Gun wear questions

Two questions:
I was cautioned against using the slide release to drop the slide in a 1911  to chamber the first round after loading the mag. He said the slide stop can wear out after a while
and the slide then won't lock back on the empty mag...I should pull the slide back and release to chamber the round.  Any truth to that?

second,  During drills, I sometimes load one round from the mag, then eject the mag.  I do a live fire on a turning target or range command, then recover from recoil and dry fire the second shot.  This means I'm closing the slide on an empty chamber.  It that practice going to hurt anything?  I'm running a 10lb recoil spring, slide mounted dot.  Rock River Arms 1911 if that matters.

thanks,  Kurt

I've always heard not to drop the slide on an empty chamber. I've also been told to keep the trigger pulled back while you drop the slide on the 1st round, I do so by pushing on the front of the dot, the reason is to keep the trigger components in good shape not the slide stop.

1) I had a 45 that I would hold hammer down with left thumb and release slide with left index finger while gripping pistol with right hand(Army used this method). 100,000 rds later pistol still working fine. 
2) Since you have trigger to rear from firing first shot, I’m of the opinion you’re not hurting anything. 

Pistols wear from use. Use it
Jon

Ok, what about dropping the slide on empty chamber? That has to bang the lugs pretty hard. I have seen broken lugs on weld fitted guns

Only broken lugs on a BE pistol I’ve ever seen were from lugs cut too thin. Not that they don’t break......
If they’re fit right the force is not fully on the rear of the bottom lug. If trigger is to the rear I don’t think it’s a problem. Obviously personal choice.
Jon

bruce martindale wrote:Ok, what about dropping the slide on empty chamber? That has to bang the lugs pretty hard. I have seen broken lugs on weld fitted guns

never drop slide on empty chamber!  if checking things insert dummy round in first.

the old rule was never to drop the slide on an empty chamber as it would cause the sear to bounce on the hammer hooks.. not a problem if you are holding the trigger back as Jon noted.. if not, I'd agree to not dropping the slide on an empty chamber.

Back in the 70s I was taught the same method as Jon of holding the hammer back and releasing the slide..  pistols in those days had the issue of hammer fall on occasion, if you released the slide and did not hold the hammer.  Not much of a problem these days especially if you use a roll or TR radius sear nose. I've had wad guns down to 2 lbs or less. Tried to make the hammer fall and could not.. Better sears(longer & harder) and the better radius.

I look at dropping the slide by the slide release on both a empty chamber or loading the chamber about the sams as slamming car doors. It may not hurt, but it sure doesn't help. And I ask the same of others that wish to shoot or handle my guns. If they do, accident or not, they do not handle my guns again. And I never drop the slide on anybody else's guns, even when they say it's OK.

Dropping the slide on an empty chamber -
What am I missing on this?  The .45acp headspaces on the case length (0.888" -0.898" for ammo, 0.898-0.920" for the chamber) but normally there is 0.001-0.003" clearance, but could be as much as 0.032"!  The only thing I see decelerating a closing slide is the rim entering the extractor and the friction of the round entering the chamber (minimal on a properly tuned pistol/magazine).  So the slide should still be impacting the barrel hood lugs, link lugs, hood rear face with nearly the same energy whether empty or with a round, but that should depend almost entirely on extractor tension vs. rim width.

NukeMMC wrote:Dropping the slide on an empty chamber -
What am I missing on this?  The .45acp headspaces on the case length (0.888" -0.898" for ammo, 0.898-0.920" for the chamber) but normally there is 0.001-0.003" clearance, but could be as much as 0.032"!  The only thing I see decelerating a closing slide is the rim entering the extractor and the friction of the round entering the chamber (minimal on a properly tuned pistol/magazine).  So the slide should still be impacting the barrel hood lugs, link lugs, hood rear face with nearly the same energy whether empty or with a round, but that should depend almost entirely on extractor tension vs. rim width.

When the bottom of the slide impacts the next cartridge coming off the magazine to be chambered, the slide is slowed some. The effort needed to strip a cartridge off the magazine, the resistance generated when the bullet contacts the feed ramp, and the energy used to chamber the cartridge slows the slide down. Without that resistance provided from a cartridge being fed, the slide goes into battery quite fast. The force has to go somewhere.

Also, its not like there's any need to drop the slide on an empty chamber.. Jon has/is built me some fine pistols, I think the least I can do is avoid unnecessary abuse.

jglenn21 wrote:Back in the 70s I was taught the same method as Jon of holding the hammer back and releasing the slide..  pistols in those days had the issue of hammer fall on occasion, if you released the slide and did not hold the hammer.  Not much of a problem these days especially if you use a roll or TR radius sear nose. I've had wad guns down to 2 lbs or less. Tried to make the hammer fall and could not.. Better sears(longer & harder) and the better radius.

The problem of the hammer dropping when the slide is released, is more apparent in pistols with a heavy recoil spring, like EIC pistols. I lent my EIC pistol to someone and forgot to tell them to hold the hammer back when they chambered the first round.  We all heard the bang when the command to load was given.  Of course, that was back in the day when we had to shoot hardball.  Since the ammo rules change, I have installed a weaker recoil spring and the problem went away.