Front cocking serrations, revisited -- be honest

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The bottom line here is that if Wilson Combat (or whoever) puts something on their gun that the race guys want ( who are a small number of the majority of customers) then everybody starts demanding it regardless of what purpose it may or may not serve only because 1) it "looks"cool or 2) they believe they "need" some advantage over everybody who doesn't have it. 3) Their favorite competitive shooter uses it so it must be why they win so many matches. The other gun manufacturers believe they are responding to a consumer demand no matter how many of their customers either like it or hate it. I saw this happen with FLGRs and the people making and selling them came up with all kinds of "reasons" why we all needed it. ALL of those "reasons" were complete B.S. but nevertheless a LOT of money changed hands because everybody believed they "needed" a FLGR to be competitive. And today almost everybody runs a FLGR. It is, after all a bidness....... For years our shop bought and sold and installed boxes of FLGRs on customer's guns. We couldn't keep them in stock. I competed for years and none of my guns have FLGRs in them because they don't offer any real advantage and I knew that if I shot poorly it was because I shot poorly and not because my gun needed more custom parts in it. If you do not compete then almost all of these new parts/mods are a waste of money for the "average" shooter. I also have seen this phenomenon where everybody now is demanding a tightly fitted slide even though the vast majority have shooting skills that are so poor they will never be able to tell the difference on a target whether the slide is tight or not. But they just "know" that their score will suffer if their slide rattles the tiniest bit. They are clueless as to why one gun is accurate and another is not. These guys will return a gun to the manufacturer because they think the slide isn't tight enough. And these are usually the guys who will pay serious change for a Les Baer or Wilson custom gun filled with custom handfitted parts and then post a photo of a target they shot from a distance of 5 feet and rave about how amazingly accurate the gun is. I have fired a lot of old and new Colts that rattled like a toolbox when you shook them but they would chew the center out of a bullseye all day long with quality ammo. It's madness.... It's all about making money. Most mass produced guns will outshoot most shooters if you place it in a mechanical rest and remove all of the human error. I have done this with box stock Springfield Mil specs or Colts and seen it repeatedly. I bought my wife a stock SA Mil spec that she wanted me to "accurize" and I took it out of the box, clamped into a Ransom Rest and watched it place magazine after magazine into a 1 inch hole at 17 yards. With the stock barrel and bushing. I told her if she missed a target with that gun then she couldn't blame it on the gun. If you want to win then you should spend all of your extra money on ammo and practice - hard. Jerry Miculek tells people if you want to be really good you have to be the first guy on the range at sun up and the last guy to leave. And I know from experience that he is absolutely right about that because I did it for a few years - and it worked.
 
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Bottom Gun said:
I think they are every bit as necessary as full length guide rods.
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Full length guide rods are a menace. I have had over length rounds jam my 1911's. The slide goes forward but does not go fully into battery. The bullet is jammed into the throat and is jammed so tightly that I cannot pull the slide back to extract the round. And, because the disconnetor is activated, the round can't be shot out because the slide is not fully in battery. Without a guide rod, I simply place the recoil spring plug on the edge of a table and press down on the grip. The round has always extracted. With a guide rod, getting that round out becomes a much more involved project. On every M1911 I have, that came with a full length guide rod, I have removed the full length guide rod and replaced with standard GI components.
 
That's because you are smart....... Most guys I have seen with the problem you described will just hammer away at the rear of slide and try to force it into battery - sometimes with their bare hand and sometimes with an actual hammer. Really bad idea. I have seen so many guys at the range with a slightly out of battery condition and they immediately start beating on the slide with their hand. You really don't want your hand there if the gun happens to fire when you force it into battery.
 
I find all the long explanations of why they exist interesting.

It's marketing. Some folks will use them. Some won't. Honestly they never even enter my mind when I buy.
 
I don’t use the front cocking serrations, but do like the looks of them on many pistols, particularly 1911’s. Do I need them? No. Do I like them? Yes. I think they add symmetry to the look rather than subtracting from it.
 
My Glock 45 has them. They look nice but I don’t need them. I did not buy the gun because it had them. Quite honestly I paid zero attention to that. I was more interested in the other features, like; adjustable/ replaceable back straps, open mag well, it was new. I had a 19X I figured it needed a younger brother.

The G45 has become my favorite pistol.
 
I'll have to say that even though I'm generally ambivalent to them, prefer to not have them but don't really care enough to actively avoid them, they are pretty necessary on my Gen 5 Glock 19.

That finish is slick as snot when it or my hands are wet and I tend to overhand rack after reloads and have felt the serrations be the only thing my hands catch on during some drills in the sun.

Much prefer no serrations and the tacky finish of my 19X but whatever, they seem to work
 
I won't not buy a handgun because it has them, but I won't not buy a handgun because it doesn't have them either.

Stay safe.
 
themailman said:
I don't like fingers or any other body parts anywhere near the business end.
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Well, if you use the front serrations for overhand racking from slide lock your hand/fingers are at the ejection port rather than the barrel, ya know cause of the slide being locked back.

I don't use the serrations for anything else myself.
 
I don't generally use them, don't need them even if I want to rack the slide by gripping it up front, but their presence or absence won't stop me from buying a gun that I like. Some with and some without...

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Front cocking serrations to me serve no functional purpose, so it comes down to looks. I think they look terrible on 1911s. On some guns they don't look bad at all, my SR9c being an example
 
Hard to find a 5" 1911 with adjustable sights that don't have them. 4 out of 5 of mine have them, only exception is my 45 year old Gold Cup.
Neither of my two Commander size have them. I prefer them without but don't mind if they are there. Never use them for their intended purpose.
 
Vern Humphrey said:
How many of us carry a light on rails?
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I do. If I’m carrying a pistol of my choice, and I am in an environment where I can dress normally, the pistol has a light on it.

I am past the point of trying to explain the real benefits of this. At this juncture anyone who doesn’t understand is probably not worth explaining it to, and most likely incapable of comprehending any way.
 
lsudave said:
To me, they're the aesthetic equivalent of pinstripes and non-functional spoilers on cars. Something to dress it up and make it flashy, but doesn't serve a real purpose.
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Yes, that's why I had them done on my Python. Looks cool.
Seriously, I don't have a pistol that has them on it, my Combat Commander didn't and my POS worn out 1911 in the Army didn't. I didn't train with them so I wouldn't feel comfortable using them. I was trained, and agree, it is wise to keep my hands away from the muzzle of a gun and keep the muzzle of such a presumably loaded gun in a safe direction, not sideways, potentially at someone standing next to me.
 
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