A few years ago, it was fashionable to see stories in the gun books concerning caliber conversions from one caliber to the other. I think the king of these conversions is the 1911. I have fired the 1911 in .22, .30 Luger, 9mm, .38 Super, .40 S&W, 10mm, .400 Cor Bon, .41 Avenger, .45 ACP, .44 Magnum as a single shot, .45 Super, and the .460 Rowland. Some conversion options are a stunt and not worth the effort. However, if you enjoy such things, they are a pleasant diversion.
Conversions of the Glock are more practical. As an example, not long ago I picked up a nice, used Glock Model 22 .40 S&W that was once a police issue sidearm. The pistol was well used. Most were trade-ins to Glock and some have been refurbished to an extent.
Maintenance depends on the agency, and ranges from zero maintenance in many small departments to excellent maintenance in Federal agencies. Most have spare magazines. I would think hard about the price—you may be better off to purchase a Generation 5 Glock. Unless you want a .40, and then there are no Gen 5 pistols.
As for myself, I do not fall for the all calibers are the same horse extrusions and neither should you. The 9mm +P+ is a fine police caliber, and the 9mm +P is good, especially the new Hornady Flex Lock adopted by the FBI, but the .40 S&W hits harder. That is physics. I have taken deer with the .40 and that isn’t something I am comfortable with when it comes to the 9mm.
My pistol was marked Atlanta PD. It is in very good condition and was in the box with a spare magazine and the original grip inserts. An advantage was that the pistol featured Glock night sights. Although they are dim, the steel sights have a much better sight picture than the standard factory Glock sights.
The trigger action is steady at 5.5 pounds. The finish shows little wear, and the barrel hood and muzzle showed normal wear from firing. While I like the .40 and its power, and I don’t find it a chore to master and shoot well, the 9mm is less expensive and plentiful. While the .40 isn’t a hard kicker, the 9mm recoils less.
I obtained a 9mm conversion barrel. The breech face of the .40 is a bit larger and the extractor differs, so I wondered how these conversion barrels might work. First, I proofed the Glock with a number of .40 loads. These included the Hornady 155-grain XTP and 180-grain XTP.
When most powerful loads are taken into account, the .40 caliber pistol is not only suited to personal defense and service use, it is a good choice for defense against animals. When it comes to feral dogs and the big cats, I think the most powerful .40 caliber loads are good choices.
Next, I tried the conversion barrel. At first, I used a mixed bag of ammo left from other tests including both hollow point and FMJ loads. I used .40 caliber magazines. Firing a couple hundred rounds, the pistol was reliable enough for practice but not service use. The point of aim and impact was OK for practice and the recoil a bit less than the .40. Accuracy was at least equal to the 9mm Glock 17.
The magazines fed the first 12 or 13 rounds, but the last two or three tended to short cycle. There is very little magazine spring force against the cartridges in the last three rounds and we are using a 9mm in a pistol with a recoil spring set up for the .40. Switching to Glock 17 9mm magazines, the pistol fared better. Reliability improved to about 95% to 98%, with failures to cycle on the last few cartridges common.
This is a fine conversion for practice use. The 9mm is economical, and with an affordable and accurate load such as the Fiocchi 124-grain FMJ, the conversion barrel offers affordable practice. It is not service grade reliable, however, while the Glock .40 as tested was 100% with all loads tested. Perhaps a 9mm recoil assembly along with 9mm magazines would bring the piece up to speed.
Next, I wanted to try the .22 caliber conversion unit. The Tactical Solutions .22 conversion unit is well made of good material and held promise. The unit doesn’t come with a spare magazine, and I admit the conversion isn’t made for tactical use. But I ordered a spare magazine because I do not like having any piece of equipment without a spare magazine.
The conversion was set up on the Glock frame and the magazines loaded with Fiocchi .22 Long Rifle High Velocity ammunition. The pistol and conversion came up shooting. After 500 rounds of mixed ammunition—all high-velocity loads—the conversion has never failed to feed, chamber, fire, or eject. I like this a lot. Accuracy is good, with the practical accuracy of the unit just slightly under par for a Glock 17 9mm handgun. Two inches at 15 yards or a little better is the average.
I had almost forgotten that I had a Bar Sto Precision barrel in .357 SIG. So, this is actually a four-caliber Glock. Still, I am sticking to three calibers for practical use, the .40 for defense use, the .22 for training and practice, and the 9mm for centerfire practice. The .357 SIG is interesting, however.
I loaded the .40 magazines with Fiocchi’s .357 SIG FMJ loading. The results were excellent. Function was 100%, and absolute accuracy the best of the test—due to the Bar Sto barrel. I have fired few groups with a Glock pistol below two inches at 25 yards, but I only fired one that day with the Bar Sto barrel and Fiocchi ammunition.
.22 caliber conversions are the earliest types of conversions, and having one firearm that fires more than one cartridge is interesting. Other handguns have utility and keep life interesting. That being noted, my three-caliber Glock should see a lot of use.
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Some after market barrels are picky about ammo. Glock factory barrels have a larger chamber than a match barrel. This is so it will feed all ammo reliably. You need a 9mm magazine and extractor, if you want proper function with a 9mm barrel. .357 Sig uses a .40 magazine with a proprietary follower. The extractor is the same.
The same calibers can be used in the Beretta 96 and Taurus 100 weapons. I converted my Taurus 101 in .40 S&W to fire 9MM with a military Beretta 92 9MM barrel. These use the same mags, no matter which way you go, .40 or 9. I also got a ,357 Sig barrel for the Taurus, and had a three caliber gun pretty cheaply. When I got my first Glock, I got a G23, in .40 S&W. Wasn’t too hard to find a Wolf barrel in 9MM to fit, and a Glock 19 magazine. I never tried the G19 mags with .40 S&W ammo, and shall have to check on that. I also got a Glock 33 barrel in .357 Sig, and matching magazine, although .40 mags work just fine with .357 Sig ammo, and vice versa. I became intrigued with the multi caliber/ one gun idea back in the ’70s, when Guns and Ammo Magazine, and even acquired a .22 conversion kit from Colt, at one time, for my GI 1911. I’ll have to think about a .22 kit for my Glock…
.38 Super would be great on a Glock platform. Wish someone made one for it.
i also picked up a g22 trade in from the maine warden’s service.. i though about doing a 9mm conversion but decided to relegate the 40 s&w as the “house” gun.. put a small 400 lumen light on it, even though it came with fully adjustable tritium sights !! it’s in a soft case , on my bedside stand with 2 fuly loaded 15 round mags.. got mine for 300 bucks..
Good article.
Here some extra info that some may find useful unless you are an self taught ego driven gun guy mad man that just loves to show off how smart you are. Trolls, you know who you are.
The .22 Tactical solutions should be used with CCI mini mag ammo as recommend by MFG. I have one and is super fun to train/plink around with and they have a model that comes with a threaded barrel for a silencer or compensator if you find one. The correct ammo should ease up on any failures you may have but it also needs to be broken in. Other than that I have not used any conversion barrels but if I find the 357 SIG conversion for a G22 I’m in. Lone Wolf makes some interesting barrels for Glock’s, picked up M22 .40 barrel, boy the chamber is tight and rough to boot. Had to polish the feed ramp, inside chamber and edges of chamber to get ammo to cycle. It had severe sharp edges catching and cutting into the brass. When it would chamber a round prior to polishing the shells looked like they were ran across sand paper after firing so buyer beware of the extra work to get those to function within an tolerable measure. I have never really been into the 9mm basically due to stopping power but if you are a bulk shooter who puts 1000’s of rounds down range a year I can see why you would use it. I’m an old timer and loved the .45 so when the .40 was introduced I was hooked, the recoil reduction alone was worth it with added velocity for accuracy and kept the stopping power somewhat (it’s still not a .45). The cost is acceptable to me when compared to the 9mm cost, the accuracy is also excellent with the stock Glock barrels. The Lone Wolf M22 barrel does show improved accuracy as well if you can do the work to break it in. If you do go with a 9mm conversion barrel the newer products depending on mfg say you only need the barrel but just in case I would get the 9mm extractor and a few 9mm mags just to make sure your not disappointed.
The Trigger is an issue with stock Glock’s unless you like a brick pull weight. The 5.5 lb pull is ok but my three Glock’s all had 6 plus on each, not the best for accuracy. I recommend the Ghost 3.5lb disconnector and defensive spring set up. NDZ has them at an affordable price and really does an overall improvement on the trigger and keeps it at a safe user level with reliability taken into account. I don’t really competitively shoot pistols so the high speed low drag set up’s some have on their Glocks is not something I can comment on.
Safe shooting.
I have a Glock 32 in .357 sig. I also have a used Glock 23 barrel for it to shoot .40 S&W. Just recently I got a used Storm Lake conversion barrel to shoot 9mm in it. All three work flawlessly. (have to use 9mm mags for the 9, but same mag for 357 and 40). No need to change extractors.
I also have a Beretta 96 converted to 9mm with a stock barrel. Has yet to skip a beat.