Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns One pistol, multiple cartridges

For a doomsday gun where the world has gone crazy beyond what we currently even imagine, I agree that if you want to carry just one gun, then being able to shoot multiple cartridges is not a bad thing. I guess it becomes a question of how much you gain in light of how much you spend to do it.

I did the extra barrel thing with a Glock 23 to shoot 9mm. As already pointed out by pullit, you can shoot 2 additional cartridges out of a .40 S&W Glock with just barrel swaps and using appropriate magazines. I did it more for fun than anything with a G23. I bought a lone wolf 9mm barrel and already had G19 mags on hand. It functions fine and is as accurate as any other 9mm Glock I own. I still have it.

In this pic it's the Flat Dark Earth one, third from the top


Here's the G23 with its Lone Wolf 9mm conversion barrel, next to a stock G19.


Here is a shot of the muzzles. As you can see, a 9mm conversion barrel needs more metal around the hold to fill up the cut out on the G23 slide.


Before I sign off, I will say this--caliber conversions are less fun than you'd think, and I think in "normal" times, you're way better off with the extra gun versus the extra barrel. With a conversion, you'll just end up shooting the cartridge that is the cheapest, and the other one won't get shot very much at all. That has been my experience with a.22lr/.22 Mag, a .45 Colt/.45 ACP, and the .40 S&W/9mm.

I've also owned .22lr conversion kits for both a 1911 and a G19. Neither got used much after about a month. The conversion kit changes everything about your gun: weight, balance, and trigger pull are all WAY different (not to mention the absence of recoil). It's so different, that you aren't "getting cheap practice" with your centerfire gun; it's like shooting a different gun altogether. Plus, if you use a red dot on your carry gun, it won't be there during your .22lr practice.

If you can score a deal on a gun that has an extra barrel, go for it. But for what you spend on an extra barrel and extra magazines, I'll cast my vote for additional complete guns over additional barrels. YMMV.