Racking or slamming an empty 1911 slide

[Snattlerake]

What about the violence of the round going off, hitting the slide stop then returning to battery? You are going to tell me letting the slide drop on an empty is more harmful?

 

[surjimmy]

A 1911 Gunsmith told me it would mess up the sear, and you can dry fire a 1911 all you want as long as you hand rack the slide.

 

[Fyrtwuck]

Right. And like using the Slide Lock as a release is not going to round off the edges of some pistols eventually causing it fail to lock back.

I’ve done it that way for over forty years. No problems YET. Not to say it can’t or won’t, but it hasn’t in my case.

If I were shooting on a daily basis, I’m sure there would be some obvious metal to metal wear on all the parts.

 

[DRC458]

I don't know. I just really don't know. But, y'all just send all of them pistols to me for safe keeping. I promise I won't rack no slides, nor dry fire anything. Really. I won't.

 

[RLSanders]

From what I’ve seen and read, it’s not wrong to do it if the slide is actually pushing a round but is not good when the clip is empty or absent.

But I am probably the least knowledgeable person on here.

 

[GlockPride]

You could literally hand rack and drop a slide on a quality 1911 tens or hundreds of thousands of times and nothing will change. The thing is designed for tens of thousands of mini explosions.

 

[Glock 40]

Not a problem with a Glock.

 

[Snattlerake]

Did someone actually say clip?

 

[Jcann]

I've got a Springfield 1911 with 25 years of service on it with the first 5 years shooting IPSC and a lot of practice ammo use. I've dropped the slide while dry using the slide stop thousands of times without any adverse wear on the slide stop. How many times do you do a mag drop/chamber inspection for an RSO in matches through years of competition and shooting? A buddy has a Colt National Match with about the same mileage and wear and his is still about the sweetest shooting 1911 I've ever shot.

This reminds me of the argument about not single feeding rifles with a claw extractor.

 

[Ignored Member]

I’ve done it that way for over forty years. No problems YET. Not to say it can’t or won’t, but it hasn’t in my case.

If I were shooting on a daily basis, I’m sure there would be some obvious metal to metal wear on all the parts.

Your P22 got rounded off on the slide lock tab. That was cheap pot metal though.