open gun question

[wknewbie]

I was at the range this morning with a guy who was shooting a .38 super open gun. I noticed that the slide did not stay open after the last shot was fired. He said that most open guns are set up this way. If this is true what is the purpose and what causes it?

[shred]

Many Open and Limited guns are set up that way to avoid inadvertent slide lock backs when the mag isn't completely empty, which can happen when something (like a bullet) bumps the catch.  Since we try hard to avoid slide-lock reloads in IPSC, many people disable the lock-open-on-empty feature.

[ErikW]

shred didn't specifically say it, but we only do this because we plan our course strategy and reloads such that we never run the gun dry.

[BSeevers]

To add to my bros input. A slide locked back reload is always slower than a regular one so thats why we try not to do it.

[ErikW]

To further clarify ...

We avoid slide-lock reloads because they are slower than round-chambered reloads.

We modify slide stops because a premature lock-open is slow.

We avoid running dry because nothing is slower than dropping the hammer on an empty chamber, doing the reload, and racking the slide. (Nothing except not realizing you're empty and racking the slide once or twice before you figure it out.)

P.S. The truly clueless among us disable their slide locks to prevent the rare premature lock-open, but then negate that benefit by installing large magazine release buttons on their guns. This ensures they will never pick the gun off a table and get more than one shot from it because the big button has left the magazine on the table.

[Loves2Shoot]

For me it prevents acute cases of "hosing" because I know if I throw extra rounds and run dry I am in a world of hurt, also because the 1st gun I had had bad habit of locking open early and that is really frustrating.