So, you fancied having an aluminium slide on your MK23, be it either the TM or one the the clone variety, but found it hard to dive deep in the pocket for Shooters Design CNC slide or never to be seen again Mafioso version?

Well with the introduction of the SSX-23 from Novritsch, getting your hands on a metal slide is now possible at a more spouse friendly price!

If you want to add the Aluminium CNC slide to a clone, be it STTI, ASG or Y&P then it's a simple matter of removing and fitting, no fuss and zero modification.

Slip and slide

However, if you have a glorious Tokyo Marui, then it may not be quite as simple. Despite being compatible with the TM version of the pistol, its possible that there are some tolerance differences and it's not a flush and flaweless fit to mount the SSX-23 slide to the TM frame. But have no fear! We've put together this simple guide for you to follow, should you need it, and all that is required is some electrical tape and a small file or a piece of sand paper.

Here's what you're going to need to do:

1. Remove your slide from your SSX-23 and take out the entire hop/barrel assembly and the nozzle system. You can do this by taking out the slide lock pin, turning the slide upside down and pushing the nozzle housing outward from the slide. It should fall out quite easily with minimal effort.

2. Repeat the same slide dissassembly for the TM version. To do this, you will need to leverage the nozzle housing out via the 4 tab slots located at the side of the housing. It may help to use a flathead screwdriver to pry the tabs from the side of the slide whilst applying outward pressure to the housing to push it out of the slide. (More detail on this procedure is available in this article: Link)

3. Once the nozzle housing is removed, you'll notice that the TM variant nozzle system is slighlty smaller than that of the clone, so you need to create some packing to act as a buffer / shim. Do this by adding layers of electrical tape as shown in the picture, leaving the rear top of the housing clear of tape.

Test the fit, you're trying to get it snug but not too tight. Two layers were used here to acheive the correct fit needed for the SSX-23 slide. You can see the tape between the housing and the slide in the image below.

4. Continue by installing the hop and barrel assembly back in to the slide, then re-attach the slide on the pistol frame as normal. When adding the slide lock pin, take a moment before you release the slide forward to check the pin doesn't interfere or poorly mesh with the slide. If you notice stiffness or obvious friction between the slide and the slide lock pin, this is where some additional modification may be needed.

5. Using a small file or some sandpaper, remove material on the outer facing edge of the slide lock pin as shown here (the freshly filed silver area of the slide lock pin), take care to keep the file level and don't lower the height of this nub. This will reduce the thickness of the slide lock pin to allow the slide to move over it with less resistance.

6. Re-insert the slide lock pin and check that the slide lock pin can travel all the way through the lower frame without resistance, if happy with the clearance you can touch up the filing work by colouring over the raw material with a black sharpie pen.

Playground approved

With that last step out of the way, you should now have Tokyo Marui MK23 installed with the SSX-23 CNC Aluminium slide, complete with fibre optic sights! Just look at that bad boy!

We hope that you found this tutorial helpful, and that it gives you the confidence to go out and get your own SSX-23 slide to add to your existing TM MK23 if you were sitting on the fence about it and whether it would be compatible or not.

If this is the first time you're seeing the SSX-23 slide, its currently the most affordable and available metal CNC slide option on the market, taking over the previous position that the Shooters Design CNC slide previously held. If you want to find out more about the SSX-23, slide on over to the Novritsch store, here.

See you on the next tutorial, and as always, thanks for reading!