Thumbing the hammer on a semi before loading...

[sargenv]

I was wondering to myself why people do this? Is it because there is something to the fact that you might mess up a trigger job? Or is it just something people do to make racking the slide easier? When in actual use, the slide is coming back a lot faster than me racking it, so it seems that the trigger job theory doesn't hold water. So tell me, why do we do it?

Vince

[Ross Carter]

It makes racking the slide easier, makes a big difference if you have a heavy mainspring and a EGW firing pin stop with a small radius.

[TriggerT]

Like Ross said, it makes racking the gun easier. I find it helps a lot if I am loading off of a completely topped off mag. One of the guys at our club runs a 23 pound main spring, so I know that is why he does it.

[short_round]

Or is it just something people do to make racking the slide easier?

This is why I do it. I'm pretty sure that I only do it at LAMR too. During the COF and ULSC I'll rack the slide. I said I'm pretty sure, now I'm going to make a point to be sure LAMR is the only time I do it.

[kdj]

Those of us running with a 6lb recoil spring and an "as light as works" mainspring have never got in this habit

Kevin

[BSeevers]

Easier to rack slide

[mcoliver]

My first 1911 had this terrible mainspring. Thumb-cocking the hammer made racking the slide easier. Now that I've got a 15# MS, I've never stopped the practice out of habit.

[sargenv]

On my limited gun, I have a 13# recoil spring and I think my open gun has an 11#'er so I never bothered. On rare occasions when I was using a revolver I'd thumb my hammer back for shots over 30 yards if I was missing targets, but that's a whole diff animal. Basically my question came off of another thread with Kevin_C and SR RO'ing. *shrug* It just seems weird. If the mag is that tight, why not load 1 less, then pop the mag out and re-load it with that extra 1 a la single stack style.

Thanks for the replies.

Vince

[bountyhunter]

I was wondering to myself why people do this? Is it because there is something to the fact that you might mess up a trigger job?

Vince

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thumb holding the hammer back when loading as the slide drops is done to protect the trigger job. It prevents the hammer hooks from bouncing off the sear face. It also eliminates the possibility of an AD from an "inertia trip" which sometimes happens on 1911's with very light triggers.

[sargenv]

If that is something that one would worry about, wouldn't the natural operation of the slide cause more damage to a trigger job due to it's increased speed and battering as opposed to gently racking the slide and putting it into battery? It just seems to me that unless the slide is really heavy, cocking it first seems like an extraneous function. We do it because someone told us to rather than doing what seems natural. I guess I'll never understand it till someone proves to me that it destroys a trigger job. I guess I need to see actual mechanical proof that it matters as opposed to a theory.

Whether you do it or not I guess is up to you. To each their own

Vince

[Ross Carter]

I think you're asking a different question now. Cocking the hammer before loading does nothing to protect the trigger job it just makes it easier to rack the slide. Holding onto the hammer while dropping the slide on loading used to be a common practice before lightweight triggers and better trigger job methods were used. You don't see it done much now because it's not neccessary and it is kinda hard to do with a beavertail and a commander hammer. We used to also hold the trigger back when loading for the same reasons, that caused many AD's and is not allowed by the rules now. If you have a good trigger job you don't need to worry about dropping the slide when loading, if the hammer falls when loading you need to get it fixed.

Dropping the slide without loading is a little different, without the added friction of the round coming out of the mag and chambering the slide slams home with much more force than when the gun is fired or on loading. Most gunsmiths agree that it's not a good idea to do this very often because of extra stress on the barrel feet and on a finely tuned trigger job.

Ross