. I can fix the issue with a long 7/16" end mill. I just want to give both companies a chance to make it right first.

UPDATE: Storm Lake made me do an RMA request and I have to wait until their "engineers" inspect my barrel. I expect a fight to either get my barrel or my money back.

SilencerCo. sent another barrel immediately. I got a tracking number about 2 hours after the email stating they would send a new barrel for me to check. I sent the email on a Friday night and received a response Monday morning nearly first thing. Impressive! The barrel arrived to day. The guide rod seat is made correctly, 90 degrees to the barrel. The guide rod sits properly. I installed it and it manually cycles fine with no hitch. I will go test it Friday afternoon at the range.

I am mad at myself for not just buying the Glock barrel and being done with it. My suspicion is Storm Lake makes the SilencerCo. barrels.

only 2 or 3 companies who are actually making the barrels, ZEV makes them for quite a few companies.


you're sure it's not just your 20+ year old gun being worn out or made to slightly different specs similar to how a Preban lower won't always work perfect with a new upper.

I am positive it is not the gun. If you were to hold both original and aftermarket barrels to compare you can clearly see that issue with the poor machining.

I kick myself for not buying the Glock factory threaded barrel. After market parts for guns are just as lousy as aftermarket car parts.

 
There was a Black Friday deal for a Glock OEM threaded barrel and suppressor sights for like $100 and I was going to PM it to you but then I saw it was for LEO/FD/EMT only.

OH WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!!?  I missed all the good ones I guess, too buys ordering cases and cases of ammo

That's awesome that the replacement barrel is correct! I wonder how many went out that are not.

It seems like a fairly large anomaly on a machined part to have just missed one. I would think they are finish machined on a CNC?

I think mine has the rounded area as well, I'll have to check.  

ETA:  I did cycle it the slide very, very slowly after reading your issue, and seeing a video about a guy having the exact same issue.  I could very slightly feel the hitch you note OP, but as hard as I tried, I could not get the slide to stop OOB.  Seems like it should work, but I'm going to check to see if the seat is 90 degrees or not tonight.

What brand barrel do you have? The replacement SilencerCo barrel is made like the factory Glock barrel.

Today Storm Lake left me a message. I will call them back tomorrow. The message said we wanted to understand what your problem is. Sounds like they are gearing up to tell me there is nothing wrong with their POS barrel. I will find out in the morning.

Mine is SiCo, and it looks exactly like your picture.  However when I put the guide rod and spring against the notch in the barrel, my guide rod sits parallel to the barrel, not angled up like yours did.

ETA:  I should have taken a pic, but I'll try to explain something else I noted about the SiCo barrel:  While the "seat" area looks rounded, just like your pic OP when looking at it from the side profile view, I noticed that when looking at the seat area from the muzzle to the breech, a radius was beveled out of the rounded area, making a perpendicular "cradle" area that seemed to keep the guide rod parallel to the barrel.  If that makes sense.  If not, I can get a pic some time and put it up showing what I'm talking about.

Again, mine seems to hand cycle fine, even trying to get it to stop OOB.  I'll try to run to the range this weekend and see how she shoots though too.

I went to the range yesterday. The replacement SilencerCo barrel worked great. Shot 100 rounds suppressed and it worked perfect. Very happy now!

SilencerCo included a label to return ship the defective barrel back to them. Customer service is second to none.

Storm Lake on the other hand. Poor customer service. First I had to go through the whole RMA process. First it took 2 days for Storm Lake to reply to my correspondence. Then another 24 hours for the RMA. It took a week with the holiday to get the barrel to Storm Lake. I tracked the package and after not hearing for 24 hours I inquired. The next day I was in a meeting and received a call from someone at Storm Lake, to paraphrase,  "we are not sure what is your complaint with this barrel, please call back". So I called back 3 times and left messages on voicemail all 3 times. No call back yet. I am prepared for a fight with Storm Lake.

Two weeks and counting with Storm Lake. SilencerCo made things right as quick as possible. Just over a week including Thanksgiving and I had my replacement part. Short of overnighting the barrel they could not have done better. Storm Lake on the other hand has to really come through for me to change my opinion of them.

Today's update.....Finally got a hold of the production engineer at Storm lake. Explained my findings to him and he is having a new barrel sent out. So hopefully that barrel is good. I plan to sell it but only if it does not have the defect. I don't need two barrels.

Storm Lake is owned by Remington. I did not know this but maybe you guys did. Anyway this explains the red tape to get a defective part replaced. Bog companies have policies that seem so simple to them. In reality the policies make for a poor customer experience.

I am glad I did not have to fight and this looks to be getting resolved. Just much longer process than SilencerCo.