Friends, I have a Bar-Sto 9mm conversion barrel on my P239 357 Sig. This rig shoots 9mm ammo extremely accurately, and has been 100% reliable with all brands and types (FMJ and HP) of 9mm ammo. I was advised by my ccw/chl instructor to not use this weapon/barrel combo as my carry weapon (possible reliability issues). I want to use it for carry anyway. Do any of you armorers, veteran Sig owners see a problem? Thanks

I have a 239 .40 SAS DAK that i sometimes use with a BarSto 9mm conversion barrel. Never had any issues with it and would use it for carry if I needed to.

With any pistol: It's up to you to shoot however many rounds from it (100s of FMJ and 50 JHP?) in order to satisfy yourself that it's reliable. everyone has a different number of rounds that makes them comfortable... But it's that shooting that establishes the comfort - not whether or not an instructor says anything.

I agree with the advice to test it and then carry it if you want. That’s no different than testing and relying on a factory model. It’s not as if you’ll find yourself in a self-defense situation and the gun is suddenly going to develop a mind of its own and say to itself, “Oh, hey; I can’t do this.”

Thanks, I have a lot of confidence in this weapon, and I shoot it very well. For me, anyway.

I have a P239 SAS DAK with three different caliber setups- 9mm, .357 and .40. In all of those configurations I have never had a feed/firing malfunction. In the .40 (original) setup I've now likely got over 3k rounds+ thru the pistol in all in conditions- all types of ammo, rain/sub zero temps/even snow outside shooting environments. No issues- rock solid.
I would use the number of rounds thru the pistol (with no misfeeds/issues) as a metric.
(I wouldn't likely trust it without having at least 350 to 500 rounds or more of a couple different round profiles wadcutter, hollowpoint, etc)...
If there is a problem, you'll likely encounter it within a 500 round population. Most all of us do the same testing with any new firearm-

Is there such a thing as too much accuracy and reliability? Bar-sto is the way to go!

I would never recommend Bar-Sto products to anyone I like....

At one time Bar-sto was a good outfit... not today. I understand the founder is gone along with customer service... I bought 9x23 barrels from them for two 9x23 Commanders I had and sent them to Bar-Sto to have the barrels installed.

There are lots of competent and reliable people who can do desired work. My experience was Bar-Sto is not one of those shops.

FWIW

Chuck

After they were not returned as promised they kept promising they would be back in a month I started calling them a lot... finally got them back after 10 months... and they had screwed up both guns... they installed a ramped barrel on one and front strap on both was all roughed up and in need of a re-blue job. It was not only very slow with them not keeping their word, the work they did was amateurish... They also failed to crown the barrels... something that is critical for a carry gun IMHO>

The value of both buns was seriously diminished.

quote:

Originally posted by buggsboy:
Friends, I have a Bar-Sto 9mm conversion barrel on my P239 357 Sig. This rig shoots 9mm ammo extremely accurately, and has been 100% reliable with all brands and types (FMJ and HP) of 9mm ammo. I was advised by my ccw/chl instructor to not use this weapon/barrel combo as my carry weapon (possible reliability issues). I want to use it for carry anyway. Do any of you armorers, veteran Sig owners see a problem? Thanks

I have bar-sto and kkm barrels in a number of pistols, including various Sigs, and P239's. Properly fit and tested, I'd have no concerns carrying them.

With the 239 imo its not so much the type of bbl being used but the difference in 9mm and 357/40 frames specifically the magwell area and the mags.
The 357/40 mags wont fit in a 9mm frame and 9mm is sloppy in the 357/40 frame.

Many will have had great results and recommend loading 9mm in the 357/40 mags and some will report having issues. Personally its not a conversion i would do for ccarry/serious use. But that me. Ymmv.

Many also use the looser fitting factory bbl and recommend. Again i wouldn't for serious use.

Now on to barsto quality. I have had quite a few 229 and 226 conversion bbls over the years that all performed flawlessly. Several years ago i bought a Bar-Sto 9mm conversion bbl for my 226-40/357. It didn't drop in and needed fitment so i decided to send it to my buddy robert TheSigArmorer for proper fitment and he declined the job as the bbl was so out/underspeced he deemed it Unfitable so after much hassle i returned the bbl. Think that was at the beginning of the Bar-Sto decline as i hadn't heard too much negative but robert was starting to see it but since that time i have read here of more and more quality issues where as 10 years ago they were known as top shelf bbl makers with outstanding CS.

Think if i were needing any type bbl that i couldn't get new from the factory i would choose KKM. More and more they seem to be producing a quality product for an affordable price.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Think if i were needing any type bbl that i couldn't get new from the factory i would choose KKM.

Thanks. I was expecting to have to find an aftermarket 357 SIG barrel for a SIG P320 carry and was thinking of contacting Bar-Sto about it. That turned out not to be necessary, but it's good to know who to turn to. (Added: I see, though, that KKM does not make barrels for SIGs.)

It's unfortunate that sooner or later so many companies with good reputations start cutting corners: reducing quality and (sometimes) raising prices in the assumption that they will be able to coast along forever.

I would be leery but test it a lot. While it may shoot well on range...I would be cautious about as a carry gun that must be reliable 100%... I have the P239 with both the .40 and .367Sig barrels and magazines. No issues at all....but the 9mm barrel is a bit of a stretch....while it works...it is not optimum and a magazine that may work loose or cause slide to lock to rear if gets jolted. If barrel fits, locks up tight and is accurate then would not worry about barrel. I would worry more about magazine fitment and reliability...

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I agree with the advice to test it and then carry it if you want. That’s no different than testing and relying on a factory model. It’s not as if you’ll find yourself in a self-defense situation and the gun is suddenly going to develop a mind of its own and say to itself, “Oh, hey; I can’t do this.”

^^^^^ This and SBrooks. If it's proven reliable, it's reliable.

I have a P239 DA/SA .40 that I use for carry. Bought a new Sig OEM 9mm barrel (NOT a conversion). Totally reliable with a couple of thousand rounds of nines through it. A number of members here have done the same thing with the same results. While it is not recommended in theory, in practice it works. Even so, i would recommend others buy a conversion barrel if it was intended for carry.

Have used both .40 and 9mm mags on the range. Both function 100% with nines. Since the 9mm mags are slightly narrower and are used in the slightly wider .40 mag well, it will occasionally fail to go to slide lockback.

If I HAD to carry it with the nine barrel, reliability would not be an issue. It's reliable with nines or the original .40.

Again, this is simple. If a pistol has been proven reliable, it IS reliable.

my only concern with a carry set-up like you’re describing would be in the event you need to manually cycle the weapon. as in a cartridge fails to fire. will the .357/.40 extractor pull the 9mm round out of the chamber?

as a range gun, i’m sure it’s all kinds of reliable, but carrying and not being able to clear a malfunction could cost you.

quote:

Originally posted by tonelar:
will the .357/.40 extractor pull the 9mm round out of the chamber?

If it didn’t when manually cycling the slide, it wouldn’t when firing the gun.
It’s been a long time since I’ve examined cartridge cases and extractors, but as I recall, the dimensional differences among 9mm and 357/40 aren’t as great as I originally assumed. And as for P239 extractors in particular, I seem to recall that at one point SIG went to one extractor for all three cartridges. It would be interesting to know if my memory about that is correct.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Think if i were needing any type bbl that i couldn't get new from the factory i would choose KKM. More and more they seem to be producing a quality product for an affordable price.

That's great and all, but does KKM make barrels for the P239?
I checked the site but no SIG barrels of any kind are found.

I'll go one further. Other than Bar-sto, where can sig P239 barrels be found?

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by tonelar:
will the .357/.40 extractor pull the 9mm round out of the chamber?

If it didn’t when manually cycling the slide, it wouldn’t when firing the gun.
It’s been a long time since I’ve examined cartridge cases and extractors, but as I recall, the dimensional differences among 9mm and 357/40 aren’t as great as I originally assumed. And as for P239 extractors in particular, I seem to recall that at one point SIG went to one extractor for all three cartridges. It would be interesting to know if my memory about that is correct.

There are handguns with no extractor claw. They function fine when fired but cannot be manually cleared.

These examples aren’t locked breach designs so this could be an apples to oranges comparison.