I have had sand water and mud on and in mine. I had to replace the guide rod twice from sand deforming the smooth surface, and I have a few light, I want to say surface scratching from the sand on the inside of my slide but there is no metal exposed. Cerakote is rugged and idiot approved. My thought is where as the nickel would tarnish and discolor if not kept right. The cerakote on the other hand does not need so much care.I've CC'd my cerakoted P3AT for at least 7 years now, and there are no significant wear marks or anything like that from the holsters I've used. It's pretty tough stuff, and has the added benefit of being (at least partially) self lubricating, so the slide is much smoother to operate than it was before I had it coated. Plus with the various colors available it just looks cooler
Depends on your body chemistry. My PF9 is CPII plated. It's really good stuff but it has discolored and turned gray-black where it touches side, up on the rear left hand side of the slide.
How do they hold up in a holster?
Everything wears eventually, of course. But nickle is hard and wears pretty slowly. My nickled PF9 never showed any considerable holster wear and I carried it quite a bit. Though, as noted above, there was some discoloration.
The only reason to nickle a glock slide is for cosmetic value, which I totally get. It looks cool. But the nitro-carb. treating glock (and most manufacturers now) uses does as good or better at preventing rust and wear.
It's been years since but my recollection is a couple weeks of carry. I think it was my skin acids discoloring the surface more than actual wear or damage.
