Quote:
Originally Posted by murphydog
Welcome to the OP  .
Surprised no one asked if the slide release was being tried with a full or empty magazine. or no magazine. It will work least easily with an empty.
To me using the slide is the best but not the only way to put it into battery. If S & W didn't intend for the release to be used, even as a backup, they would have designed it with an internal mechanism (think Walther PP/PPK, among others).
Hope you enjoy your new Shield! |
Took a concealed carry tactics class last year where the instructor had us use our actual edc - unloaded of course.
During the reloading drills I had a heck of a time using the slide stop/release to get the gun back into battery. I called S&W and talked with a technician about it, AND whether Smith "intended" for it to be used as a release. He explained that with an unloaded mag it is much more difficult to release the slide but it works fine with a loaded mag. I confirmed this during my next range session.
He also explained that in the manual S&W calls it a slide stop simply because the goal of the gun was to be as "slim" as possible (for carry), which meant reducing the width of the stop/release lever, thus making it more difficult for some to use as a release....so they went with STOP. But he emphasized that there is no reason it can't be used for both!