Manufacturing Matters
Lets start off that these are American made vs Korean which should mean a lot in the way of quality and quality control. This becomes evident in the lockup of the gun. Placing the barrel into the slide you can feel how little wiggle there is vs the factory barrel or the LWD base barrel. It is not so tight that you need gun smithing to fit it but it is solid and secure
The Salt Bath Nitride is what I actually had my gun recoated with after the slide work was done. It is a hard coating that they heat treat bring it to an RC rating of 60 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_scale)
Fluted For Your Pleasure
The barrel is fluted in a visually appealing way. While the arguments for and against fluting in precision rifles has been debated almost as much as which caliber is best. I found this article to be very useful when looking at fluted vs bull barrels which will carry over to our discussion here: http://www.snipercountry.com/articles/realbenefitsbarrelfluting.asp
CLIFF NOTES you get a lighter barrel that cools off faster than a non-fluted barrel. You do not gain any additional stiffness or rigidity. In the case of using this with a suppressor or running 1K rounds through the gun in a day during a summer class this may offer you benefits. In a self defense situation with limited rounds expended its likely to make little difference.
Final Thoughts
Like the Bionic Man the Alpha is the better built stronger, better looking version of the GLOCK threaded barrel that comes at a price, 139 for non threaded and 159 threaded.
Like we have discussed in the past upgrades aren’t going to make an average shooter a better shooter. However if your thinking of getting a suppressor, have a need to replace your barrel or are just looking to up the wow factor of your gun the Lone Wolf Alpha Wolf series is something you should get your hand on.
You can buy direct from Lone Wolf here: https://www.lonewolfdist.com/Products.aspx?CAT=8070
