Don't drop the slide on an empty chamber (Mas Ayoob video)

[1KPerDay]

Reminder for the uninformed; particularly on a 1911-based pistol. Don't "drop the slide" unless you're actually loading a cartridge.

Don't Drop The Slide On An Empty Chamber!! - Avoid Gun Abuse! - Critical Mas Ep 76

Avoid Gun Abuse! Specifically slamming the slide closed on an empty chamber. This misuse has been highlighted by expert pistol smiths like Bill Wilson and Ji...

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[OS/N]

Interesting. Never heard that before.

 

[Mark_Mark]

What if you’re checking the gun? just guild the slide back home?

 

[OS/N]

Folks have been dropping slides since 1911 and now its bad all of a sudden. Must be cheap guns.

 

[JTQ]

Well known information in the 1911 world.

I've seen comments from high round count Beretta PX4 users that procedure can also cause damage to the cam block on the PX4.

It wouldn't surprise me if the same procedure could shorten the life span of Beretta 92/M9 locking blocks.

I also consider it bad form.

 

[JTQ]

Interesting. Never heard that before.

Folks have been dropping slides since 1911 and now its bad all of a sudden. Must be cheap guns.

That information has been out there for decades.

 

[JohnMc]

Stripping a bullet from a mag does slow the slide a bit, as does the added weight.
If it'll extend the life of my toys to emulate that, I'm happy.

 

[bangswitch]

I equate dropping the slide on an empty 1911 like dropping the clutch on a manual tranny. It's sort of fun, looks cool and you might get by without damage after repeated times, but one day something big will break and you're walking (or unarmed).

 

[Outlaw75]

Steve and Caleb at Brownells say it's not that cut and dried.

 

[berettaprofessor]

All I know is that, as a newby, I didn't know about dropping on an empty chamber and I got yelled at by the gun shop owner for doing it once on a POS Colt 2000 pistol. The end result is that I still don't know if it makes any difference but I sure never went back to that gunshop.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Steve and Caleb at Brownells say it's not that cut and dried.

They were walking a very fine edge of not wanting to be accused of advocating something which would cause folks to have to buy ore parts from them after damaging their own guns. I listened to them hedge around a bit with "whatever the manufacturer says" but they do admit that it "could" cause damage and they closed with the message of not doing it repeatedly.

If an action could cause damage if your trigger geometry isn't optimal, why would you risk abusing your gun?

Dropping the slide on a 1911 without a loaded magazine in place is indeed a safety check performed on the 1911 after trigger work has been completed...once

Another seldom followed 1911 procedure is to hold the trigger back when dropping the slide...because folks feel it violates one of the 4 Rules

 

[The Glockodile]

”Done much research…”

Some form of imaging or microscopy evaluating crystalline structure?

FEAnalysis?

Any measurements with fancy equipment?

Or just more bubbasayso?

 

[Col. Harrumph]

Help an old man out, here. I don't understand how dropping the slide can damage the sear. What's the mechanism?

 

[edwardware]

What's the mechanism?

The slide is slowed down significantly by stripping a cartridge off the magazine and chambering it.

Without that braking mechanism, the slide runs into battery much faster, and the hammer hooks are dropped onto the sear harder. Then the fun starts. . . the slide's forward momentum carries the entire frame forward fast enough that the sear (pinned to the frame) leaves the hammer behind, slightly compressing the hammer spring. The hammer then catches up and slams the hooks into the sear a second time, possibly bouncing to make a third time. During all this jostling, any rotation of the sear will cause the hooks to strike the seat edge instead of the sear face, rounding that edge.

A strong sear spring, and a deep sear/hook engagement, will reduce or eliminate this; GI 1911s with trench duty triggers need not worry. On the other hand, when Kimber tells you not to do that with their pistols, they know of what they speak.

And besides all that, dropping a slide on an empty chamber is a bit uncouth. Poor manners.

 

[Buzznrose]

That information has been out there for decades.

Yes. I saw a video a couple years ago of Ken Hackathorn saying how much he cringed at a SHOt Show sitting in the Wilson Combat booth with people slamming 1911 slides all day.

 

[Buzznrose]

I think in todays You Tube world of gun torture tests, some people think either a gun will break/malfunction or it won’t, no matter what we do.

Reality is that some guns are cheaply made and others are made more durable, but excessive slamming or banging isn’t good for any of them, regardless if they can take the abuse once or twice or a hundred times before damage or failure.

I enjoy watching the torture tests…some stuff is interesting (drop tests) while some is just stupid (freeze the gun in a block of ice) but it’s mainly entertainment. I certainly don’t abuse or bang around my guns intentionally…

 

[5-SHOTS]

I don't drop the slide on an empty chamber just as I don't pull the trigger on an empty chamber. Both useless and pernicious habits that are popular not only in videos but, even worse, in sports.

 

[HB]

I don't drop the slide on an empty chamber just as I don't pull the trigger on an empty chamber. Both useless and pernicious habits that are popular not only in videos but, even worse, in sports.

A good rule of thumb for practice is dry fire 5 times for every round of live fire. It is free practice that goes a long way for accuracy and have done so with my revolvers and glock. Some .22s shouldn’t be dry fired. I believe Ruger states in their manual that it is fine for all their .22s.

I have heard not to drop the slide on old designs like a 1911 but I bet it does nothing to a modern gun. If the pistol breaks from dry fire, I wouldn’t trust it for carry.

 

[rust collector]

Rule 1: Never abuse someone else's firearm, even if you don't subscribe to the theory.
Rule 2: Never abuse your own firearm. Some day, it will be someone else's. Meanwhile, you want it to work every time.
Rule 3: Don't believe everything you see on the internet, but there is no reason to tempt fate.

Seriously, we all want good triggers. Like many other things in life, we can have good or we can have sturdy, but getting both in the same package is more likely based in marketing than reality. It's your gun, do what you want, but I don't see why Wilson, Hackathorn and Ayoob would be so emphatic if it was a nonissue.

 

[Rexster]

I was taught, in the early Eighties, to NEVER drop the slide on a 1911, unless a cartridge was being fed from a magazine, into the chamber. This was to “protect the sear.” The act of stripping a cartridge from the magazine, and feeding it into the chamber, does serve to slow the movement of the parts.

I later learned that dropping a 1911 slide, with no cartridge, was a valid way to function check a new 1911, or one on which hammer/sear work had just been performed, but, a max of ten times, and then NEVER again, unless, of course, hammer/sear work was again performed.

As I see it, causing excess or premature wear is never a good thing, so, I would rather not slam metal against metal more than necessary, regardless of the weapon/tool.

 

[ontarget]

I don't drop the slide on any empty chamber if it's not my gun.
I also will not dry fire any gun that doesn't belong to me without asking the owner first.
I try not to drop the slide on my own guns either, but I do dry fire them alot.

 

[doubleh]

I wasn't aware of the problem but I never drop the slide on any empty gun anyway. I have always considered it easier on the machinery whatever it is.

 

[Alain72]

I, too, have dropped the slide on an empty chamber, but from now on I‘ll be following Mas Ayoob’s recommendation just to be on the safe side. Makes sense and can’t hurt.

 

[KnightHawk]

Well I’m a wheel gun guy, so take this for what it’s worth. My $0.02 well $0.016 after Biden.
I do own a few guns with slides and my feel is that tools, and guns are tools, should not be abused. What’s it cost you to NOT let the slide slam forward? Nothing. But it might keep your pistol in top shape longer.

 

[ev780]

YouTube is so fun.....

Dropping the Model 1911 slide ~ The Truth!

Former member of the US Army 25th Infantry Division 25th MP Co. at Cu Chi Vietnam, retired city police Captain, lifelong NRA certified firearms police firear...

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