just for my own education, what kind of improvements are you looking for in an aftermarket guide rod?

I don't see the need for an aftermarket guide rod.

I too am curious exactly what you desire an aftermarket guide rod to do? How will it "enhance" or "improve" the firearm?

Quicker follow up shots, less recoil, and increased reliability.

Well you'll never notice #1 and #2, and #3 just won't happen, period.

I've yet to see an aftermarket guide rod that works well in ANY gun, short of maybe 1911's. You'd have to put a REAL heavy rod in there to notice any reduction in recoil. At the end of the day learning to properly grip the gun and proper trigger control will do you much more good at getting fast, accurate follow up shots.

I keep my Glock stock. I have not and never will replace factory parts in my Glock. If you have a problem call Glock and they will fix it.

Originally Posted by psychotic713

Quicker follow up shots, less recoil, and increased reliability.

I am not trying to be argumentative at all. I am honestly curious if you have actually seen any measurable improvement in any of these three factors. That is a serious question. Can you actually tell a difference between stock and after market or is this all "theoretical"?

I know some of the big boys in competition do all sorts of pimp mods but I find I can shoot as fast as I can handle, can easily control the recoil, and have ZERO reliability issues with stock parts. Therefore, I expect changing out parts from stock wouldn't do most folks much good other than giving them something to do so they can say their gun is a "race gun".

I do change a few things on my new GLOCKs but the only thing that really does make a difference is changing the connector to a GLOCK OEM minus connector. The other things I do is change the sights (actually measurable improvement) and put in a smooth trigger and extended slide stop lever. The ext slide stop facilitates dropping it during re-loads. The smooth trigger admittedly is mostly a comfort thing for shooting extended sessions.

The reason for my question was these parts exist, and they must exist for a reason. They must be better because they are used by pros in competition. At least thats what what I think. Makes sense don't you think??? I figure guns are just like most things, after market is usually better. Example: Alpine head unit is better than any factory radio. The reason Alpine is better, is this is what they specialize in. This is just what seems logical to me. I could be wrong. Maybe a Glock Amorer will chime in, and help me out here.

They exist because people buy them.

Justin Bieber exists because people buy his stupid stuff.

Best Buy extended warranties exist because people buy them.

Lots of things exist that serve no real purpose in life, other then to remove money from your wallet.

Competitors use them because reliability is often not a concern and every hundredth of a second taken off their time helps. Unless you're a competitor at that level you will not see any real world gains.