Time will tell Joel. The thing with your R9 is the fact that both the barrel and the slide are the same grade metal, that being the 416 SS. The earlier Deer Park models and all of the Farmingdale models we were using the best stainless steel material, that being 17-4ph SS. We found that the dissimilar metals were having an issue with the lockup, so in speaking with other manufacturers that we had, and still have, good relationships with, we found that most were using 416 SS for both the slide and the barrel making for a much better match giving it better longevity. As most things, they get better as you learn and move forward with the design. This change was one of those moments for us at Rohrbaugh. . . . . . By the way, the way to tell the change is this: The Deer Park, NY models with script writing on the slide are 17-4ph SS slides. The ones like yours with the block lettering are the 416 SS slides. Our little "In House" codes we used through the years so we knew "What was what". lol