ZP is probably the most recognized brand for aftermarket ported slide options that are available for the 43x. They’re the first result in search engines and any Glock builder knows who they are. It’s the obvious place to start with our 43x testing.
Now being the nerdy tacticool dad’s that we are, we can’t accept any standard configuration. I had to be “extra” and order it custom in my favorite color combo: black multicam.
The only available options for optic cuts were different flavors of the RMSc cut so I opted to configure mine for the EPS Carry. It’s the new kid on the block so I’m deviating from my standard RMR06 to try out Holosun’s newest closed emitter optic.
Next I’m going to go through some negative aspects of this but I hope you’ll stick with me to the end.
Placing the order
I attempted to place my order more times than I could count and it kept getting declined. I couldn’t figure out why and assumed it was something wrong with my card so I tried different cards. Finally, after stubbornly coming back and being the technical troubleshooter that I am, I successfully placed the order with my original payment method by simply using a different email address.
This is still strange to me because I have no prior business with ZP and can’t think of any reason why my email address would be blocked.
Technical difficulties. Moving on..
Assembly
Along with the slide, I ordered the full ZP package with their slide parts kit and backplate. Everything went fine, nothing abnormal until I got to mounting my Holosun EPS Carry red dot. It wouldn’t fit. I worked on it for a little while, rocking it back and forth trying to get it to seat but I was only successful in removing some of the black coating on my new Holosun red dot.
Finally, I grabbed some 220 grit sandpaper and removed the cerekote on the edges of the optic cut which provided barely enough clearance to fit the red dot.
I touched up the scratches on the red dot with sharpie. (lol)
I like to test customer service by first attempting to contact them by unconventional means, so during this process I had sent a message to their Instagram profile. They replied, to my surprise and offered to test the optic mount and refinish the slide for me which I opted out of at the time since I was eager to get this put together and tested.
Testing: Day 1
Finally, the moment I had waited for. I had held off on testing this slide until I was already going to be at the range for a concealed carry permit renewal class. Good thing I brought my factory slide for the qualification test because this quickly, and repetitively failed to feed.
Every shot, the next round would stove pipe into the chamber and the recoil spring would fall off the barrel lug making disassembly difficult.
Being experienced in gunsmithing, I know that sometimes when you stack tight tolerances, you just need to shoot through the pain until it runs reliably. I lasted about 100 rounds of racking the slide and swapping parts between slides to figure out that this was a defect and it wasn’t going to improve. It would run perfect with the Glock factory barrel so something was off.
I packed up and contacted ZP customer service for the 2nd time, this time by email. Response was slower than through social media but resolution was still fast. I was quickly provided a prepaid shipping label to return the slide and parts to their warranty department.
That was the end of the problems I faced.
A couple weeks later, ZP contacted me by email to confirm my findings and let me know that they were refinishing the slide and supplying a new barrel and recoil spring assembly. It arrived at my doorstep a week later. Total turn around time of 3 weeks seemed very reasonable.
Testing: Day 2
It ran perfectly but I’m withholding specifics for our final head-to-head comparison review. Check back for that and follow us on social media for updates.
Conclusion
I faced some problems, certainly. That’s unacceptable to a lot of people but customer service was excellent. Every company has a defective rate. I firmly believe that it’s how they stand behind their products that matters the most and ZP customer service performed very well, never making me feel like I was the problem and didn’t seek reasons to deny service.
ZP is still not aware of my intentions with testing. I was just another customer. Finally, our challenges won’t impact our functional testing results and final opinion.
