need a bit of assistance with choosing a milled slide/barrel for a Gen3 G17

[DacoRoman]

I have a Gen3 G17 with a Wilson Combat drop in barrel, iron sights, a 25 cent polish job and "-" disconnector.

This pistol shoots brilliantly and the trigger is like thee best damn Glock trigger in the world to me...I must have really lucked out with my low RPM Dremel and Flitz wizardry on that thing .

However! I'd love to have a red dot "upper" for this pistol, mainly to use in USPSA.
In order to enjoy that sweet ass trigger I'd have to shoot Production, and I fancy myself a Carry Optics kind of dude these days .
Incidentally, the pistol I shoot now is a milled Gen5 G17 with a 508T.

I've looked at Suarez Intl., Southwest Precision (they milled a Gen5 G19 and the above described G17 for me, and did a great job), and a Brownell's milled slide.

I have plenty of Gen3 internal parts, and I have the OEM Gen3 G17 barrel that I replaced with the WC one.

I am leaning to go with the Suarez Intl. slide. because of the features/design, and the price seems competitive.

The price is best on the Brownells slide, but it has the recoil bosses built into the raised screw holes, and I'm not sure I like that. I have the impression, perhaps wrongly, that it's better to have the recoil bosses milled separate, like I think most of the other manufacturers do.
I've also read that the outside dimensions of the Brownells slide is a wee bit bigger than stock, which causes somewhat minor annoyances regarding holster fit.

The Southwest Precision one looks good but I prefer the more simple aesthetics of the Suarez Intl. one. I basically only want rear and front serrations and that's about it.

Are there any other slides I should be looking at? I wouldn't want to go more expensive than high $300's, stripped.

Most importantly, if I take the drop in WC barrel that I have in my Glock upper and put it into a new slide, would this cause any issues regarding fit?

When I dropped it into my OEM G17 slide, it felt a bit tight and at one point I shot it without lube and it seized up something good. I was able to clear it, and I eventually ran it in a Frank Proctor class and shot the living crap out of it during that class with no malfunctions. But I'm wondering if it may have worn in specifically to that particular Glock slide, and it may suffer from sub-optimal fit if I put it into a new slide?

The other option is to put my OEM G17 barrel into whatever new slide I get, which would probably be just fabulous...however there's a little impish chimp in my head telling me that I'm a fool if I don't get a "match" barrel !
The other issue with the OEM barrel is that I'd rather have more conventional rifling in the barrel...I guess.

I found a drop in Faxon Match barrel for like $122, which I'm thinking of going with.
Any thoughts on these?

Thoughts and suggestions please.

[valian]

I prefer my SI slides to the Brownells I have, primarily because the Brownell slides are slightly wider than OEM and SI slides and hang up in some of my holsters.

[DacoRoman]

I prefer my SI slides to the Brownells I have, primarily because the Brownell slides are slightly wider than OEM and SI slides and hang up in some of my holsters.

Thank you for the important data point. I’m leaning hard toward SI.

What barrels are you running?

[camel]

Does it function with your ammo. ?

[DacoRoman]

Does it function with your ammo. ?

I’m not sure whom you’re asking what. Can you clarify?

[Sig_Fiend]

A couple other options worth considering.

Norsso. Their slides are 17-4 stainless, so a bit nicer and theoretically more durable than typical 416R of most aftermarket slides. If it was me, I'd avoid all the cool guy unnecessary slide cut BS and stick to the Gripper or Spec Ops models since those are fairly conventional and Gen5-like with simply having front cocking serrations.

Remsport. Best bang for the buck by far ($140). It's 416R stainless, melonited, so pretty typical. They are very nicely machined and finished (much more so than the Brownells slides), like impressively so for the price. In fairness, I've heard a few people say they had some issues with them. I haven't had any issues across multiple slides. I do wonder if any issues people have had is due to the off-brand internals they might be using?

I stick to OEM slide internals except for a few components where there are quality aftermarket options (e.g. Overwatch Precision NP3'd OEM striker and firing pin safety, Apex extractor only if addressing extraction issues, White Sound H.R.E.D. for addressing weak extraction, etc). Regardless, I always stick to OEM for the striker channel sleeve, striker housing, striker spring, striker spring cups, end plate, firing pin safety spring, RSA. With those cheap and small parts, I have seen wide variations in specs and reliability issues from the sheer number of aftermarket options. So, I see no reason to deviate from OEM for those small components. Also, when in doubt, try an OEM barrel if assessing any issues before entirely writing off a slide that might have problems.

Both of the above have separate optic recoil bosses (preferred IMO) as opposed to the weaker design of raised screw hole bosses of many others on the market. As an aside, I wouldn't give SI a penny, but that's just me. Reasons why have been discussed ad nauseam elsewhere and don't need to pollute this thread but, suffice to say there are reasons.

[Chris17404]

How about a Centurion Arms Gen 3 Glock 17 slide? Does anyone have experience with these?

[valian]

Thank you for the important data point. I’m leaning hard toward SI.

What barrels are you running?

Im running mostly gen3 Glock OEM barrels. I have run a Lone Wolf match barrel also in my G19 for practice shooting and a few high round classes without any issues.

[camel]

I’m not sure whom you’re asking what. Can you clarify?

Ah wrong place.

[pangloss]

I've had bad luck with SI and Brownells. I bought the SI slide for a G19 over a decade ago. The Brownells slide is from last year--also a 19.3 slide. I'm considering a PSA Dagger slide now. Centurion is also interesting.