The Benefits of Buying an Aftermarket Glock Slide

An aftermarket Glock slide can be just what you need to customize your gun for better performance or finish out a homemade gun build you can be proud of. Commercial Glock slides are functional, but they aren’t much to look at–especially when there are another dozen or so just like it at the range. Custom Glock slides give you the chance to tailor your gun’s appearance, add additional functionality, and fine-tune it for a better shooting experience you can count on. Your new slide can be an easy, beginner-friendly introduction to firearms building and modification that yields practical results.

Slide Mechanics

Frames may get the recognition as being the actual gun from the ATF, barrels get all the glory for accuracy, and custom trigger groups are seen as the path to better shooting by a lot of gun owners, but the slide plays just as important of a role. Your slide and its internal parts are responsible for chambering and extracting cartridges, igniting the primer of a round, directing and controlling recoil, and providing a stable aiming platform for your sights. They also protect and help stabilize the barrel (on some pistols) and may house safeties, decocking levers, and more. For an upgrade often seen as an “only cosmetic” customization, adding an aftermarket Glock slide has a huge amount of potential to impact how your gun feels and operates.

Benefits of Upgrading Your Slide

Choosing a custom Glock slide opens up a wide range of possibilities depending on the slide you choose and the features it offers. Make sure to read and understand the descriptions of the slides you’re considering, as not every slide will offer all these benefits. That being said, here’s what you can gain from making the jump to an aftermarket Glock slide on your pistol.

Improved Aesthetics

Let’s get this one out of the way first. There are plenty of third-party slides that visually blow the plane, blocky commercial version out of the water. You’ll find custom finishes, Cerakoting, aggressive serrations, cutouts, rails, and more that all change the lines of your pistol to help it stand out from the crowd. Even if you aren’t looking for performance upgrades and just want to zhuzh-up your gun, an aftermarket Glock slide can get the job done.

Improved Grip

Those aggressive serrations are for more than just appearance. OEM Glock slides have shallow serrations near the rear sight to aid in manually racking the slide. Hands slick with sweat, blood, or oil, that are numb from freezing temperatures, or that are covered in heavy gloves may have trouble finding purchase. Deeper serrations along both front and rear sight areas give you plenty of gripping surfaces that let you manipulate your firearm under adverse conditions.

Lighter Weight

Slide cutouts are popular on aftermarket Glock slides for both appearance and practicality. The slide is a big, heavy hunk of metal, and reducing the amount of metal used in it means you’ve lowered the weight of the weapon. This can make it easier to carry, especially for those with concealed permits. It also makes the gun easier to use for intuitive aiming as the center of balance is repositioned by the reduction of barrel weight, moving its axis closer to the grip of the weapon. It also means…

Faster Cycling

Glock pistols are short-recoil operated handguns, which means that rather than the gasses from the propellant cycling the action, like with blowback designs, the recoil itself moves the custom Glock slide back, extracting a round before it’s returned forward by a spring, chambering the next round and locking the breech. Less weight to the slide means the recoil and spring have less mass to work against, often resulting in a quicker cycling action. This can be especially noticeable with pull-release triggers that let you take full advantage of your gun’s lightning-fast cycling. In addition, the lower weight helps in…

Reducing Perceived Recoil

Recoil is the equal and opposite reaction to firing a bullet from your gun. Reducing the weight of the slide reduces the weight being powered rearward that’s transferred through the frame to your hands. Think of it as swapping a 16oz hammer for a 12oz hammer when doing some woodworking. No matter how hard you swing, the 12oz hammer isn’t transferring the same amount of power to the nail. Lighter aftermarket Glock slides also give you the option of running lower-powered ammo without risking recoil being too light to cycle the pistol.

Optics Ready

Custom Glock slides are available with optics-ready footprints pre-milled to make installation easier. This lets you add a premium red dot sight that makes target acquisition faster and improves both your accuracy and precision. Pre-milled custom Glock slides are the easiest way to ensure you can add one of the most popular firearms accessories to your pistol without the need to risk your slide to at-home milling.

Increased Familiarity

Finally, we’re big believers in self-reliance, learning by doing, and the satisfaction that comes from building something with your own two hands. Assembling your own slide gives you greater familiarity with the components and how your handgun works in general. The better you know your weapon, the better you can use it and the more knowledge you have when it comes to customizing it to meet your needs.

Full Monty or Full Package?

When buying an aftermarket Glock slide, you usually have the option to decide what’s in the box when your custom Glock slide arrives.

• Stripped Slide – Also called a raw slide, this is the metal slide frame with no internal parts or barrel included. This gives experienced gun modders and shooters who are just replacing a damaged slide a purchase option that’s right for their needs.
• Slide with Internals – This package usually includes everything you need to complete your slide assembly except the barrel. This option is best when you already have a high-performance barrel, such as when upgrading a gun that’s practically brand new.
• Complete Upper Receiver Package – This complete kit features the slide, all necessary internal parts, and a fresh barrel for your firearm. It’s the best choice when you’re building your own gun at home or restoring a well-used weapon to better-than-factory condition.

In addition to these three options, you may have the opportunity to add any number of upgrades at the time of purchase to save you money while taking the guesswork out of buying your gun parts and accessories. One of the most popular upgrades for Aftermarket Glock Slides that are pre-milled to be optics-ready is a discounted price to add a compatible reflex or red dot sight that will have you ready for fast target acquisition and precision shooting.

Order Your Aftermarket Glock Slide Today

We offer a full line of parts and accessories to help you take your Glock-type pistol to the next level. Sign up for our email list to save more money with special deals and get new product information delivered to you. Order your aftermarket Glock slide from JSD Supply today.

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