Letting a slide "ride" home on empty chamber

[tercel89]

I was at a gun shop here while back and I heard the gun shop owner say to a guy to please not let the slide slam forward and I have also heard people say to not let the slide "ride" home on an empty chamber . I understand the gun shop owner saying this because it is his guns and they are new , but why would it not be ok to do this on your own pistol ? I understand that having a round entering the chamber does cushion the slide some when it is pushing it up and into it but it doesnt look like it would hurt a Glock .

 Any information is appreciated . I dont know this and I am always learning and that is why I ask .

[scoutfsu]

You're fine to do it on your own pistol.  Shop owners don't like it because those pistols are "new" and some don't like to buy pistols that have been racked for some reason.

[TMF]

I was at a gun shop here while back and I heard the gun shop owner say to a guy to please not let the slide slam forward and I have also heard people say to not let the slide "ride" home on an empty chamber . I understand the gun shop owner saying this because it is his guns and they are new , but why would it not be ok to do this on your own pistol ? I understand that having a round entering the chamber does cushion the slide some when it is pushing it up and into it but it doesnt look like it would hurt a Glock .
 Any information is appreciated . I dont know this and I am always learning and that is why I ask .

It won't hurt it one bit.

[Westwindmike]

I've always heard that it could damage a 1911 trigger/sear by doing that. At least with the target models with really light trigger pulls.

[Guest ab28]

Ignore him, the slide hits a lot harder firing a round than you could ever do by hand. 

[TMF]

I've always heard that it could damage a 1911 trigger/sear by doing that. At least with the target models with really light trigger pulls.

I'd be curious as to how.

[JeffL]

I only worry about it on my 1911. Don't think it'll hurt the Glock.If it does, a monkey with a pin punch could fix it.

[tercel89]

I was just wondering about this since I have read all the hype about not doing it yet I have did it to my Glock 22 for 14 yrs when dry-firing it for practice.

 Now I dont blame the gun store owner , he is correct since the customer doesnt own the gun , but my question is weather it is ok to do it on a gun of your own ? and does it matter with a striker fired gun or hammer fired one ?

[jct231]

In my uneducated opinion...
Figure a 100 or a 1000 people (? ) may play with it in that manner while it is in the store before it is sold. A person who owns it probably wont do it that many times during the entire ownership. New, higher end pistols are put together "tighter" and triggers are "tuned". The small amount of damper it takes to take the round from the mag and the small amount of buffering from the round entering the barrel and the small amount of soft brass may be just enough to keep a tight tolerance gun from banging the extractor, hood of the barrel, the sear... while loaded. Its like dry firing sort of, I guess... not going to ruin the function of your firearm if done a few times but you wouldn't want to do it 1000 times or more. I guess just good practice for a ffl to a bunch of people who may have never touch a firearm before and saving the finish from scratches and dings for experienced people who will look for such things before they buy.
Plus its just kind of rude to do that to someone else's firearm.
As I say... my uneducated opinion so I would also to here someone else's opinion on it.

[Rightwinger]

Think about the mechanics.  Everytime an actual round is stripped off the mag it slows the slide a bit and it slows again as it hits the feed ramp and then goes into battery.  You don't have that sharp metal to metal beating you do when you just let it go on an empty chamber.  Use some snap caps and listen to the movement, you'll hear it.  How much wear does it cause, probably little, but just as in the action of firing a round, every movement of the action is one closer to the end of spring life and wear on the interface of the chamber and the slide.

 

What's even worse?  Letting it go by pushing down on the slide lock.  The slide lock is NOT designed to be released in that manner.  The friction wears the slide lock down.  Seen many fairly new pistols have to get serviced when they won't hold back the slide anylonger. You should pull back a bit on the slide while pushing down on the slide lock on an empty chamber.  Just pull her back and let fly with a round (or snap cap) in the mag.

[smithra89]

LET IT RIDE!!!!!

[TNcitizen22]

I never cared for letting a slide ride home on an empty chamber.  I realize this will probably do little damage do the gun, if any, but I am sure it is not good for the gun.  I reference Rightwingers explanation above.  As such, I do not practice it, and I suggest to my friends that they do not either.

 

All that being said, you could probably do it a million times and a Glock would be ok, but I still do not want to do it.

[graycrait]

I say not do it in a gun shop because it is not your pistol and is considered by most folks as simply bad manners.  Apparently several 1911 manuals mention it and from what I read Springfield and Nighthawk specifically.  I have over 900 firearm operator's manuals but am not gonna look. But because the OP's question has been raised so many times on so many forums I did a review.  Seems to be primarily a 1911 style firearm issue.  Then as a previous poster said, you wear the slide lock if nothing else, unless you are slingshotting the slide.  I would also think there might be an issue with wear marks on the barrel and barrel hood.  Most folks like to put those marks on a gun they buy new themselves. 

 

This is what HIlton Yam says: 

 

http://www.10-8performance.com/pages/1911-User's-Guide.html

Weapon handling protocol:

Always ease the slide down on an empty chamber, never slam it shut from slide lock. A G.I. rack grade 1911 may do fine when you slam the slide on the empty chamber, but a gun with a tuned trigger and fitted barrel will do better without it. The jarring of the slide slamming down on an empty chamber can cause the hammer to follow and the sear nose to crash into the hammer hooks. Your trigger job will last longer if you ease the slide down. Further, the lower lugs on a match fit barrel take a lot of impact when they contact the slide stop, and without the buffering effect of the round feeding into the chamber, you increase wear on your barrel by slamming the slide on an empty chamber. It's not the end of the world if the slide drops on an empty chamber, but it's not a good habit to develop either. It is the sign of an amateur 1911 handler.

[Dolomite_supafly]

As a person who has been around 1911's for a while I will say that dropping the slide on a 1911 can damage the gun. It is the only gun I have ever seen it happen to. As a 1911 chambers a round that round provides some cushion. When there is no round the slide velocity is much higher. And when that happens it can bump the sear nose off the hammer. Once, twice or even a few dozen times is not likely to hurt. But over time as the sharp nose of the sear falls off the sharp hook of the hammer it begins to round both off. And this reduces the amount of engagement. After a while the hammer will begin to follow the slide, both empty and when loading it. If you are lucky the 1/2 cock notch will catch it if you are not so lucky the hammer will follow it all the way home and the gun will go off. I have had a hammer follow a slide on a 1911 and got extremely lucky. I was sitting and the round went between my legs.

 

Some guns have a lot of engagement and some guns have such a small amount of engagement that even a small amount of rounding can cause problems. Most high end guns have a reduced amounts of engagement than the cheaper guns. The reason for this is a crisper trigger.

 

And honestly I have no clue why a sear getting bumped off the hammer is no different than pulling the sear off the hammer but there is.

 

The 1911 is the only gun I have ever heard of it happening to and I have seen it in person. I upgraded the hammer and sear for a friend last year on his Kimber. He called me two months ago saying the hammer on his 1911 would not stay cocked when he would drop the slide. I asked if he had been doing it with an empty chamber and he said thousands of times in the previous year. I said there is the problem. We replaced the hammer and sear again and the issue was gone. I might be able to find the parts and take very detailed pictures.

 

Dolomite

[timcalhoun]

I think letting the slide slam home is just bad gun etiquette. Imagine if you were showing someone your new car and after checking out the interior, they grabbed the door and slammed it shut really hard. That would kinda irritate me. Doubt it would hurt it much, but I don't want it done over and over either. 

 

Dolomite touched on much of what I would say about the 1911. The only thing I would add is that the barrel hood is what pushes the barrel forward and up into battery, so without the round, the hood slams against the breach face really hard. Not good. Also, the the forward movement of the slide is stopped by the barrel feet making contact with the slide stop. Again something I don't want slammed together over and over. Then you have the trigger stuff that Dolomite talked about. One needs to remember that with top parts and labor, one can get a good deal of money in a 2 pound trigger that is really sweet. I walk the slide home on every gun I touch even the plastic ones. Particularly if they don't belong to me.

 

$.02

[LngRngShtr]

I was told the design of the 1911 the hammer and sear aren't in contact when the slide closes during the firing cycle because the cycle is over before you can release the trigger and reset it, believe it was described in Bill Wilsons book he wrote back in the 80's where he advocated if you must drop the slide on a 1911 to do so with the trigger pulled back to protect the engagement surfaces stating that if you have a proper working 1911 there is no fear in it going off using this procedure and if you have seen the "Shooter Ready?" video and look closely you will see Rob Leatham doing just that.

 

and as to the plastic guns I am with Tim on that  because you can doesnt mean you should. why be harder on a tool than you need to? it is sort of like setting a bench plane face down vs on its side even on a wood work bench you can but you shouldn't

 

John

[tercel89]

Thanks guys . Just to make it clear  I never do any of this on another person's gun nor any gun that is not mine. I was just wondering if there were any ill effects of it . Thanks a bunch for all the information . :usa:

[timcalhoun]

I was told the design of the 1911 the hammer and sear aren't in contact when the slide closes during the firing cycle because the cycle is over before you can release the trigger and reset it, believe it was described in Bill Wilsons book he wrote back in the 80's where he advocated if you must drop the slide on a 1911 to do so with the trigger pulled back to protect the engagement surfaces stating that if you have a proper working 1911 there is no fear in it going off using this procedure and if you have seen the "Shooter Ready?" video and look closely you will see Rob Leatham doing just that.

 

No disrespect, but that is NOT good information. The only thing that catches the hammer is the sear. The disconnect is what resets in front of the sear. The hammer/sear relationship is a constant. As soon as the slide starts to cycle, it pushes the disconnect down releasing the sear from the trigger/disconnect. At that point, the sear is pushed by the sear spring toward the hammer to catch the hammer hooks. Pinning the trigger and dropping the slide will prevent trigger bounce and thus perhaps hammer follow. Hammer follow can (particularly on a series 80 hammers) really damage the nose of the sear when the hammer falls to half cock. Pinning the trigger and the racking the slide does recreate the actual cycle, but the hammer still engages the sear. WIthout the sear, the hammer has nothing to stop its travel.

[Metalhead]

What Dolomite said. We've had several high-end 1911's (Nighthawks/Ed Browns, and the like) have to be repaired do to folks dropping the slide on an empty chamber. Hammer follows the slide, just as he described.

[bikertrash2001]

Oh crap. I've made a few shop owners cringe over the years then. 

[MarkInNashville]

Oh crap. I've made a few shop owners cringe over the years then. 

Me too. We can only learn and move forward!

[Guest warhwkbb]

I've personally seen a plastic recoil spring guide on a Glock break from repeated empty slide drops.  Good thing they are only $8. 

[chances R]

I'll respect what others have advocated..don't release the slide on an empty chamber.  BUT, it is hard for me to believe that is 'worse' for a gun than firing it 100's if not 1,000's of times.  Additionally, holding the trigger back is ill-advised; you have just broken one of the safety rules of gun handling.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I'll respect what others have advocated..don't release the slide on an empty chamber. BUT, it is hard for me to believe that is 'worse' for a gun than firing it 100's if not 1,000's of times. Additionally, holding the trigger back is ill-advised; you have just broken one of the safety rules of gun handling.

It absolutely is worse for a 1911 because the act of chambering acts like a buffer that slows the slide speed.

I routinely hold the trigger back when racking an empty gun. I do it to practice trigger resets as well as making sure the gun functions as it should.

Checking trigger reset is part of doing a function check.

[Guest Grout]

As others have stated its not a good idea to do it on a 1911,I never do it on any auto personally.Its akin to flippng a cylinder shut on a revolver,bad form and a sign of an inexperienced or uninformed shooter.I actually passed on buying a 1911 at a LGS once because of this.I had looked at it (it was used) a few times and went back to buy it,when I got there some yahoo had it out and was locking the slide back and letting it go over and over,he did it at least a dozen times.Iasked him if he liked the gun and he said "yeah,I play with it every time I come in here".