Closing Slide on an empty chamber

Green Skull

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Hey everyone, Just wanted to get some feed back on this. I was in a my local gun store yesterday when I saw some Newb ask to see an old Russian tokerev. The shop employee took out the gun from the case and handed it (slide open of course) to the guy. He promptly hit the slide release slamming shut the slide. I thought the the store guy was going to knock him out!! He grabbed the gun from him and yelled "that's the worst thing you can ever do to a gun". I could hardly contain my laughter at that comment. But rightfully so you never do that to someone else's gun. My question is, is this still a common misconception with gun owners? All my semi autos( R1 1911, Beretta 92, and a tokerev) I let the spring tension close the slide that's how they were built and all my manuals say to "snap" it shut. I have never had an issue and have done it hundreds of times.
 
first I've ever heard it was bad, I let all of mine close with the slide release and an empty chamber, then I dry fire it and put it in the safe.
 
I have a glock that I have done this thousands of times too with no signs of stress.

I remember in my RPAL course the instructor said it would eventually round of the cut in the slide, however, I have seen no evidence of this.
 
I have heard its not great, slamming home on a round stripped from the mag slows it down and that's more what it was designed for. I'm not saying it's the worst thing ever but at the very least, be gentle with another persons gun.
 
I heard it was bad form to do in a gun shop just because it's not your gun. But that was the first time I really heard someone say it as terrible for your gun .
 
I'm no expert but yeah. I do it on all my guns.

this topic always comes on CGN.

Half will say go for it half will say never
 
The firearms is meant to contain a small explosion... Dropping the slide won't hurt a thing unless you do it 6,000,000,000 times.

Yeah but, it's not meant to hammer steel on steel a bunch of times.;) there is supposed to be a cartridge in there to accept the shock. No sense abusing the thing without cause.

Grizz
 
The problem doing this with a 1911 is the undampened jarring can cause the hammer hooks to hit the sears working edge harder than normal. This can screw with your trigger quality.
 
I think if its your gun by all means do as you will.
If its not yours RESPECT other peoples property.
I always ask before I commit any action on other
peoples property. I heard of some .22 is not a good idea
to dry fire them other guns like the Glock and the
Beretta 92fs no problem dry firing them. I bet you'll
get a whole list of guns out there that can be done as
well. I suspect there could be a list of other guns out
there that should not be dry fired without a cap. I hope
others out in the canadiangunnutz forums will give there
un biased opinion on this subject. I await to see the other
responses to this question and this should be a sticky for other
members to use as a reference.

XCR User
 
Not every gun is designed to do it. 1911s yes. Glocks no. If you compare the slide stop on a 1911 to a Glock you with see some obvious differences in size and design.

I would actually be more worried about the 1911. A glock has a extremely hard coating that the little spring steel slide release is unlikely to damage. And a new slide release is a sinch to replace. On an older handgun I can maybe see it being a problem. Metallurgy being better today than even 10 years ago. But I wouldn't worry about it unless it is pre ww2.
 
Depends one the firearm and as others have said stripping a round out of the mag is going to slow it down. Iv done it with my tokerevs a few times but i avoid it by simply easing it closed. You can definitely hear a difference in how hard it closes between letting it go dry and chambering a round. On something larger like a SVT40 i wouldn't do it, simply because theres a powerful spring with a long travel designed to strip a large heavy round off the mag. Without a round its going to slam home pretty hard and i don't think the steel on steel would be to good for it.

My take on it is its probably not going to break it but its probably not to good for it either, depending on the firearm. Why do it if you don't have to? I get snap caps or make dummy rounds to function check my firearms.
 
I was in a local store and was looking at the handguns, and when the guy handed me them he asked me not to release the slide without holding onto it. It was the first time I've really heard it was bad for them, but I did as he asked because they were not my guns. While looking at other peoples guns I am always hesitant to do anything with them, and if I do I am extra gentle. That guy seemed like he overreacted but..
 
Some say that it can eventually affect the sear engagement on 1911's
I was told many years ago that it's bad etiquette when buying or inspecting someone's gun.
If you really want to check hammer engagement use a snap cap via the mag not directly into the chamber.
 
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