Are aftermarket pistol barrels worth it?

The factory barrels not so much with lead. The polygonal needs a much larger lead bullet to fill the bore and not gas cut. With a couple thou larger bullet its as good as anything.

Aftermarket barrels are about all normal rifling and forgiving with lead. The huge locking area of the mono-block into the slide opening takes the place of multi-locking lugs and a bushing (no swinging link hanging off a pin either). The massive block is pushed up into that locking spot consistently time and time again. The barrel actually just floats.

I installed a inexpensive Wolf barrel that I modified the chamber and lengthened the throat. Actually too much, I could chamber 300 gr. WFNGC bullets with room to spare. But it is fantastically accurate, far beyond what I can hold. I wrestle with sights and that trigger but it has mechanical accuracy in spades.

This is a sighter and (4) shots at 33 yds. The load was a 200 gr. at 1400+ fps and the mount was hitting the slide in recoil, frame flex! That didn't work long. OK for a 9mm but my antics were too much.