I know two different fellows who use Bar-Sto and they are very good shooters. I have never shot any of them myself.

I have BarSto, Storm Lake, KKM, and an Ed Brown. All work very well but so do some factory barrels. Regards, Richard

I have Nowlin barrels in three 1911's and couldn't be happier..the accuracy is top notch..In my opinion they are the best there is..

You can't go wrong with Bar-Sto, Kart or Wilson Combat in my experience. I've installed many of those barrels over the years and have never heard back of any failures.

Unfortunately, Nowlin was just removed from the FBI spec list for the PC9111 1911 pistols due to many of the FBI's pistols experiencing the Nowlin barrels splitting, sometime after the 5000 round mark. The new PC9111 pistols for both the FBI and civilian sales are utilizing a Springfield Armory match barrel with a hood stamp of "NM .45 Auto."
http://forums.1911forum.com/showthre...144074&page=27

Mr. Batman: Regarding your question on barrels, anything made by bar-sto, kart, brown, wilson, or stormlake will most likely satisfy your personal requirements for accuracy parameters. My question to you is:

Are you building a personal defense protection pistol or will you be shooting in bulleye, action pistol, ipsc, idpa etc. Where the accuracy requirements will be more strict.

In the past 25 years, i have accurized at least 100 1911a1 pistols with the factory barrel. The owners used they pistols for personal protection or informal range practice. At 25', they would all group a magazine full in the center of the chest at about 1.5 to 2.0"-----some shooters could hold tighter, but the worst was a "beer can size cluster"----1 minute of beer can !!!!!!

Here is what i did to improve practical accuracy:
1. Recut, lapped, & polished the muzzle crown on the barrel.
2. Turned & reamed a nm barrel bushing for a snug fit to the slide & just enough clearance for propeer barrel pivot with no binding & no spring. You could barely turn the bushing with your fingers, but turned easily with a plastic bushing wrench.
3. Jig cut, stoned, & polished the sear nose to .020" & 90 degrees square to the pinhole.
4. Jig cut, stoned,& polished the hammer hooks to .020" & 90 degrees square to the pinhole.

After range testing, not a single one of my clients felt they needed to replace their factory barrel with a $200 premuim barrel.

Hope this info will be helpful to you in your search for improved accuracy.

Some pretty good advice in the posts here. I've always liked Kart barrels myself. But, I've been told by pistolsmiths for over 30 years that barrel fit is much more important than barrel brand. Thats probably right.