Bubber, for closing the gun, I do the following (I started out using my palm too, but it slowed me down considerably):
1) I insert the clip
2) As soon as the clip is in completely, the gun cants to the strong hand side (making the cylinder "fall" back into the frame window)
3) at the same time, the thumb of my weak hand pushes the cylinder in, while assuming the shooting position on the gun (it's already there, so it's easy to do)
4) Gun cants back and into high ready
Big time saver I think, but it depends on where your thumbs are during the shooting.