Custom GLOCK slides are one of the easiest ways to dress up and make your GLOCK a little more unique.
Let’s face it – standard GLOCKs are, well, boring. They’re everywhere! Everyone and their brother has a GLOCK; it’s old hat. One way to make it better – or possibly even interesting – is to upgrade some parts, and adding a custom slide is a slam-dunk way to do that.
But where to start? Who makes the best?
“Best” is rather subjective; at a certain point there’s no “best” of anything but there is a “best for you” out there. But here are 6 awesome custom GLOCK slides to start with.
Lone Wolf Distributors is arguably the best known suppliers of aftermarket parts for GLOCK pistols. Chances are if you line up 10 guys with a heavily modified GLOCK, at least three or four of them have Lone Wolf stuff. Alpha Wolf slides are a series of slides, rather than just one, ranging from 90 percent slides that you have to complete to basic OEM-pattern slide machining to Damascus steel. It’s entirely up to you.
Alpha Wolf slides are mostly – though not exclusively – available for Gen 3 9mm pistols, and at that mostly GLOCK 19, GLOCK 17 and GLOCK 34, though some are available for Gen 3 GLOCK 26 pistols as well.
However, all you get is the slide, which is machined to accept standard sights. Adding a red dot optic and all slide components will be up to you. You can have LWD do it or install them yourself. Prices start around $175 but go up to $1500 for the slide alone; all other options cost extra.
That said, Saurez does offer RMR-ready slides. In fact, it’s their specialty, as they offer RMR-ready slides for Gen 3, 4 and 5 G17, G19, G26, G34 and G43 pistols. If a red dot rig is what you’re after, Suarez is one of the best foundations to start with.
The question is how complete you want it. The base slide can – depending on finish and options – be had for as little as $320, but Suarez will build the entire slide for you if desired including GLOCK factory barrel and parts, along with sights and the Trijicon of your choice.
Suarez even offers a match-grade barrel and recoil unit as an upgrade as well, including standard and a threaded barrel option.
You can also get a GLOCK slide from Brownell’s, who offer a range of GLOCK slides for GLOCK 9mm pistols including the GLOCK 43, 26, 19 and 17. Their offerings range from blank slides that look like little more than billeted steel that’s been cut a bit, to full-meal-deal slides with porting and RMR cuts. However, Brownells slides are for the DIYer; you’ll have to get the other bits and put the whole package together.
Unfortunately, you can’t order a slide from Taran Tactical…but you can order their entire John Wick Combat Master package. You’ll have to buy a GLOCK 34 Gen 3 – this package is not compatible with Gen 4 pistols due to the nature of the magazine release – and send it to them, but you get a complete overhaul of the gun in return.
This takes your standard, lame, totally boring and uninteresting 34 into a race gun that the Tactical Gods approve of.
Zev Technologies’ Dragonfly slide series is another wildly popular custom GLOCK slide for those looking to mod their Gen 3 plastic fantastic into something actually interesting. Zev machines the Dragonfly from billeted steel and apply coatings with a greater Rockwell hardness than GLOCK themselves do, so it’s going to stand up to a lifetime of abuse.
The Dragonfly series are all machined for RMR sights, as well as sight cuts for co-witness iron sights. Porting with some very smart-looking parallelogram windows are cut into the slide as well. The Dragonfly is available for the bigger 9mm GLOCKs, namely the 19, 17 and 34, but only up to Gen 3. Gen 4 and Gen 5 will require purchase of a different series of Zev slide, namely the Spartan for Gen 4 and Omen for Gen 5.
This isn’t a custom GLOCK slide per se, but rather a whole package offered by Wilson Combat. They’ll customize your GLOCK from the ground up, adding a host of refinements including a match grade barrel, frame services, refinishing and almost anything else you can think of.
If you want a GLOCK seen to by the best smiths in the business, they don’t really get any better.
Grey Ghost Precision is also a very popular choice among custom GLOCK slides. Grey Ghost slides – available for the 19, 17 and 43 – are machined from stainless steel and given the diamond-like coating you choose, with grey, black, FDE and bronze being available colors. Grey Ghost offers two patterns, either angled serrations or a honeycomb pattern. GLOCK 19 and GLOCK 17 slides by Grey Ghost have porting in the forward slide cuts, and feature an RMR plate for mounting an optic.
It’s up to you to add the components, and you’ll need donor bits from a Gen 3 or Gen 4 GLOCK. MSRP starts just under $420, but Grey Ghost’s build quality, reputation, and features ensure it will be money well-spent.