Racking or slamming an empty 1911 slide

[Barn Dog]

It depends if I'm handling someone elses gun I release the slide by hand, My own guns I really don't have an issue with it. I have more important issues to worry about than whether dry fire is going to explode my pistols.

 

[HMCS(FMF)Ret.]

This is why I don’t own a 1911 anymore. I could’t even walk around the house yelling “pew pew,” without breaking it.

 

[dennishoddy]

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.

Again, if you let the slide run forward after the last round has fired have you not slammed it home on an empty chamber?
I've been intrigued on this as my 1911 with a tuned trigger has been through thousands of rounds firing on an empty chamber, and like the video on Post #2, it's never had any issues.
Let me give an example of internet posts.
"The problem with dropping the slide on an empty chamber is that there is no round (or snap-cap. They'll work fine, too) coming out of the magazine to keep everything working just right. The design relies heavily on the presence of the cartridge.

When you drop the slide without a round, nothing stops the parts from banging against each other. The hammer and sear go bouncing around and will begin to tear each other apart. When that happens, those carefully prepared engagement surfaces smack against each other, and your expensive trigger job is literally scraped right off the sear and hammer.

When you rack the slide, as long as you're providing it some guidance with your off hand, you will not cause anything but normal wear, and it takes a WHOLE LOT of hand cycling to wear out a properly lubed gun. You don't need to let it forward a millimeter at a time, just give it some drag so that it doesn't slam into battery without a cartridge."

So looking at this intelligence of the above post, the poster says the design relies heavily on the presence of a cartridge. What happens when you run out of ammo and the 1911 slams on an empty chamber? Your sear is going to be wasted?

Then the guy says when you drop the slide nothing stops the parts from banging against each other.
What? Has that guy never heard of lubrication and machining tolerances in the .001 range or smaller?
Your car engine would last 1 minute without lubrication. With lube, it last how many cycles in its 300,000 mile lifetime? Why? because lubrication is like a shock absorber.

You don't need to let a 1911 off slide lock like some cinderella princess.
Lube it up and play.

 

[dennishoddy]

Yeah... the original 1911 government manual actually mentioned "clip" IIRC.

There's a thread about this somewhere.

The government worker that wrote that is stupid. He know nothing of guns or the accessories that are required to make them work. Merely a paper pusher.
I'm from the government....I'm here to help....lol.

 

[druryj]

That whole pistol was a POS. Walther makes a good gun, but when S&W put their name on it, it was junk.

But it was made by Umarex, the BB Gun guys.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[druryj]

Dry firing the 1911 is not a problem since the firing pin is spring loaded. If the sear is damaged, it is not due to the slide going forward on an empty chamber. Sometimes myths just persist.

Okay, I don’t have any definitive proof of anything whether we’re talking about 1911s or Umarex P22s or whatever. But I still ain’t gonna use the Slide Lock to let the slide slam forward anyway cause...slingshot.

It’s not the same thing to compare the firing of a 1911 (or any other pistol) to either action; whether dropping the slide on an empty chamber or dry firing by hand cocking the gun using the hammer. When firing, your finger has the trigger held to the rear and the sear is disengaged from the hammer hooks. Those two parts mate again when you release the trigger forward. It seems to me to be a bad practice to just cock the trigger rather than run the slide by hand. Just like it seems to me to be a bad practice to use the slide lock to allow the slide to slam shut on an empty chamber. I agree that a fine 1911 is going to withstand many cycles before parts wear out or break.

But the pistol was designed so that the internals work in conjunction with each other; why subject it to the potential of damage by not doing things correctly so that it does allow everything to work as a unit?

It is sort of like slamming a car door shut as hard as you can in a way-why do it, unless you’re just mad?

I am gonna make sure my pistols are lubed up though.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SPDguns]

Where is this "slide" you speak of??

 

[Gunbuffer]

Thereis a difference between a 1911 slide slamming forward while cycling (ie firing), and racking or dropping the slide from slide lock and the slide coming down on an empty chamber.
A couple of you mostly understand that

 

[RickN]

Not an expert by any means but every professional I have seen that carried a 1911 always just let the slide go from the slide lock. That is military range instructors and LEOs. I have never seen anyone ease the slide forward unless it was not their firearm.

 

[EKing]

When firing, your finger has the trigger held to the rear and the sear is disengaged from the hammer hooks. Those two parts mate again when you release the trigger forward. It seems to me.....

When you initially load the pistol, do you have the trigger pulled to the rear? Do you ride the slide forward? I hope not.

When someone has their mind made up about something like this, no amount of evidence to the contrary will change that. If you want to treat your firearms like delicate flowers that might possibly, if the moon is in the right phase and you stand on one leg, maybe could break; go for it. Do what you want with your own guns, I don't care.

The part I care about is when people - who are merely parroting something they saw on Youtube and operating on feelings - want to badmouth and trash talk gun owners who do not subscribe to their version of what seems right.
The 1911 was absolutely designed and engineered to operate to allow the slide to go forward under its own power without damaging itself - whether chambering a live round or not.