I was having lots of rust issues on my daily carry... I've been in contact with the manufacture (Ruger) about it and they were happy to take the slide in, sand blast it, and re-blue it... Well, it's a special edition with laser etchings so I really wasn't up for that. I kinda dropped it and just dealt with rubbing the rust off daily which took up quite a bit of time. After talking with tons of people, I managed to find a small shop here that was willing to toss a coating of blue on top of the etchings, so I contacted Ruger and asked if they would be willing to just take it in and throw a layer over it... and I understood the etchings may be lighter and such- but as long as I could still see it I'd be "ok" with it. I got a reply back the next day with a message from a new person to call them. So I did. Phone tag time! She called back later to inform me, somehow she found a slide! So they sent it down, and I sent mine back.. I'm happy to say that the new one is darker so hopefully that means a better bluing, and so far I am having no issues.
the old (right) and new (left) slides. Looking at them makes you think it's the other way around... But I really feel like the darker color is just a better bluing, or maybe even and extra coat after it was etched. Who knows! I found some other indications that kinda made me feel like my old one wasn't quite "finished" but that may be just me looking for differences between the two.
You can definitely see the dimples where the rust likes to grow down in the "shiny from flash" part of the slide.