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  1. #1

    Zaffiri Precision Slide and Barrel

    Item reviewed:
    Zaffiri Precision Slide (RTS - G19 Gen 3 - ZPS.6 RMR, Flat Dark Earth)
    Zaffiri Precision threaded barrel, black nitride.

    I got these from Zaffiri Precision as part of a package that included a P80 frame, parts kits for the slide and frame, a ZP magwell and fiber optic sights for $550.

    Pros: On initial inspection the parts looked fine. I prefer a simpler look, but the rear scallops and front cutouts are quite grippy. The machining appeared clean, and the design of the logos on the slide and barrel hood aren’t too gaudy so even though I hate Gucci I can live with this look. I'm still working on the build, so haven’t yet fired the piece and can’t comment on accuracy.

    Cons: On further inspection, I’ve found these issues:
    • Burrs left in the extractor depressor plunger bore from the optic screw threading operation. ZP’s response was “oops, sorry, we try to get those but we miss some. Use a drill or file to get them out.” It wasn’t a huge thing to fix, spinning a drill by hand in the bore popped them right off, but if they know it’s an issue they should take more effective steps to correct it before shipping parts. It sounds like they’re relying on manual inspections, which is a very unreliable way to error proof.
    • Difficult channel liner installation due to rough Cerakote overspray on the channel liner bore. In order to get a liner to seat I had to polish the heck out of the bore with a bore mop and jeweler’s rouge, lightly wet sand the OD of the liner with 600 grit paper, and apply a very thin coat of grease to it. Ruined two liners getting to the solution. In my industry, it’s a given that when coating a part you mask off critical machined locations to avoid that kind of thing, or else machine after coating. ZP’s response was to tell me that they haven’t had any problems and that I should take it to a gun smith.
    • The slide hanging full open because the front right corner of the machined logo area of the barrel hood catches on the oval lightening section cut out on the inside of the front of the slide; see the video at https://youtu.be/3IzR5zG6aL4. I’ve blended most of it out as Racer88 shows, but once again this is the kind of thing that a customer shouldn’t have to fix. ZP’s response is “This is an issue with all manufacturers products though when it comes to the slide/barrels. The issue is with the P80. Not all aftermarket parts are compatible with each other and may require adjustments”, to which I once again call BS.

    I have no problem with fitting things that reasonably might need to be fitted, I knew when I got into this that I’d have to fiddle around with things; for example, I'm having a trigger reset issue that I suspect has to do with tolerance stacking from the trigger bar to the firing pin and that's fine. I like fiddling with hardware, it’s the reason I got my engineering degree. But burrs and rough overspray left in bores is just sloppy work, and if (as some people have told me) that's considered normal in this industry then I think the industry is overdue for a kick in the ass - I see no excuse for it. And the slide hangs open because they themselves added features to both the slide and the barrel that are perfectly designed to do so during the normal range of motion of the parts; for them to say "not all aftermarket parts are compatible with each other and may require adjustments" when both parts are theirs and they fit directly to each other does not sit well with me.

    UPDATED BELOW.
    Last edited by chilehed; 01-14-2022 at 05:59 PM.

  2. #2
    MGO Member Tom S.'s Avatar
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    A good company would have told you to send it back at their expense and shipped you another package with all these flaws corrected, and maybe even a discount coupon for future sales. Obviously this isn't a 'good' company. Thanks for the review!
    Lighten up Francis.

  3. #3
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    Obviously you paid quite a bit of money for products that should be good to go from the get go. I too am troubled by PS's responses. Not good business. I hope for their sake that you are the exception and not the rule. Time will tell and so will other who opine on this company and products. Thanks.

  4. #4
    UPDATE:

    Over the weekend I stumbled upon the owner's Facebook profile and messaged him about it. He apologized for my experience, referenced some changes he's making to customer service and QC, and offered a refund or replacement. I asked for a replacement; we had some discussion about the root cause of the locking issue and he'll be sending me another barrel and slide to test in a few weeks (which is the soonest he can get them back from coating). He says that he let customer service know about it and told them to send replacement barrels to anyone having he same issue.

    I'll get back here after I have a change to look at the replacement parts, but this interaction has greatly improved my opinion of this company. More will be revealed.

    Also: I see that youtube pulled the video I referenced above (figures). A summary of the issue can be found at https://www.marinegunbuilder.com/for...RRI897OBUz2C1c

  5. #5
    FURTHER UPDATE:

    I just received the replacement parts. The shallow bevel at the front of the hood is milled slightly deeper (as he says it was supposed to be), which eases the corner that was catching on the slide. When I manually work the barrel against the slide there’s still some hesitation, and if I pressure the barrel in that direction it still catches at that location. BUT I’ve racked the slide a few dozen times as assembled on the frame and haven’t gotten it to stick, so this pair of parts seems to work okay and from a customer perspective that’s what really counts - I can afford to not care about production variation as long as MY parts are fine. I'll move forward with the build, it’ll be a while before I can put any ammo through it and if it runs fine then all good.

    Overall I think Mr. Zaffiri handled this well, and when I get to my G34 build I won't be disinclined to buy from him again.

  6. #6
    MGO Member Tom S.'s Avatar
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    Thanks for the up date. Good part: Owner stood behind his product and made it right. Bad part: You had to go through hoops to make it happen. I'd still be wary of them.
    Lighten up Francis.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom S. View Post
    Thanks for the up date. Good part: Owner stood behind his product and made it right. Bad part: You had to go through hoops to make it happen. I'd still be wary of them.
    Yeah.... well, I got a lot of comments from people who were really surprised to hear it, apparently they have a pretty good rep (and they were recommended to me by a well respected supplier of trigger upgrades). The owner did say he was addressing the customer service response, so I'm willing to chalk this up as one of the unfortunate things that can happen to any company.

  8. #8
    FURTHER UPDATE:
    I finally got it out to the range over the last couple of weeks and it seems to shoot pretty well. I've got about 50 rounds of Lawman 115gr through it, and about a dozen handloads using Rocky Mountain Reloading 147gr FMJ with Vihtavuori N320. I've had no feeding issues and no slide hang ups, and resting on my wrists with a Swampfox Justice green dot I'm getting ~1" groups at fifteen yards. So I'm pretty happy with the Zaffiri hardware.

    I'm scratching my head a bit about the load development. The Vihtavuori load data for 147gr bullets shows COLs of 1.140+ and a starting load of 3.1gr using N320. But the RMRs fail the plunk test at COL >1.115; backing off to 1.112, with round-to-round variation my shortest loads are at 1.106, and that's right at 100% load density with 3.1 gr of N320. I walked loads down to 2.4 gr (about 720 FPS at the muzzle) and was still seeing flattened primers, less than that and I was getting failure to eject.

    So obviously N320 is way too fast, and I've rolled up some N330 from 2.4 to 2.8 gr to test. But I'm wondering why the RMRs load so much shorter than the RN Heavy Plate or the Hornady HP/XTP shown in the Vihtavuori load data. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the RMRs have much thicker copper, so they have to be longer to make the weight. I did measure the chamber and it's dead nuts to SAAMI specs.

    Anyway, this is what the fun's about. Mostly I just wanted to give a final report on the Zaffiri components.

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