Letting slide slam shut on empty chamber

At the end of a stage in an IDPA match, at one point I wind up with a mag and a loose round in one hand, and my FS9 in the other, with the slide locked open. The SO is telling me to close the slide and pull the trigger. I've tried a couple of procedures. One, take the time to put the mag and loose round in my pocket, use my empty hand to close the slide gently. Or, two, hit the slide release. Of course, hitting the slide release is quicker, and since everyone at the match is waiting on me at this point, I feel an urge to be quick as possible, and just hit the slide release.

Is it bad to do this to a FS9? I wouldn't dream of doing this to my 1911, but this is a much more modern design with much more modern materials.

I do it with my semi's all the time and so far none have shown any kind of problems from doing this. The way I see it, the action the slide goes through every time you fire the gun is far more extreme than dropping the slide.

Let the spring carry the slide home....the command is "Slide forward, Hammer down, Holster". Not "Ease the slide forward" Regardless of whether it is a 1911 or not.

Randy

Ballistic147 said:

The way I see it, the action the slide goes through every time you fire the gun is far more extreme than dropping the slide.

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Not really. After firing a round, the slide moves forward, stripping off a round from the magazine. This slows the forward movement, lessening the speed and severity in which the slide closes. On 1911's, it is forbidden to hit the slide release with an empty magazine and chamber, as is dry firing. Modern handguns don't typically have problems with dry firing, but I'm not as sure about this when it comes to the slide.

It's fine nothing will break

OK. That's two for just letting it slam home.

Thanks for the replies.

Oops. Make that three.

Gearhead36 said:

Not really. After firing a round, the slide moves forward, stripping off a round from the magazine. This slows the forward movement, lessening the speed and severity in which the slide closes. On 1911's, it is forbidden to hit the slide release with an empty magazine and chamber, as is dry firing. Modern handguns don't typically have problems with dry firing, but I'm not as sure about this when it comes to the slide.

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Be gentle; Ride the slide!

mb

Gearhead36 said:

Not really. After firing a round, the slide moves forward, stripping off a round from the magazine. This slows the forward movement, lessening the speed and severity in which the slide closes. On 1911's, it is forbidden to hit the slide release with an empty magazine and chamber, as is dry firing. Modern handguns don't typically have problems with dry firing, but I'm not as sure about this when it comes to the slide.

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Are you saying you can't dry fire a 1911?

martybee said:

Be gentle; Ride the slide!

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The more I think about it, the more I think, this is what I'm going to do. If the gun is good for, say 100K rounds, and letting the slide slam home reduces that to 20K, I would never know why my gun started shooting bad after 10K rounds. Heck, the stage is over. Everybody can wait the extra 2 seconds for me to pocket the mag. Given how slow I am, another 2 seconds is nothing.

Thanks for the replies.

Hunter8282 said:

Are you saying you can't dry fire a 1911?

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A mil-spec 1911A1 is not supposed to be dry fired. The other variants... I don't know.

Never let the slide slam on an empty chamber, I did read if you MUST you can hold the trigger back at the same time to prevent damaging your match trigger. The article was in Guns & Ammo (I believe) and very informative on what actually happens to the sear and match grade honing when slammed on an empty chamber.

My coach would never let a slide slam home on an empty chamber of his match 1911 and would not allow others he was coaching let one slam shut. He always eased the slide home. My gunsmith says it won't hurt anything but I do not do it myself, ever.

I consider it inconsiderate when someone just hits the slide release when no round is being chambered. Especially when it is one of my target pistols that cost over $2,000, this is one thing I never do.

I do not even use the slide release when cambering the first round, but chose to sling shot it and find this reduces the occurrence of the first round flyer.

To my mind it is about like slamming the cylinder shut on a S&W Revolver.

My suggestion: do it on your own pistols if you choose, but not with a pistol that does not belong to you.

Any gunsmith that says that letting a slide slam forward on an empty chamber on a 1911 "won't hurt anything", probably needs to go back to flipping burgers. The fact of the matter is, that when the slide slams forward and the hammer comes to the cock position the hammer slams to a stop on top of the fitted sear edge, blunting it and also banging the hammer hooks against the edge of the sear. This is unnecessarily damaging the trigger pull and fit and reset. When chambering a round the round buffers the slides forward travel and does not allow these parts to bang into each other.

As has been previously mentioned, when you spend a lot to set up a pistol for matches or personal defense, you are defeating the purpose when you abuse it in this manner. Now as to other semi auto's it may be OK depending on how the pistol works. On striker fired weapons like a Glock, Kahr, and others there is no hammer sear connection to worry about. What you basically have is a "zip gun" where the striker is pulled to the rear and release and the spring moves the striker forward to hit the primer. Releasing the slide to chamber a round probably won't do any damage to the working parts. On a hammer fired weapon like a S&W, most SIG's, and HK's, there will be some battering of the hammer against the sear parts. If there is a safety intercept for the hammer it won't blunt the sear.

The only time it might be acceptable is in a real time gunfight with your life on the line and you erroneously shot the gun dry prior to reload. In competition there are penalties for a lock back. Pro's are trained to do a tactical reload whenever there is a lull or before moving so that a lock back doesn't occur. The chances of being in an extended gunfight situation for a civilian is probably close to nil. For a pro it would be very rare unless you are a combat soldier who is down to his handgun.

Gearhead36 said:

At the end of a stage in an IDPA match, at one point I wind up with a mag and a loose round in one hand, and my FS9 in the other, with the slide locked open. The SO is telling me to close the slide and pull the trigger. I've tried a couple of procedures. One, take the time to put the mag and loose round in my pocket, use my empty hand to close the slide gently. Or, two, hit the slide release. Of course, hitting the slide release is quicker, and since everyone at the match is waiting on me at this point, I feel an urge to be quick as possible, and just hit the slide release.

Is it bad to do this to a FS9? I wouldn't dream of doing this to my 1911, but this is a much more modern design with much more modern materials.

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It won't hurt either one. Just think of the force involved when a round is actually fired. Your operations won't even be close . . .

flintsghost said:

The only time it might be acceptable is in a real time gunfight with your life on the line and you erroneously shot the gun dry prior to reload.

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But people fight how they train.

If you are shooting USPSA/IDPA you have no choice....The RO/SO must see the slide go forward under spring pressure and then hammer down which means you must dry fire it. Doesn't matter what auto loader it is.

"Slide forward, Hammer down, Holster....Next shooter"

Any other occasions....do as you will.

Randy

Stop doing that. Your gun will break in half.

It's only designed to deal with the gentle forces involved in shooting ammunition, it surely can't handle the tremendous force of having to close with the force of its springs alone.

growr said:

If you are shooting USPSA/IDPA you have no choice....The RO/SO must see the slide go forward under spring pressure and then hammer down which means you must dry fire it. Doesn't matter what auto loader it is.

"Slide forward, Hammer down, Holster....Next shooter"

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Really? There were 3 SO's for our squad for that match. I used my left hand to close the slide gently for 4 of the 5 stages. None of the SO's had a problem with that.

This is heating up nicely...