Rincon, Georgia-based ShaloTek has been quietly manufacturing some of the slickest, nicest SIG SAUER and GLOCK custom slides, frames, and barrels on the market all at extremely competitive prices. Well, maybe they haven’t been too terribly quiet about it but they still somehow slipped under my radar until recently!
No more, though, as I’ve been putting a comp’d P365 slide through its paces for the last couple of months and, with the recent release of their modular frames and P320 parts, I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of ShaloTek in the future.
ShaloTek’s press release on the compensated P320 slide follows:
With the announcement of Sig Sauer’s new AXG Comp Legion at Shot Show last week it looks like P320 fans will be able to do what P365 shooters have been doing for well over a year. No doubt it’s going to be a hit with the full size crowd. The timing of these actually hitting your local gun store is anyone’s guess. It may even be months before we see one at the range.
Not in the mood to wait? Well the guys over at ShaloTek weren’t either. In fact they released their version of the P320 compensated slide a couple of months back. Made from stainless bar stock and designed to work with all your factory components, this would be a great way to get your P320 throwing flames long before anyone waiting for the factory variant. And starting at under $250 dollars you can afford to double up or put more lead down range.
Shooting a larger platform like the P320 comes with some benefits like larger grip area and a bit more weight out front to help control felt recoil. The P320 does have a higher bore over the grip than the P365, but the compensator built into the slide helps to counter this issue and controls muzzle rise. After a trip to the range I can personally say that it’s a flat shooter with a similar feel to pistols costing 2-3 times as much. With all the other upgrades available for the P320, the addition of a ShaloTek compensated slide is, dollars to doughnuts, one of the easiest you can do. Not to mention this is an upgrade you wont need to wait for months to get your hands on.
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- Stainless construction
- Three port design
- Possative grip in the serrations
- Optic cuts with plate included
- Lifetime warranty and support
- Black nitrided or Cerakote
Give the guys over at ShaloTek.com a visit for the latest in compensated slides for your P320 and P365 pistols. And keep an eye open for new developments. Macro aluminum grip module anyone?
Is this idea of using the frame of the slide as a compensator something new?
If not, it seems like a clever idea…
It isn’t new to ShaloTek but it has become far more popular in the pistol world in only the last year or so. It’s certainly way cleaner than bolting on a separate compensator to the end of the barrel. Instead, you keep the same barrel and run a slightly extended slide with the comp machined into the end. Looks good, can’t come loose, doesn’t wobble around, works great…I’m a fan for sure.
Also a way of adding evil features to a pistol without breaking stupid laws. Oddly I am more interested in seeing if the 4 inch barrel will work reliably in a 365xl.
It’s not new, it’s just marketing hype. There’s no expansion, no gas volume effect – any “compensation” occurs due to extra weight in front of the barrel.
There’s one born every minute, and Sig markets directly to those people.
I checked their website. Apparently these are stripped slides with no internals, and no sights. Specifically, no ported barrels to go with them; and such barrels don’t appear to be offered separately on their website, either.
So … My classical physics is a little rusty, but wouldn’t the barrel also need to have (preferably matching) ports for this to do much of anything, save making the slide a little lighter? Unless there’s a serious gas leak somewhere around the breech … in which case the pistol would likely need attention in other areas before getting a new slide.
The description also says “Must use higher powered ammunition,” which is not a path towards recoil reduction that I know of. (Of course, see previous comments re rusty physics…)
You can see the crown of the barrel in the first photo. Your standard barrel simply ends before the compensated part of the slide, allowing the gas and pressure and such to vent upwards through the port(s) as well as out the muzzle as usual. This is like adding a compensator to the end of your barrel, but instead of a separate piece it’s machined as an integral part of the extended slide. It’s a super clean way to do it.
Porting barrels and compensating slides or bolting a compensator to the end of a barrel tends to reduce slide speeds to some degree. There’s a chance the gun won’t run with weak ammo that barely cycles it in it’s normal configuration. You may have to use higher power ammo than the absolute minimum power ammo, but that doesn’t mean you have to use high power ammo. Everything I shot through my P365 with their compensated slide ran great, from 115 grain target loads to 147 grain subs to a little bit of self-defense stuff. Maybe 115 grain minimum power factor competition stuff or whatever could struggle, but I don’t know if that would even be the case. Alternatively, instead of doing this on the ammo side you could run a lighter power recoil spring. I think in 99% of cases you’ll have no reason to do either.
Thanks Jeremy,
I was wondering the same thing then saw that the compensator extends past the end of the barrel. Must work extremely fast during the cycle.
Thanks. it’s easier to see the setup on my phone screen vs my desktop, ironically.
If it works for you, great!
A way to conceptualize it is, the regular muzzle blast from the barrel escapes more upwards more than it does downwards, due to the cutouts in the slide. That produces the downwards force on the gun.
The downside is, the slide is a bit longer that the normal slide. But it can be an upside for shooting accuracy if they were to locate the front sight at the very end of the slide, exploiting the longer sight length, if they wanted…
Excellent point. More sight radius and faster on target. Nice options.
Doesn’t matter as much on an optics equipped gunm where irons are only there for secondary emergency backup, unless you lose your rds.
Every pist0l I have has both optic, and suppr3ssor height night sights these days. If the front isn’t high contrast, I make it so, and conversely black out the rear except for the vials if it is high contrast.
Every advantage is needed being on the reactive back foot in a defensive situation, however slight.
A comp isn’t needed for 9mm. Build your grip strength to mitigate recoil bunch of wimps.
Thanks hyphenated Zorro!
We’ll work on that…
Two bags…
Comps on 9mm handguns can be lots of fun.
I’m able to put 17rd on a 10″ steel plate @10 yards in under 5 seconds (one hand hold) with my comped P99. This is with 124gr/1200fps ammo too.
See Post #38……..
https://www.waltherforums.com/threads/p99-values-in-‘23.130305/page-2
Only took a comp and shooting it around 5k times in 2022 to get to this level of proficiency with a P99. The 1mm tactile reset helps too.
No way this would be possible WITHOUT a comp.
Those that have no idea what they’re talking about out themselves pretty quick. As do spurious unverifiable claims about reliability crawling up out of the woodwork suddenly to tag along with highly dubious class action law suits. Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many new handles across the web with all these “stories”. Wonder how many are disinfo bots?
Relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZASNyzdEgx8
Anecdotally and incidentally, I know of thousands online and irl that have none of these so called issues, including myself. Amazeballs, right?
Have a few 320’s now, one an RXP Xcompact based built so much I only needed an FCU frame to complete another. Highly recommend the Herrington comp to anyone who wants to shoot significantly faster, vastly superior to the PMM I had before it.
Shooting faster means you’re a bitch to some rocket surgeons, I guess. Lol, what a simpleton take.
Or they just lack imagination, take something in full size for 320 with the tungsten insert grip and use a full sized comp slide with a 357 sig barrel. Bit of a flash but +p+ 9mm equivalent with around 9mm or less recoil. No idea if the stainless steel or tungsten guide rod would make a difference but I noticed quite a bit when I tried out a friends grip of that sort.
Definitely, have the tungsten insert in one, but not my iwb carries. W guide rod is going to be a balancing act. Might need to tune the spring weights with the additional mass increasing the moment of inertia. Or decrease the slide weight.
One thing to note here; a dedicated and well engineered external comp is more effective, providing a more forceful expulsion due to the gas seal (more or less) until the ports.
These slide comp designs allow the gas to expand in that large chamber previous to expelling through the port, decreasing available pressure, and efficacy. On the upside, that chamber should reduce muzzle flash. Everything in engineering is a compromise, and N0DS of course factors.
Don’t get me wrong. I comprehend completely why these are an important development in the less free states that ban muzzle devices and threaded barrels. Something being better than nothing is a very valid reason, and I’m pleased you all have a workaround available.
This, although a side of me finds suffering compliance absolutely intolerable, revolting, and downright repugnant.
It is revolting but the malicious compliance it creates is at times entertaining if somewhat juvenile. Hadn’t considered the spring strength so will read up on options there for later. Have one ballistic fiberglass panel for testing left and figuring a 68 grain Xtreme defense out of a 357 sig will be a fun starter.
In the last week three people at the range having severe P320 issues. The one fella with his new out of the box pistol, round number one in the full mag fires, action cycles, chamber, reloads, pressing the trigger for a second time was only a *click, not a bang. There was not even a primer strike on the primer. That happened consistently despite cleaning/oil, mags, and proper form, the slide was coming all the way back as needed, no idea???
Second fella last round in the mag, despite any which mags used always jammed and would not go into full battery. He has shot it for 6 months no issue. Could not diagnose the problem on it. It cycled flawlessly without issue until chambering the last round.
Fella three, casing stuck in the chamber worse than I’ve ever seen. Had to put the nose of the slide above the barrel on the edge of a steel bench and jump on the frame to break it free and run the slide back.
This is just a SINGLE week. I hate the P320, I hate the military and Sig for covering up all it’s issues and pushing it into military service. Btw the DoD did it’s own testing of the P320 to adopt it and it failed, look up those trials. Normal pistols don’t have the kinds of issues P320s have. If I hadn’t been seeing these instances myself I would have thought these cases be a lie. All the guns I have built, fixed, and created I don’t understand how the P320 fails the ways that it does. My friend carries a P320X Legion with 5,000 rounds no failure and I think that’s excellent but for me I would not take one if it was given to me. Oh and the P320X Legion mags don’t fit in other P320 pistols. I admit the Sig Macro and P322 are some of the best pistols made in the last decade but them and their P320 no thanks. Stay away
Yeah 320 mags are a hot mess (worse if you have 10 round limits) but thus far getting a fire control unit and building a 320 is working out great. But there is a certain level of caution I take with testing the 320 that I do not feel the need for with other pistols on my permit.
Factory Mec-Gar’s? All of mine are flawless, and I have 28 current count, from 15 to 30rd. No offense, but I won’t buy a neutered 10rd only to test.
Watch the video I posted above, if you’re on a 2nd gen P320’s you don’t have a thing to worry about without pulling the trigger. Use holsters designed for them, and stay far, far away from Blackhawk.
Sig 10 rounder for 40/357sig in the sub compact and full size depending how I have it set up. I think it is new enough just less inclinded to aiwb compared to the 365 with how light the trigger is. With that said probably the pistol I am most precise with.
Something I noticed with all the mags between all these P320 pistols including the Legion mags, the followers in each of the mags do not have anti tilt. Many manufacturers in the last 10 years (especially cheap ProMag) have been going out of their way to remove follower tilt, I thought it was surprising to note. But overall I don’t know if it has anything to do in the equation because like I said, the Legion with 5,000 rounds no failure also had follower tilt. I don’t mind buying guns and fixing their Achilles heel, it’s ended up being quite fun actually but the P320 has me scratching my head. I have heard reports Sig is slowing changing/fixing them internally with each model sold to the military as a bit of a cover-up, I expect that would include the civilian models. Time will tell?
Have to get back to these later, work summons.
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