A while back I shared a video here that I did for Wilson Combat as to why, when the pistol is empty, you should ease the slide forward rather than slamming it down. Slamming it is ruinous to sear engagements on 1911s, and on any pistol adds wear to the locking lugs.Here’s a fellow on YouTube who quotes Nighthawk Custom as saying the same thing:
Nighthawk Custom is a premier builder of 1911 pistols. They’re experts who know what they’re talking about. The same is true in spades of Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson, who have said the same thing on the Wilson Combat channel, and a couple of their star shooters who have said the same thing. Ain’t just me.
I teach “slam it loaded (to guarantee full chambering of live cartridges from the magazine) but ease it empty.”
Good advice. I adhere to it with all my pistols & autoloading rifles. “Slamming” it may not cause any harm in some platforms but why do it if you don’t have to.
Way back in the last century there was a study done (by Leupold!) on the slide forces on a 1911 using hard ball.
The jolt on the slide at recoil was 800 Gs (G being force of gravity). The jolt going into battery while stripping a round was 850 Gs. Without stripping a round, that would be even higher. The jolt of the round firing was an eyepopping 2000 Gs. Back in the days of really stout recoil springs (25% and more over 16 lb stock), many slide stops failed and a few barrel underlugs too.
Leupold studied this after getting a picture showing one of their scopes mounted on a 1911 slide. The enclosed letter noted that their product was the only scope that stood up to a really strange scope mounting solution. I saved their print ad.
I believe that an Air Force officer that I knew had a 1911 Government Model go full auto on him in shooting practice, which somehow caused a hand injury. Is this possible, and if so, why? I wasn’t able to stick around long enough in the moment to hear a full explanation from the officer.
It never ceases to amaze me of the ignor-ance of many top level instructors and shooters who ‘ignore’ this with their competition guns and carry guns. They think they ‘know’ better than anyone mentioned above. Pistols always have a potential opportunity to fail when you least need them to. I see no need to hasten the likelihood of this happening. This is still good advice that I will continue to follow.
My thoughts are that guns are mostly made of metal, and should be able to take some rough treatment. Some guns are made for war. But, I’m thankful for Mas’ teaching on this subject, and I follow it. I always treat machines as well as I can, because when a machine breaks down, I’m pretty helpless.
Mas,
I won’t drop the names of the immature Tactitards that made video after video mocking you for this, but safe to say they’re the usual suspects… neckbearded wannabe ‘cool guy’ gym bro’s that litter their videos with F-bombs and saturate their work with attempts at high school level attempts at ‘ironic’ humor or grating ‘Family Guy’ style cut-away gag clips.
Vis-à-Vis the firearms community, they are the fart sniffing 16 year old jerks in the back of the classroom shooting spit balls, horking up loogies, belching loudly and insulting the quiet kids in class with insults that range from nicknames for women’s body parts to derogatory terms for certain sexual lifestyles. The prudent and decent ignore them, letting water seek its own level… let those that find them amusing go corral with them. I prefer that type over ‘there’ in their own mud puddle rather than over ‘here’ in an adult discussion.
If (like Sgt. Shultz) ‘I knew NOTHING!’ about firearms at all, after watching the videos these obnoxious dung beetles made, I would immediately assume the opposite of everything they said, and I would conclude that it was in fact NOT safe to slam a slide down on an empty 1911. And I would reach that conclusion based solely upon the behavior, language and attitude of these irritating dimwits.
And as you know, the mouthy and louder the fools, the smaller their number. The silent majority stands and wisely listens. Keep up the awesome work, Mas. The majority that seek knowledge and wise words are listening to you.
I believe that an Air Force officer that I knew had a 1911 Government Model go full auto on him in shooting practice, which somehow caused a hand injury. Is this possible, and if so, why? I wasn’t able to stick around long enough in the moment to hear a full explanation from the officer.
I have no doubt about the veracity of what these authorities are advising shooters to do when handling their semi-auto handguns. Massad, Ken Hackathorn, Bill Wilson, & Nighthawk Custom absolutely know what they’re talking about with regard to everything related to firearms. Even so, it does make me wonder if striker fired guns like the Glocks, in which the barrel locks into the ejection port of the slide, are subject to the same amount of wear & tear as the 1911s are when dropping the slide on an empty chamber, since they are hammerless & do not have 1911 style locking lugs. I’m also curious as to the lifespan of the recoil springs (especially the double recoil springs) of the Glock, since I have seen several of them torture tested for over 20,000 rounds without any maintenance or failures. I own several 1911s, as well as several Glocks, Sigs, & other brands, & I agree that it’s a good idea to handle them all as gently & carefully as possible, especially since it takes so little effort to do so, but it does make me wonder.
Saw some idiot, that’s the nicest term I can use for the moronic retard, on YouTube flip the cylinder of his revolver closed.
I avoid most gun stuff on YouTube but various stuff does pop up in my feed. Now I’m going to go shake a baby, kick a puppy, and knock down a little old lady walking with a cane.
Couldn’t agree more… It amazes me the verbal backlash this generates online, particularly with the younger generation of firearm enthusiasts and armchair commandos who think they know better than the professionals in the industry. Might as well start the 9mm vs. 45acp thread.
Thanks for sharing. This was thought provoking and made me ask some questions and think things over. I also just watched a recent YouTube video by Ron Spomer where he cleaned a new tikka rifle and his method was very deliberate, he explained how it may or may not be necessary to protect the precision rifling of the high end rifle, but he basically said it was better to be safe than sorry, and didnt really cost him anything but a minute of his time. I think prudence and curiosity are necessities in this field, and life in general.
As for some of the other comments here, i second you. I recently checked out the WC YouTube channel and was surprised to see a noticeable difference in the theme of videos posted over the last, lets say, 4 months or so. After looking at their videos via the recent filter, i clicked on the setting for popularity, all of their most popular videos featured Massad Ayoob. There have also been some controversial videos that have been deleted from the channel. Not making a point, just sayin what i saw. There may be more information out there by volume than ever before, its really on us to share the stuff that’s good. Weapons Affair YouTube channel just posted a couple amazing Jim Cirillo clips form a VHS, and the 10th Mountain Division actually posted some videos of Pat McNamara teaching rifle malfunction on their official YouTube page. This stuff is gold, and we can easily share them with our loved ones and newcomers today like never before. So I’m grateful and I’ll take advantage of this. We can all find a 5 or 10 minute video that’s prescient and reasonable and just share it when we see someone that may need it, we dont have to be show, share it and just be welcoming and kind otherwise. Life is good.
One thing that was left out was that you should NEVER put a cartridge into a lock-open 1911 and then drop the slide on it. At least, not ones with the classic Browning-design internal extractor. Those internal extractors are designed to have the cartridge rim slip up into the extractor, not have the extractor ride over the rim. In an emergency it can be done, but that doesn’t mean it’s good practice for anything other than an emergency.
Sound advice.
Regarding the recent wounding of the past and future President Trump, the whole thing is fishy. Nobody with a rifle is supposed to get within 2 miles of a President. Whoever is in charge of the Secret Service Trump protection detail may need to be sent down to the D.C. Swampy Gulag for reeducation. Barry Goldwater’s protection staff, according to staff commander Hugh McDonald, caught someone carrying a rifle in a car near Barry well ahead of time to prevent any assassination attempt.
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