Ok to release a pistol slide without a round?

I've dry fired and racked pistols while empty all the time.

The gun was meant to take a beating while firing a live round, the action cycling at such slow speeds will likely to very little wear at all.

Plus it is good muscle memory training to operate your firearms dry.
 
Were it hard on the slide, brakes would have been installed by now. The forces on a live gun firing are significantly higher than releasing a slide with guess what, a slide release. The gun was designed for it, were it not lighter springs would be used.
 
dizzy said:
Were it hard on the slide, brakes would have been installed by now. The forces on a live gun firing are significantly higher than releasing a slide with guess what, a slide release. The gun was designed for it, were it not lighter springs would be used.
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Springs etc, are part of the design to control, counter act and absorb the force of the slide assembly coming back under recoil. The other part of the design is 'considering', counteracting and controlling of the closing force of the slide assembly as it slams closed. Part of that design 'consideration' is that some of that force will be controlled and cushioned by effort of sliding the next loaded round out of the magazine and into the chamber.
 
enefgee said:
Bill Wilson says don't do it to one of his guns.
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Then Bill can shoot what I have. You get a decent quality target semi-auto, at the very least it's a piece of precision equipment with close tolerances and finely made. Why would one want to 'handle' it any rougher than need be? As example, a short while ago, I acquired a Kimber, Custom Shop model Super Match II (top left) from a gentleman down your way. It's made to be shot but with the effort taken to squeeze out accuracy and the cost of purchasing, I see nothing to be gained by unnecessary rough handling.

Thesemiautos.jpg
 
What I see here is that a lot of people didn't quite understand what the OP was asking. There is no issue racking the gun open it was if it should be slamed shut on an empty chamber.

The best answer I have heard here Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also it is bad manners to boot.

Look at it this way, do you close your door on your house some what easy or do slam the door as hard as you possible can? There is no reason that I can think of to slam your house door or your car door as hard as you can. It is only going to give you grief, maybe not right away but you can beat your boots it will sooner or later.

What possible reason could you have for doing this other then you want to look Cool to other people who really don't know how to act as well. If you look after your equipment it will look after you.

As to the people that have spoken up who cariy guns for a living sorry there words carry no weight with me but on the other hand people who fix them, I do listen to them. Some of them have made a life doing what they do. I think they know more then those of us that just shoot them once in awhile.

Remember for every action there is a typical and oppsite reaction. There is just no possible way it could be good for your gun.

Just my thoughts on this matter.

Graydog
 
Not sure why a bunch of you think I want to do this. Just saw the owner of a gun store do it to some of the inventory and I was curious what the general consensus was.
 
graydog said:
What I see here is that a lot of people didn't quite understand what the OP was asking. There is no issue racking the gun open it was if it should be slamed shut on an empty chamber.

The best answer I have heard here Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also it is bad manners to boot.

Look at it this way, do you close your door on your house some what easy or do slam the door as hard as you possible can? There is no reason that I can think of to slam your house door or your car door as hard as you can. It is only going to give you grief, maybe not right away but you can beat your boots it will sooner or later.

What possible reason could you have for doing this other then you want to look Cool to other people who really don't know how to act as well. If you look after your equipment it will look after you.

As to the people that have spoken up who cariy guns for a living sorry there words carry no weight with me but on the other hand people who fix them, I do listen to them. Some of them have made a life doing what they do. I think they know more then those of us that just shoot them once in awhile.

Remember for every action there is a typical and oppsite reaction. There is just no possible way it could be good for your gun.

Just my thoughts on this matter.

Graydog
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i agree with this
 
cadgo said:
Not sure why a bunch of you think I want to do this. Just saw the owner of a gun store do it to some of the inventory and I was curious what the general consensus was.
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The instruction book that came with my 1911 22Lr pistol says, never drop the slide on an empty chamber, because it could cause the chamber to crack. I never did this to any of my pistols, and never will. There is a big difference from racking a slide to allowing it to slam onto your chamber with the full forward force of your recoil spring. If you ever did it to one of mine, you would never be allowed to touch any of my guns, ever again.
 
For fun...

I am holding a NP-22. When the slide is fully rearward the slide catch cannot be engaged. You have to ease the slide forward about 8-9mm before the slide is caught, this means that some of the springs power is lost, we don't know how much but we can say its 'some'. In a normal firing cycle the slide goes fully to the rear before dropping and stripping a round. The act of stripping a round absorbs energy, we don't know how much, but again its 'some'.

So unless the act of stripping and cambering a round uses considerably more energy then the compression lost in the spring when the slide catch is engaged, I would have to say it doesn't matter.
 
It's metal on metal, so bang along! If you do it repetitively 100,000 times, maybe you'll see some wear and tear.
I don't baby my guns, I shoot them 1000 rounds at a time. They're made for it.
 
Americans probably look at us weird seeing that everyone treats their guns like a safe queen.
 
That is laughable. Really!
I've got a buddy from Texas. He has a carry permit. Carries it around. Another one is in his truck banging around. The third is in the night table. He never cleans them, doesn't care much as long as they work. They're tools.

Do you clean your screwdriver often? So why would you treat another tool any different?

sDot said:
Americans probably look at us weird seeing that everyone treats their guns like a safe queen.
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Why? Pride of ownership; military instilled discipline .... how many reasons do you want? I judge a man by the way he treats his 'tools', firearms in particular.

None of my 'tools' are dirty, rusty or in need of care. When I need them, I want them to work! Finding out they don't at a critical time is unacceptable. In the case of a gun, this is even more important. My life or someone else's could hang in the balance, or I could miss the buck of a lifetime.

Remind me never to buy a tool/gun from you .....
 
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ss1980 said:
That is laughable. Really!
I've got a buddy from Texas. He has a carry permit. Carries it around. Another one is in his truck banging around. The third is in the night table. He never cleans them, doesn't care much as long as they work. They're tools.

Do you clean your screwdriver often? So why would you treat another tool any different?
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Having 'pulled wrenches' for quite a number of years, yes, after I'm finished with them on a job, I clean them. Nothing worse starting the next job, than to reach into your tool box or chest for a tool and it comes out, covered in grease from the previous job. As having later been a maintenance supervisor, a lot about an individuals pride and workmanship on doing a job is indicated by how he looks after his tools. In your friends case, there may come a day when he really has to depend on one of his 'tools' to function properly which he may have compromised by not looking after them. But, that's his choice. As the old expression goes, "It's his c**k and his soap and he can wash it as fast as he wants".
 
Johnn Peterson said:
Having 'pulled wrenches' for quite a number of years, yes, after I'm finished with them on a job, I clean them. Nothing worse starting the next job, than to reach into your tool box or chest for a tool and it comes out, covered in grease from the previous job. As having later been a maintenance supervisor, a lot about an individuals pride and workmanship on doing a job is indicated by how he looks after his tools. In your friends case, there may come a day when he really has to depend on one of his 'tools' to function properly which he may have compromised by not looking after them. But, that's his choice. As the old expression goes, "It's his c**k and his soap and he can wash it as fast as he wants".
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Ok, you had me until the last line, then things got weird. Lol.
 
Apparently very few of you understand metalurgy and how things can go bad. Just because some steels are hardened and tough it's not a good idea to slam them together on a frequent basis.

Case in point. In the old days any apprentice blacksmith that was to hit the hammer hard onto the anvil would recieve a severe cuff backside of the forehead. Banging two hardened steel objects together is hard on them and over time could result in one of them cracking.

Another, metal files are tough becuase they are hard right? After all we cut other steel with them. But if you try to clear the swarf from the teeth by hitting the file against the bench or vise you'll likely see the file snap in two. Hard doesn't mean tough.

I could go on but two examples should be enough for anyone with an open mind.

Guns? It's simple. If the slide dropping on an empty chamber sounds highly different and sharp sounding compared to when you drop it to chamber a round then it's likely not a good idea to drop the slide on an empty chamber consistently. If the sounds don't change much then it's fine. The change in the sound is a good measure of how much stripping and pushing the round into the chamber cushions the slide's travel.

1911's drop the slide with a harsh and sharp sort of sound as do some others. Over time "dry" dropping the slides on those guns is going to change something if you do it frequently enough. Glocks, M&P's, CZ's and many others don't change the sound much from empty to with rounds in the system. Those won't matter if you drop the slide on empty chambers all day long.
 
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