Barrel swap

[vmotorman]

Good evening, SP01 owners!

Prior to owning my SP, I shot the G22 and swapped barrels to have diversity without owning two pistols.  Recently, I read the thread about the discontinued 40 cal SP01.  What are the issues with swapping barrels from 9mm to 40 S&W?

[eastman]

Good evening, SP01 owners!

Prior to owning my SP, I shot the G22 and swapped barrels to have diversity without owning two pistols.  Recently, I read the thread about the discontinued 40 cal SP01.  What are the issues with swapping barrels from 9mm to 40 S&W?

You can put a 9x19mm barrel into a .40 SP-01 without any problems. Done that and burned a lot of ammo.

The breachface of the 9mm SP-01 won't accommodate the wider .40, so you can't go in that direction without some machining.

[vmotorman]

Thanks for the info, Eastman!  This gives me a reason to search for the 40 before I get the 45.

[M1A4ME]

I've not swapped out just the barrel (replaced a couple of bad ones, but don't swap from .40 to 9 and back).

I have bought whole top ends (slide/barrel/etc.) to put on a different caliber frame.  I felt the need for adding a new slide stop for use with the different caliber top end.  Just to be sure the barrel always works/rubs/stresses/wears the slide stop shaft the same for that caliber.  In my mind, switching back and forth on a single slide stop pin might result in increased wear/breakage.

Others might not have experienced that but I know you don't swap used parts around in an engine or swap new/used parts without making sure wear surfaces are as close to new as possible on the old parts before installing them with new parts (talking crank shafts/bearing, cams/lifters/push rods/rocker arms, etc.)  I've seen the results of someone replacing a broken part with a new one without replacing the parts that worked with that new part.

Having said all that, I've thought about a conversion barrel in a couple pistols but never followed through with it.

Good luck with yours.

[MoRivera]

According to Himurax13 here on the forum, for best reliability when using a .40 slide with a 9mm barrel, the original extractor needs to be slightly tuned/adjusted to reliably grab onto the smaller 9mm rim.  By doing a little filing on the part marked in red below.....



...the claw of the .40-caliber extractor will have more 'inner reach' to grab onto the smaller diameter rim of 9mm's.  I bought a TS .40  a slide from him with that done to the extractor and it really does seem to work reliably.  When slowly racking and 'showing clear', it doesn't flip the round out of the ejection port like normal 9mm's, but when firing shell ejection is consistent and healthy.  I'll be receiving another .40 long-slide from CZ Custom milled for an optic, and I'll be performing the same work to the extractor.

[vmotorman]

M1A4ME, thank you for mentioning the slide stop swap!   It would be a bad day to have that kind of failure. 

MoRivera, thank you for the reference and picture.

Sharing your knowledge and experiences is one of the great things this new SP owner can learn from.

[Boris_LA]

I prefer to keep barrel with the slide and switch it as a unit so my sights are still true for this barrel and caliber.