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Best P365 Upgrades: Grips, Slides, Barrels, & More



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Everyone knew when the P365 was released that the game was changed forever. And it’s not really surprising that a really strong aftermarket has sprung up to mod, improve, and support the P365 platform.

While testing every part on the market will be an ongoing endeavor, we have to start somewhere, and this is where we started. The best upgrades, mods, grips, barrels, slides, and more for the SIG Sauer P365!

BEST P365 GRIP MODULES

Wilson Combat WCP365 

In a lot of ways, this is really all you need for upgrading your P365. SIG’s grip modules are oddly, some of the least good ones on the market. They’re fine, but there is nothing impressive are nice about them that really stands out.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being amazing, let’s call the OEM SIG grips a 5. Not bad, not good, just average. The baseline of what is acceptable. 

Wilson Combat Grips are an easy 8 on that scale for ergonomics, comfort, and grip. On the value side, they are solid 10s. You just can’t beat the WC price of only $65 for what is almost a night-and-day upgrade.

I’ve been using two WC grips a lot: the normal P365 grip and the P365XL grip. Both perform wonderfully, both are solid, both give a major upgrade in terms of how the gun fits and feels in my hands. I really have nothing bad to say about the Wilson Combat grips.

I guess the only downside, if it even is one, is that these are still plastic. Nothing wrong with plastic, but if you want to get fancy, we can get fancy with some other options.

Personally, I like the normal P365 grip the best because I pair it with a 10-round magazine that has the XTR base pad extension to make it a 13-round mag. But we’ll have more on that later.

New from Wilson Combat is an X-MACRO grip frame! All the same upgrades that WC is known for, but in the bigger size. Feels great!

Any of the Wilson Combat grips are good to go. Pick size, pick your color, and you’re good to go.

By the way, a huge upside to the WC grips is that these come WITH magazine releases. You need to install it, but that’s super easy. 

Mischief Machine Commander Series 

If you want to really upgrade your P365 game, you should look at some of the metal grip options that are out there. Mischief Machine is one of the bigger names in the space, and I have to say, their grips live up to the hype.

I would also say that their website is kind of annoying to navigate, but power through, and you’ll be rewarded with a great grip module.

Mischief Machine sent me two of their grips, both made from billet 7075 aluminum, the XMACRO and the XL. The Macro can take the newest 17-round magazines, while the XL/X uses the smaller 12-round mags — but I actually used 17-rounders with both since I don’t have the 12s.

Both of these grips are outstanding. They add a much more squared-off feel to the P365, but in an entirely good way.

If I had to describe the P365 in its stock form, I would say that it is a micro-pistol that feels like a micro-compact but shoots like a sub-compact or compact pistol.

The MM grip makes the gun feel like a real gun. Like a metal compact or sub-compact gun, instead of the micro-pistol that it really is.

Grip angle is almost perfectly 1911 style, the trigger guard has a good undercut but then squares off. A real Pichatinny rail, even on the smaller model, is really nice to have and a major improvement over SIG’s stupid rail.

A really nice feature is the fact that the MM grips can have their side panels and backstrap changed out. Not only does this let you play with what sizes work best for you, but it also lets you pick out some different colors to customize the grip.

I really like shooting this grip. With the thin side and large back strap, it fits my hand wonderfully and points perfectly. Zero complaints on that end. But what really sells me is how good it looks. The classic design, rosewood panels, but with features of a modern pistol. The P365 might not be my first choice of a “take-to-town” gun, but with the MM grip, it sure looks the part.

The downside? $395 to $430 pricetag, and it doesn’t come with a magazine release. Ouch.

Icarus Precision XMACRO

I Love this grip. I have the P320 Icarus grip also, and it is by far my favorite P320 grip. The same goes for the P365. Machined from billet 7075 aluminum, this grip just fits my hands perfectly and locks me in tight.

Double undercut on the trigger guard goes a long way in keeping your hands in the right place. Thumb shelf for your support hand, huge beaver tail, and even a decent little magwell built into the design.

Plus, it looks pretty badass.

That being said… I think the Icarus might be a love-it-or-hate-it. It fits my hands perfectly, but it won’t fit everyone that well. If you find that the grip doesn’t fit you, there isn’t much you can do about it except sell it. 

My grip is the XMACRO and uses the 17-round magazines. This setup ends up being the least concealable of all of my P365 builds, but it is still much easier to carry than any subcompact pistol on the market, even as it gives me more ammo than them.

Downside is the price at $400 and, again, no magazine release.

Shalotek Flex

Because of how many options there are for the Flex, this is going to be a high-level overview. A dedicated review of the Flex is coming soon so be on the lookout for that.

Bottomline, the Flex is by far the most customizable P365 grip ever made. This might seem a little intimidating to some, but if you're the kind of person to tinker, you're going to love this.

Instead of being one complete piece, the Flex breaks the P365 grip module into 5-ish pieces. Much like a 2011, the grip and frame of the Flex are separate parts. The trigger guard is also a separate piece, as are the magwell and side panels for the grip.

The frame and grip are offered in three sizes. X, XL, and XXL for the frame and 10-round, 12-round, and 17-round for the grip. Trigger guard you again have three options, normal, oversized, and a very cool normal-sized one that has a built-in gas pedal.

Swapping around the pieces requires undoing and redoing screws, but it's only a few and it's not hard. If you want to play around with what set-up works best for you, it is easy and can result in some cool combos.

The grip feels great in your hand, the frame gives you a real 1913 rail, and the gas pedal trigger guard is pretty awesome and adds a lot of control over the gun. Best of all, this is an all-metal frame that costs a bit less than the rest at $375 for a complete module — but you still have to source a mag release on your own.

BEST P365 BARRELS

Zaffiri Precision

I got to use several Zaffiri Precision barrels for the P365, and all of them were top-notch. Accurate, reliable, and zero problems. Zaffiri offers barrels at a decent price and with a boatload of cool options in colors and finish.

The threaded and standard barrels were both exactly as you might expect, but it was the ported barrel that has really impressed me.

Combined with Zaffiri’s ported slide the ported barrel knocks down a ton of felt recoil and is pretty amazing at helping you get back on target very quickly.

I did some testing between different barrel, slide, comp, and port options and found the ported barrel to be the fastest return to target of them all.

Killer Innovations Velocity 

The Velocity barrel from Killer Innovations was the most accurate of all the barrels I tested. Granted, these are still micro-compact pistol barrels, but tighter groups are tighter groups.

Reliability was also perfect, not a single problem during any of the testing. I’ve used this barrel the most and carried it the most. I normally combo it with my SIG XMACRO Comp slide and it has worked wonderfully. 

I often take that setup to the local Back-Up Gun match and have put it through some hard use with weird positions and lots of moon dust.

Parker Mountain Machine MICRO JTTC

If I had to pick one, I would say that the Parker Mountian Machine barrel and comp are likely the most carefully made of all the barrels I tried, but I don’t think that exactly translates into performance.

I never had an issue with the PMM barrel or comp, but I can’t point to anything they did special either. They worked well, but in testing, the comp wasn’t as good as some other options.

The barrel also developed some strange chattered pattern of wear on the top. This doesn’t seem to be impacting performance, but it is a little odd to look at.

Faxon Firearms Match Series

An outstanding price for a solid product. Faxon barrels always look great to my eye and have always delivered when it comes to reliability and accuracy. 

More accurate than the OEM barrel, but maybe slightly less than the Killer Innovations barrel, the Faxon barrel is a great middle-ground that blends aesthetics and design really well.

Best of all, the Faxon barrel is a bit cheaper than most other options. For a value buy, this is hard to beat.

BEST P365 SLIDE

SIG COMP/Spectre Comp

If you already have a SIG P365 Comp or Spectre, you can ignore this as an option. But if you don’t, and especially if you don’t have a P365 at all yet, I think these really deserve a closer look.

The Spectre, as a complete gun, is kind of overpriced. By a lot. It’s honestly a stupid price, and you should avoid it if you haven’t already bought one. But the slide by itself is only $400, still not cheap but not as horrible.

With a built-in compensator, this is more than just a slide. For reasons that I don’t understand, slides with built-in comps seem to get a lot less respect than they deserve. According to my testing, the XCOMP slide is surprisingly effective.

This has some nice benefits also since you don’t have anything you need to time or anything that can come loose.  Plus, this is an optics-ready slide that just works really well.

Killer Innovations Velocity V1

As far as design goes, Killer Innovations is the top of my list. This slide just looks awesome to me. The sleek black finish, the lines, the cut, it’s fancy and I like it.

It also performs wonderfully with zero issues at all. But that’s not the really cool part.

KI’s slide is optics-ready but takes it a step further by having both RMS/RMSc and RMRcc footprints built into the same slide. With some adjustable posts and a shim, you can run either footprint.

This gives you a huge range of red dots to choose from:

  • Trijicon RMRcc (No Shim required)
  • Shield RSMc, SMSc, RMSx
  • Holosun EPS Carry
  • Holosun 507k
  • Sig Sauer Romeo Zero & Romeo Zero Elite
  • Swampfox Sentinel
  • Plus More

It looks good, it performs well, and you can have almost any red dot you want. I love it.

Zaffiri Precision ZPS.P

This is the ported slide that matches the ported barrel. This slide has proven to be very reliable for me and is a perfect match for the ported barrel under the hood.

While it isn’t cheap, you do have a ton of options for color and finish, from the more standard options like FDE, black, gray, and green to some crazy custom colors that you can order from Zaffiri.

If you want a slide that looks amazing, this is a great choice. The ported barrel takes it to a whole other level and is also an option I recommend.

Shalotek

For almost every size you can think of, there is a Shalotek slide made for it. While their standard slides are pretty darn good, it is the integrally comped slides that really make Shalotek slides shine.

The same idea as what the SIG Comp slide uses, Shalotek has their comp milled into the slide. The big difference is where the SIG Comp slide is pretty solid, the Shalotek comp is outstanding. Call it the internal angles, the port size, whatever it is, the Shalotek comped slides simply work better.

The other details of the slide are also well done. Good sarrations, easy to install sights, etc. If you want a comp but don't want to deal with a threaded barrel or timing anything, the Shalotek slide kicks major ass.

BEST P365 COMPENSATORS 

I didn’t get to test much in the way of compensators, but the two I tried I put a lot of rounds through. Well over 500 per gun, I’ve gotten a lot of time to get to know these comps.

Faxon Firearms EXOS-525

Faxon’s comp is exactly what you should expect from Faxon. Well priced, it works, and it looks good.

A downside might be that this is a fairly large comp. It’s easy to carry since it’s the same size as the P365 slide, but it’s long and adds a good amount of slide length for you to pack down your pants.

For me, this isn’t an issue, but we’re not all built the same.

Big upside was that this proved to be an effective comp and improved my shooting time by almost 20%.

Parker Mountain Machine MICRO JTTC

Kind of expensive since it requires PMM’s barrel and is kind of annoying to install, but this is still a decent compensator even if it didn’t perform as well as I hoped it would. With only an 11% improvement in shooting, the PMM comp didn’t blow my mind.

Installation uses shims to time the comp to the barrel, and this can get tricky with a lot of trial and error to get it right. They include a plastic vice to use to help you tighten the comp, and I highly recommend using it.

Reliable, looks good, very clean design to it all, and fits very tightly with the barrel for a design that doesn’t rely on setscrews for timing, there are some decent upsides to the PMM comp.

BEST P365 EXTRAS

XTech Tactical MTX 365

After getting some time on using these base pads, these are the only ones I’ll use for my 10-round magazines.

Easy to install, these replace the OEM baseplate on the 10-round SIG mags to make them 13-round mags with a really well-made pinky extension. This basically becomes a part of the grip and, in effect, turns a normal P365 grip into a P365XL grip, but with 1 more round than the standard P365XL could pack. 

Plus, you’re just a mag change away from having the smaller grip size if you want.

XTM plates now ship with their custom follower as well. This is a major upgrade for the plates and makes loading a lot easier. For those of you that don't have the upgraded follower yet, I highly recommend it.

Big news for California is XTM's +0 plates. These won't add capacity, but they do make the mag longer and easier to use. These keep your ban-state mags at 10 rounds, but give you the other benefits.

And for those of you that run 12-round factory mags, XTM now offers a 12-rd to 15-rd plate.

Personally, I like the classic XTM with the upgraded follower.

Tyrant CNC

Tyrant CNC has a lot of cool options to take a look at, all of them worked wonderfully, and I can completely recommend them.

The magwell is magwell, but it looks good and works great. Perfect for the OEM grip, but sadly won’t fit on aftermarket grips. Not surprising, but it is what it is.

The extended magazine release might be my favorite. The OEM release is really flat and tight to the body of the grip. This makes sense since this is a CCW pistol, but I still rather have something that is at least a little easier for me to press. The Tyrant CNC option is perfect. Easy to press, but I’ve never pressed it when I didn’t mean to do it.

If 17-rounds isn’t enough for you, you can use the Tyrant extension to get a full 20-rounds in your MACRO magazine. My magazine won’t lock back on empty now using the OEM spring, but I’m totally okay with that.

Normally, this mag is what I carry as my spare. If the worst happens and I need a reload, I like that reload to be as much ammo as I can practically carry. 20-round Macro mag is perfect.

Tyrant also offers some other small parts, like an extended slide release. Depending on how you want to set up your gun, these are definitely worth looking at. So far, everything Tyrant offers has been high-quality and works amazingly well.

Available for pre-order right now, Tryrant will soon be offering a new P365 trigger shoe that incorporates a trigger safety into the design.

While SIG feels that their gun doesn't need a trigger safety, and I generally agree with that, a lot of people just feel better having one. I get that and especially on a CCW, I don't hate the idea. Shooting with the Tyrant trigger felt as normal and natural as shooting with any other straight shoe.

The shoe is really well designed and the safety dongle is basically unnoticeable, but still keeps the trigger safe.

Downside? The P365 trigger is kind of a pain to work on. Not horrible, but you'll want to set aside at least a half-hour and go slow.

PARTING SHOTS

This will be an ongoing article for us that we’ll update as we find more P365 upgrades worth adding. If you have a favorite you think we should test out, let us know in the comments.

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2 Comments

  • chad says:

    want to see more from shalotek they seem to have the right idea for making a modular unit.

  • Andy Gold says:

    1 option that is really good is a Magguts kit. It adds 2 rounds to the 365-series magazines without adding any extra length. Another plus is that their replacement magazine spring (that also comes with a new follower) makes loading the magazines easier. Whereas 365 magazines can be a bit of a bitch to load to full capacity, mags with Magguts guts can be loaded to full capacity with 2 extra rounds, and all of them are much easier then stock to load into the magazine. They are known to be extremely reliable too.
    Second, I tried a few mag releases as I couldn’t drop a mag without shifting my grip. The only mag release that worked well for me was the Align Tactical Offset Mag Release. It sticks out a bit further then the stock one, and also has the finger pad offset a bit. At first blush it looked to me that it would move the finger pad in the wrong direction from what I needed, but in use it actually made mag changes quicker as I did not have to shift my grip, and the drops were 100% clean with no drag. I did have to give my Kydex holster(s) a 20-second burst with a heat gun to make a bit of room for the release as it sticks out a few millimeters further than the stock release. I’ve had no accidental mag releases even with my carrying in a front pants pocket in a Vedder Pocket Locker holster.
    Lastly, and probably the best mod bar none was the installation of a Black Steel Grip Control. It’s a folding gas pedal/thumb rest. I have the size 3 version on my P365. It replaces the slide release lever, so there’s no need to have a light on the gun as other gas pedals require you to have!!! Before the addition, I had problems keeping my green dot on target for fast follow-up shots. After each shot I had to re-acquire the dot. With the Grip Control on the gun, I can 99% eliminate all muzzle flip!!!!! The dot stays on target. It just does not move!!!! Fast follow-up shots are no longer an issue. For the Grip Control, even though it’s spring loaded and folds relatively flat against the side of the gun, I again needed to do a quick 20-second application of a heat gun on both of my Kydex holsters to give them a little outward bulge to accommodate the gas pedal while still keeping the holster opening(s) flat against the sides of the gun just like they were when stock. Both the mag release and gas pedal were installed and I was able to keep the holsters I had . There was no need to buy new holsters which saved me a lot of money.

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  • 1 option that is really good is a Magguts kit. It adds 2 rounds to the 365-series magazines without adding any extra length. Another plus is that their replacement magazine spring (that also comes with a new follower) makes loading the magazines easier. Whereas 365 magazines can be a bit of a bitch to load to full capacity, mags with Magguts guts can be loaded to full capacity with 2 extra rounds, and all of them are much easier then stock to load into the magazine. They are known to be extremely reliable too.
    Second, I tried a few mag releases as I couldn't drop a mag without shifting my grip. The only mag release that worked well for me was the Align Tactical Offset Mag Release. It sticks out a bit further then the stock one, and also has the finger pad offset a bit. At first blush it looked to me that it would move the finger pad in the wrong direction from what I needed, but in use it actually made mag changes quicker as I did not have to shift my grip, and the drops were 100% clean with no drag. I did have to give my Kydex holster(s) a 20-second burst with a heat gun to make a bit of room for the release as it sticks out a few millimeters further than the stock release. I've had no accidental mag releases even with my carrying in a front pants pocket in a Vedder Pocket Locker holster.
    Lastly, and probably the best mod bar none was the installation of a Black Steel Grip Control. It's a folding gas pedal/thumb rest. I have the size 3 version on my P365. It replaces the slide release lever, so there's no need to have a light on the gun as other gas pedals require you to have!!! Before the addition, I had problems keeping my green dot on target for fast follow-up shots. After each shot I had to re-acquire the dot. With the Grip Control on the gun, I can 99% eliminate all muzzle flip!!!!! The dot stays on target. It just does not move!!!! Fast follow-up shots are no longer an issue. For the Grip Control, even though it's spring loaded and folds relatively flat against the side of the gun, I again needed to do a quick 20-second application of a heat gun on both of my Kydex holsters to give them a little outward bulge to accommodate the gas pedal while still keeping the holster opening(s) flat against the sides of the gun just like they were when stock. Both the mag release and gas pedal were installed and I was able to keep the holsters I had . There was no need to buy new holsters which saved me a lot of money.

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