Can the Angled Spade Imperium 9C Make Your Glock a Better Shot?

The Glock 19 is the most popular pistol in the United States. It’s small enough to conceal, but large enough to defend your home. It’s chambered in 9mm Luger, which is powerful enough to stop most foes but cheap enough to practice with. It’s trusted by both the FBI and the Navy SEALs, so it should be plenty good enough for the rest of us. So whenever someone asks what their first pistol should be, my first response has often been the Glock 19.

There’s only one problem. I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I’ve never been thrilled with my Glock 19 groupings. It’s fine enough for the typical 3-5 yard range that most shoot-outs happen in, but my confidence soon drops if I wander much farther. Is it the chunky grip? The stiff trigger? It’s probably my lack of range time, but I don’t have these issues with my Glock 43X.

So when Joe Salvador, co-founder of Angled Spade Technologies, asked if I’d like to review their new Glock 19 slide with a built-in compensator, the Imperium 9C, I was intrigued. Could the Imperium’s compensator compensate for my poor marksmanship? And could it justify its eye-watering $680 retail price—more than what I paid for the Glock?

What the Imperium 9C Adds to Your Glock

The Imperium 9C is a drop-in replacement slide for all generations of the Glock 19. Installation is simple: Pop off the stock slide and slide on the Imperium 9C.

In doing so, I first noticed the serrations, which are longer and deeper than those on my Gen4 Glock 19. Unlike my Glock’s stock slide, which only has rear serrations, the Imperium 9C has them both back and front, which makes it easier to work the slide.

The AmeriGlo sights sit taller than Glock’s stock sights to help them serve as co-witness to an optic. Speaking of optics, that’s another plus of the 9C: It comes pre-cut to accommodate 509T, Acro, or RMR optic mounts.

The Imperium 9C is also lighter than the stock Glock slide. Angle Spade claims that it’s 14% lighter than a stock slide. I put both slides on a kitchen scale for comparison. The Glock slide weighed in at 479 grams, while the 9C weighed 408 grams—14.8% lighter, so Angled Spade actually downplays the weight savings.

So for your $680, you get a lighter Glock with better sights, better grip, the option to mount an optic, and you add a compensator. Not only that, but the Imperium 9C has been designed with the same form and dimensions as the stock slide, so all of your existing holsters should fit.

However, the design does come with one snag…

The Imperium 9C Is Tricky to Clean

One of the best things about Glocks is how easy they are to disassemble and clean. Pop off the slide, pop out the recoil spring, and the barrel practically falls out.

Breaking down the Imperium 9C is a little trickier. Despite the barrel being 22mm shorter than the stock Glock barrel, the fit is much tighter. I couldn’t figure out how to remove the thing, so the company sent me a how-to video. You have to let the rear of the barrel drop down, and then push it against the extractor, which then slides out of the way with a loud click.

To re-install the barrel, you slide the front part in, and then push the rear of the barrel against the extractor. You then have to push out the extractor to move it out of the barrel’s way, after which it pops into place. You need to be careful with this step so you don’t pinch your fingers.

While certainly less convenient to clean than the stock Glock slide, it’s not a deal-killer. After doing it a few times, I got significantly quicker at it.

Imperium 9C at the Range

All of this is trivial compared to what really matters: How the Imperium 9C affects performance, both at the range and in the field.

Of course, a compensator by itself does nothing to improve accuracy. Rather, it adds a counterbalance to the pistol, reducing recoil, which makes it faster to line up follow-up shots. Angled Spade claims a 24% reduction in split time, which may be of interest if you’re a competitive shooter, but I wondered if it would translate to an improvement in accuracy in a defensive situation.

This is the test I devised: I placed markers 5, 10, and 15 feet away from a target. I would then place three shots from each distance with the stock slide. Then I would swap for the Imperium 9C and place three shots at 5, 10, and 15 yards. I’d spend a second or two lining up the first shot in the series, followed by two rapid follow-up shots, with the theory that less recoil would make those quick shots inherently more accurate.

My ammo for this test was nothing fancy: A box of Magtech 115-grain 9mm Luger pulled from my private reserve.

In order to save face, I decided to try something. A while back the folks at Meprolight sent me one of their MPO-DF red dot sights with an RMR footprint. As it happens, my Imperium 9C has an RMR footprint.

So I attached it, spent some time and rounds sighting it in and tried my three test groups. Even I was surprised by the results.

Is the Imperium 9C Worth the Money?

I’ve seen several commentators call the Imperium 9C’s $680 price tag overpriced. It’s expensive, to be sure, but is it overpriced?

I can drive down to the Glock Store in Nashville and buy an optics-cut OEM slide for $300. Then, assuming I won’t just cannibalize my existing slide, I’ll need an upper parts kit for $75. But then I still won’t have a barrel ($150) or sights (around $40 for the Glock OEM ones). Compensators are all over the map on price, so let’s add $50 for that for a total of $615 (pre-tax) for a bag of parts you still have to put together yourself.

So no, you can’t say it’s overpriced, but it may not be the right product for you. Most of us would be better off spending that $680 on a crate of 9mm Luger and range fees. If you want a shortcut, maybe spend that money on an optic and a bit of machining to make it fit.

However, if you’re a competitive Glock shooter looking to squeeze every last bit of advantage out of your Glock 19, the Angled Spade Imperium 9C might be worth a look.