Custom pistols anyone?

[colersu22]

I see a lot of threads about custom rifle builds and was wondering if anyone has custom pistols they have had built. I am working on a custom EDC Glock right now so I was going to share specs and pictures once it was finished.

Post up what you have had done with some pictures if you want.

 

[bradb]

I wouldn't really say custom as other then a change of grip plates it can be bought as stock model. But my Wilson CQB has a fair bit of the "cutom" touches many do to a 1911. Got it for $1400 as new a few years back, way to good to pass up.

 

[TauPhi111]

I think the most custom pistols you'll find beyond high end gunsmith custom jobs are 1911's and Glocks, just because they are the only two pistols with a huge aftermarket parts market that rivals the AR-15.

I'm putting together my first custom Glock right now. It's a Gen 4 G20 I'm optimizing for protection in bear country (save me the 10mm for bear protection debate please. There are too many factors that go into a bear charge to say anything conclusive, but a round that can go through 14 water jugs in a row and keep going is going to break bones and stop stuff with a precise shot)

Most of the performance parts I've got from Lone Wolf and include:
6" Salt Bath Nitrided Alpha Wolf barrel
LWD pro pick trigger kit
LWD recoil spring assembly and ISMI 22# recoil spring
Trijicon Night Sights
Arredondo +5 mag extensions (won't carry these in the field because they're extra weight and bulk, but they're cool)

I'm debating on a frame mod job from Zev Technologies too. I'll likely go with a stipple job, but I'm debating if I want a trigger guard undercut too. I'm worried moving my hand up will put my fingers on the ridges instead of between them, and I don't think I want the finger grooves removed. I'm also considering a slide cut and a micro red dot that I'll mount for deer hunting.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I put night sights on my glock 20. Does that count?

My handguns are just for bear and wildlife defense, I won’t risk having reliability problems by modifying the internal parts on something that works perfectly as is.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I think the most custom pistols you'll find beyond high end gunsmith custom jobs are 1911's and Glocks, just because they are the only two pistols with a huge aftermarket parts market that rivals the AR-15.

I'm putting together my first custom Glock right now. It's a Gen 4 G20 I'm optimizing for protection in bear country (save me the 10mm for bear protection debate please. There are too many factors that go into a bear charge to say anything conclusive, but a round that can go through 14 water jugs in a row and keep going is going to break bones and stop stuff with a precise shot)

Most of the performance parts I've got from Lone Wolf and include:
6" Salt Bath Nitrided Alpha Wolf barrel
LWD pro pick trigger kit
LWD recoil spring assembly and ISMI 22# recoil spring
Trijicon Night Sights
Arredondo +5 mag extensions (won't carry these in the field because they're extra weight and bulk, but they're cool)

I'm debating on a frame mod job from Zev Technologies too. I'll likely go with a stipple job, but I'm debating if I want a trigger guard undercut too. I'm worried moving my hand up will put my fingers on the ridges instead of between them, and I don't think I want the finger grooves removed. I'm also considering a slide cut and a micro red dot that I'll mount for deer hunting.

I just sent an Alpha wolf barrel back, it was a massive POS, IT wouldn't reliably feed any ammo that I tried in it and it even locked shut with a round in the chamber on more than one occasion while I was messing with it trying to get it to function properly. I contacted them and they basically told me its normal and to send it back because its an "easy fix" for them.....nope. IF its such an easy fix and its a known issue then why are they shipping them out that way? Once I get my refund, I'll get a KKM.

I hope you have better luck than I had with mine.

Even though Ive never had an issue with the factory barrel, I always wanted an aftermarket one, this was my first foray into that and it was pretty frustrating.

 

[nrh6.7]

I think the most custom pistols you'll find beyond high end gunsmith custom jobs are 1911's and Glocks, just because they are the only two pistols with a huge aftermarket parts market that rivals the AR-15.

I'm putting together my first custom Glock right now. It's a Gen 4 G20 I'm optimizing for protection in bear country (save me the 10mm for bear protection debate please. There are too many factors that go into a bear charge to say anything conclusive, but a round that can go through 14 water jugs in a row and keep going is going to break bones and stop stuff with a precise shot)

Most of the performance parts I've got from Lone Wolf and include:
6" Salt Bath Nitrided Alpha Wolf barrel
LWD pro pick trigger kit
LWD recoil spring assembly and ISMI 22# recoil spring
Trijicon Night Sights
Arredondo +5 mag extensions (won't carry these in the field because they're extra weight and bulk, but they're cool)

I'm debating on a frame mod job from Zev Technologies too. I'll likely go with a stipple job, but I'm debating if I want a trigger guard undercut too. I'm worried moving my hand up will put my fingers on the ridges instead of between them, and I don't think I want the finger grooves removed. I'm also considering a slide cut and a micro red dot that I'll mount for deer hunting.

May just do a Talon grip stick on.

 

[colersu22]

I just sent an Alpha wolf barrel back, it was a massive POS, IT wouldn't reliably feed any ammo that I tried in it and it even locked shut with a round in the chamber on more than one occasion while I was messing with it trying to get it to function properly. I contacted them and they basically told me its normal and to send it back because its an "easy fix" for them.....nope. IF its such an easy fix and its a known issue then why are they shipping them out that way? Once I get my refund, I'll get a KKM.

I hope you have better luck than I had with mine.

Even though Ive never had an issue with the factory barrel, I always wanted an aftermarket one, this was my first foray into that and it was pretty frustrating.

Well that's not good news, I ordered the alpha wolf barrel for the Glock 19 I am putting together now, maybe I will polish the feed ramp before I install it.

 

[colersu22]

I'm debating on a frame mod job from Zev Technologies too. I'll likely go with a stipple job, but I'm debating if I want a trigger guard undercut too. I'm worried moving my hand up will put my fingers on the ridges instead of between them, and I don't think I want the finger grooves removed. I'm also considering a slide cut and a micro red dot that I'll mount for deer hunting.

I was checking out a friends Gen 3 Glock 19 and he had the trigger guard under cut and it was pretty comfortable and he said it helps when you shoot a lot with not having a sore pointer finger. I was going try stippling and the trigger undercut on my build but wanted to get it together and shoot it before I spend 10 hours with a dremmel and wood burner modifying it. I am pretty interested in getting a polymer80 frame fro it and most of them have the trigger undercut and stippling and the 'milling" that is required looks like it should only take an hour or so.

 

[rayporter]

221FB with 24x scope

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Well that's not good news, I ordered the alpha wolf barrel for the Glock 19 I am putting together now, maybe I will polish the feed ramp before I install it.

Yeah I could have done that but I figured for 140 bucks I’d just return it and get one that came ready to use for that $$$.

 

[Beendare]

I've put the Apex trigger kit in a couple pistols is all.....a custom pistol is lost on me- limited by the ability of the shooter- grin.

i do have a Springfield TRP and a Kimber CQB that shoot better than I can shoot them.

 

[TauPhi111]

I just sent an Alpha wolf barrel back, it was a massive POS, IT wouldn't reliably feed any ammo that I tried in it and it even locked shut with a round in the chamber on more than one occasion while I was messing with it trying to get it to function properly. I contacted them and they basically told me its normal and to send it back because its an "easy fix" for them.....nope. IF its such an easy fix and its a known issue then why are they shipping them out that way? Once I get my refund, I'll get a KKM.

I hope you have better luck than I had with mine.

Even though Ive never had an issue with the factory barrel, I always wanted an aftermarket one, this was my first foray into that and it was pretty frustrating.

Man, I sure as hell hope I have better luck with mine. I know the chambers have tighter tolerances than the OEM barrels, but so tight they don't cycle is kinda useless. Hopefully your's was just too tight. I'll be sure to extensively test mine before I stake my life on it. The one thing is that tight chamber supports the case better with the hot bear loads so you avoid a blow out. My buddy had an EKF barrel that would cycle factory stuff fine but would jam occasionally on reloads.

 

[TauPhi111]

I was checking out a friends Gen 3 Glock 19 and he had the trigger guard under cut and it was pretty comfortable and he said it helps when you shoot a lot with not having a sore pointer finger. I was going try stippling and the trigger undercut on my build but wanted to get it together and shoot it before I spend 10 hours with a dremmel and wood burner modifying it. I am pretty interested in getting a polymer80 frame fro it and most of them have the trigger undercut and stippling and the 'milling" that is required looks like it should only take an hour or so.

Yeah before I decide I'd really like to handle a G20 or 21 that has had that done to it to see how it fits my hand. I intend to do a bunch of shooting too before I decide if I need it, so hopefully I'll run into one that has it done before long. I am also debating a talon stick on as well. My gun actually had one installed when I bought it, but I had to take it off to install the beavertail backstrap. On that note, once you get a corner off, the talons come off quite cleanly.

As far as stippling jobs go, Zev seems to be far and away the best deal. It's all a flat rate of $175 with any number of options they offer. Other places like Glock Store have each option al a carte, so you can end up spending $400 on a frame mod job. No thanks. There is a fine line between cool functional Glocks and Gucci Glocks and for me, that's it. I'll spend the 175 to have it done professionally though. I'd mess it up for sure.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Man, I sure as hell hope I have better luck with mine. I know the chambers have tighter tolerances than the OEM barrels, but so tight they don't cycle is kinda useless. Hopefully your's was just too tight. I'll be sure to extensively test mine before I stake my life on it. The one thing is that tight chamber supports the case better with the hot bear loads so you avoid a blow out. My buddy had an EKF barrel that would cycle factory stuff fine but would jam occasionally on reloads.

This barrel wasn't even getting them into the chamber they were just sticking on the feed ramp and I dried 5 different sorts of ammo. And then on one of the ones it sort of did feed, I couldn't even get the slide back to eject the round (and it didn't feed the next one). Ive always known that Lone Wolf Designs is on the low end of aftermarket parts but this was ridiculous, I think I got ~7-8 rounds through it before I just said **** it and asked for a return label.

Like others here, I want to put together an awesome woods gun for when I'm out rafting and fishing and I don't want to lug around my Redhawk 44mag so I went with a new block 20 gen4 since Ive carried g20s all over AK but this was the first one I actually wanted to switch the barrel out on. I put my buddies KKM barrel in and shot almost 300 rounds without a single hiccup, I wish Id gone that route from the beginning.

 

[TauPhi111]

This barrel wasn't even getting them into the chamber they were just sticking on the feed ramp and I dried 5 different sorts of ammo. And then on one of the ones it sort of did feed, I couldn't even get the slide back to eject the round (and it didn't feed the next one). Ive always known that Lone Wolf Designs is on the low end of aftermarket parts but this was ridiculous, I think I got ~7-8 rounds through it before I just said **** it and asked for a return label.

Like others here, I want to put together an awesome woods gun for when I'm out rafting and fishing and I don't want to lug around my Redhawk 44mag so I went with a new block 20 gen4 since Ive carried g20s all over AK but this was the first one I actually wanted to switch the barrel out on. I put my buddies KKM barrel in and shot almost 300 rounds without a single hiccup, I wish Id gone that route from the beginning.

I did some looking on Glock Talk, and it seemed a lot of people recommended the Lone Wolf barrel as much as the KKM, Bar-Sto or others. We'll see when I get it in with all the other parts.

 

[TauPhi111]

So last night I got a little anxious wondering if my new barrel was going to cause a bunch of problems, so I installed it and then just racked several magazines worth of ammo through the gun. Sometimes I even rode the slide forward with my hand trying to create a hang up from reduced slide velocity. All the rounds chambered fine. I then took the barrel out and dropped rounds in the chamber individually and then tried to wiggle them around and compared that to the factory barrel. The Wolf barrel's chamber was definitely tighter than the stock barrel, but not by a lot, and there was still a slight but detectable amount of play between the round and the chamber in the Wolf barrel. Now of course this could all go out the window when I actually go to fire the gun, but I'm more confident the gun will run as intended. IDK man, you might have just gotten a bad egg. It happens.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Could have just been a bad egg, but after talking to them about it, it seemed like they were well aware of the issue.

I hope yours works, I’ve never been a fan of lone wolf products so it’s no big loss to me, I was sort of bummed about not having a Kkm anyways.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I’ve never been a big fan of hacking up glock frames (stopping, undercutting etc), I just use a talon grip tape thing or go with a gen 4.

I’m not 100% sure but I think glock voids the warranty when you do stuff to the frame.

 

[colersu22]

So last night I got a little anxious wondering if my new barrel was going to cause a bunch of problems, so I installed it and then just racked several magazines worth of ammo through the gun. Sometimes I even rode the slide forward with my hand trying to create a hang up from reduced slide velocity. All the rounds chambered fine. I then took the barrel out and dropped rounds in the chamber individually and then tried to wiggle them around and compared that to the factory barrel. The Wolf barrel's chamber was definitely tighter than the stock barrel, but not by a lot, and there was still a slight but detectable amount of play between the round and the chamber in the Wolf barrel. Now of course this could all go out the window when I actually go to fire the gun, but I'm more confident the gun will run as intended. IDK man, you might have just gotten a bad egg. It happens.

Just got my alpha wolf barrel in the mail and did the same thing and everything seems good so far, I should be getting the lower from the FFL tomorrow so hopefully can finish getting it together and shoot in in a couple days.

I bought the slide off ebay from steel city arsenal and it is sweet looking with the machining done to the slide. Got my Apex trigger in the mail as well so just waiting on the lower basically and the extended mags from Hyve.

 

[colersu22]

Got the frame from the FFL yesterday and dropped in the Apex trigger and finished getting it together. I am still waiting on the Glock OE extended slide release and then deciding on what sights to put on it. I put some stock plastic sights on it so I can go shooting at the range next week and check out sights when I am at the shop.

I am not to excited in how light the Hyve mag release is for it being flat dark earth and it looks darker on their site.