One hand slide racking a 1911

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In the never-ending process of self defense training, we practice shooting, and malfunction drills, and one handed shooting...

And should be practicing one-handed malfunction drills, too. Here's my problem. The best way I've seen / tried to rack the slide one handed is to snag the rear sight on my belt, holster, or even the pocket or seam of a pair of jeans, and rack that way. Works great with my SIGs. Doesn't work so well with my Kimber Pro-Carry. Low mount, snag-free sights.

It also has a full length guide rod, so that precludes pushing the front end against a barricade to rack it.

I have been able to pick the gun up by the slide and push the grip against my leg to get it racked, but that is slow, awkward, and not movement friendly (the best results I've had were when I went into a crouch and racked it against my shin - but then I'm stuck in one spot while I clear it).

I've also been able to snag the front sight against my belt to rack, but that requires more fine motor control than I'd like to have to use in a fight, and comes dangerously close to pointing the gun at either my butt or my cojones.

Are there any other techniques that I can try? I would just install a standard plug and non full length guide rod, but it has a bull barrel, so I'd have to have a gunsmith turn down the barrel and install a bushing to hold in the standard plug, which is more hassle (and money) than I'd like to spend if I don't have to. Unless anyone knows of a reverse plug that works like a standard plug.

Any ideas?
 
I can't imagine a situation where you would be obligated to rack a slide with one hand. Assuming one hand is injured and you used up your first magazine, then after inserting a new one your could hit the slide release button with your good hand. If the slide release button is too far forward to reach with one hand then have it lengthened.
 
Okay, let's make some presumptions, first.
You're training for that moment when its gone really, really bad. You're in the back of a convienece store, facing a couple BG's. One is KIA. The other is wounded, has wounded you, your offhand (or even your shooting hand) is disabled, and you're trying to get a fresh mag in the gun. You're fighting for your life, so saftey has gone out the window.
Put the front of the slide, above the barrel, against the meat of your leg. Push against the resistance until you're at the back of the slide, then move the gun away from your leg to complete the 'slingshot'. Just practice with a dry gun. You could practice against something like a couch or chair, just to be safe.
The other thing to consider is that if you've ran your pistol dry, it should be in slide lock. If so, just use the slide release.

Edit: Jrob, its called a tactical reload. You're at a lull in fighting, and you reload your weapon, even if you don't need to.
Lets say you exchange gunfire with a BG, but there are three BG's. BG #1 goes down, you hit cover, and so do BG #2 and #3. You've got a 1911, 8+1. You've fired 3 rounds, so now you're at 5+1. Why not drop the mag real fast and put in a new mag?
 
The method I was taught was to squat down and trap the slide between the edge of your shoe (near the heel) and your butt. Then, rack away.

I was also shown a method that involved (again) squatting down and trapping the slide on the inside crook of your bent knee, again permitting you to rack by holding the receiver firmly.

It takes a bit of practice - and it helps to have a moderate recoil spring -
 
I can't imagine a situation where you would be obligated to rack a slide with one hand
Click to expand...

I can, real easy. One hand gets injured and you have a stovepipe jam. They're called "malfunction" drills for a reason. :D

Atc1man is mostly right that this is training for when things have gone very, very wrong. It could be that your strong hand is shot, you have a jam, and your backup isn't with you (or your primary's already run dry and this IS your backup). But it could also be that you recently broke your hand / arm playing football, falling off a ladder, wrestling midgets in Bolivia, etc, and it's in a cast. Whatever.

The point is that there can be times, brief, long, or even permanent, when you will not have use of one hand. I like to train for that possibility, with the hopes that I never need it, rather than to not train for it, have it happen, and then go "crap, now what do I do?"

rl2669, I did see the pinch between the heel and butt technique demonstrated once, from a distance, with gestures only (no gun), so I didn't quite get the gist of it. I'll have to try it now that I know the details.
 
i can rack the slide on a 1911 by putting my thumb around the grip safety at the very top and my pinky at the front of the slide at the front sight and flexing my hand. works every time.
pat
 
Det I guess you can palm a basket ball too ;)

how big are your hands? I can't imagine me being able to do that but darn it I am sure trying when I get home. I think the sqat and in the bend of the knee sounds pretty good too.
 
With a 1911 you can run the slide using the ejection port off a stiff belt or holster. I've seen the "butt/shoe" technique and hate it because the muzzle is usually pointing at flesh. If you are kneeling, you can run the slide off the heel of a shoe, with the muzzle pointing away from you.

Denny
 
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The way i do it is this.

i take the pistol and run it down the front or rear pocket of my jeans, either the front or rear sight (i usually use the rear sight) will snag and rack the slide.

doesnt work well with a lot of sights though and it's tough on the pants if you practice it a lot.
 
Many, many moons ago, there was an article about doing this in a Gun Rag.

Title: "How I shot my way out of Hitler's all girl slave camp, with one hand tied behind my back." I don't remember the author, date or magazine though.

Geoff
Who has practiced various one hand drills. DO NOT ATTEMPT WITH LIVE AMMUNITION! :what:
 
I had never seen this method before, the gentleman keep muzzle downrange and did not point at any flesh.

He was using a Kimber with a FLGR , and did in fact , due to surgery, have his weak hand and wrist bandaged.

Squatted down , gun b/t knees, gun inverted he inserted mag, then righted the 1911 and holding onto slide the pushed the gun ( mainspring housing) against his knee cap. Set the gun on ground ( muzzle downrange) and snicked on safety , as he picked it up and obtained the shooting grip.

Snicked off and shot. He was so concerned about safety, I instead offered to assist which he allowed me to do. He was more comfortable with this than using his shoe to control muzzle while at a range. We just moved off to ourselves.

He did at my suggestion get rid of FLGR and use the old GI plug set up. He never thought he would actually be in this situation, and found out the FLGR negated the use of barrier to rack the gun.

NOt sure I agree with this method, then again I filed it away in the "toolbox"...
 
Most advocate using friction of the slide and catching the ejection port against the leg of you pants for this. But my thinking is to have a backup with the sights (like you do with most autoloaders) to provide a hook--you could go with the Heine's made for the Kimber cut or file the "hump" of the Kimber sight to a angle and refinish (I would actually feel better with the Heine if they were angled a bit more aggressively).

This is another reason I don't like the "improved" 4" and 3" bbl. that rely on FLGR. Have you thought about putting a Commander or Government model on your Christmas list?

-Chad
 
The corner of the ejection port works just fine. It'll rack if you catch it on just about anything. Belt, pocket, table, whatever you have handy.

To reload, you can stick the gun back in your holster backwards to free up your hand. If you're on the ground, hold it between your legs.

Another good reason for using a lower-powered recoil spring, actually, is ease of one-handed slide-cycling.

- Gabe
 
Why not carry a revo?
Click to expand...
No need for this to become a revolver vs. auto debate. That's been done over and over.
However, a revolver is just as hard to reload one handed. If its your chosen carry gun, you should practice one handed operation just in case....
 
One handed reload

If you have the snag free sights simply have them modified by starting at mid-point of the rear sight and cutting across and down and then forward to take a chunk out and create a notch. Then radius the edges of the notch. You will now have an edge to help in racking the slide but it does not damage your hands in normal usage.

Caveat. - know where your tritium glass vials end before doing this if you have illuminated sights. The glass doesn't cut well. I wouldn't know this from practical experience. ';>)

I'm seeing this modification on a number of HSLD shooters lately.
 
What's all this then? What's this obession with sights, belts and holsters? :confused:

I have swoopy sights. Have no problems with one handed drills even in buff (El Tejon nekid, there's any image for ya).

Hold pistol with all fingers below the trigger. With slight angle, push pistol into rib cage, backside, or thigh muscle. Cycle slide. Get back in fight.

But, but, El Tejon, it takes conditioning and practice. Yes, it's called fighting. :D
 
I think one big problem is when do you switch from working on the gun to working on the problem that caused you to need the gun. Is it better to pull the gun down to waist level and try to manipulate it back in to working order, head down; or charge the threat and beat the crap out of it with the 40oz of steel in your hand. Who knows, maybe the jam will clear during contact with said threat's skull. :p Anything more than a reload or tap, rack, bang should probably include situation assesment before we commence to fixing on the gun.

Also with 1911s and many others you can catch the area of the slide just above the barrel on a sharp edge and rack it like that, although the short guide rod jam it into hard cover method is soo much more positive.
 
I have razor sharp, snag on everything sights (factory trijicons)...however, after Pat Rogers described the ejection port method to someone on another board (TFL I think) it worked a lot better for me than using the sights (front or rear.) This is good news to me since every auto has an ejection port! :D
 
slide trick

here is a photo of the pistol in the retracted position, after this i release the grip of my fingers and using the thumb to control the weapon i allow the slide momentum to pop the pistol upright and reusme my firing grip.
 
Navy joe brings up a good point about choosing between clearing the jam and going H2H. If you (or your attacker) can cover the distance between you before you can clear the jam...it would make more sense to close and crush his skull or muzzle punch his chest with your gun. Then with your knee on his back clear the jam and look for other threats.

Bennie Cooley covers this subject very well in the "Fighting Mindset 2" video series from TRS. "Fighting Mindset" is excellent as well.
http://www.trsdirect.com/talent.php?id=Cooley
 
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