Stupid Noob Questions Chapter 2: Not ruining your S_I

[ima45dv8]

I'll still won't drop the slide on an empty chamber anyway.

Me, either. I makes my skin crawl just to see someone else do it.

[taxlawmax]

I'm also a slide-racker-ammo-catcher-unloader-show-clearer-guy, but I (and most others I've seen) ride the slide closed and do not let it slam.

SA

Steve, when you say that you "ride" the side closed, what exactly do you mean? Just apply pressure with your strong hand thumb to the side of the slide, or do you actually hold it on its return with your weak hand?

[taxlawmax]

Sorry to revive this thread yet again, but...

Lots of people have said (in this thread and others) that they don't recommend letting the slide slam back onto an empty chamber, and that doing so might harm the quality of the trigger job, etc.

But for all you guys & gals who modify your mags so that the slide doesn't lock back after emptying a mag, doesn't that happen every time you finish a mag?

[G-ManBart]

Sorry to revive this thread yet again, but...

Lots of people have said (in this thread and others) that they don't recommend letting the slide slam back onto an empty chamber, and that doing so might harm the quality of the trigger job, etc.

But for all you guys & gals who modify your mags so that the slide doesn't lock back after emptying a mag, doesn't that happen every time you finish a mag?

No, the slide finishes cycling before your finger has let the trigger come forward to reset the sear...you probably don't think about it, but you reset the trigger after each shot and the slide has been close for a long time when it happens (relatively speaking). If the trigger is back and the sear/hammer disengaged, it won't beat up the sear nose or hammer hooks when the slide goes forward.

Edited September 30, 2007 by G-ManBart

[CodeSlinger]

I don't think this explanation is quite correct.

No, the slide finishes cycling before your finger has let the trigger come forward to reset the sear...you probably don't think about it, but you reset the trigger after each shot and the slide has been close for a long time when it happens (relatively speaking).

Your finger letting the trigger come forward does NOT reset the sear. It resets the disconnector.

If the trigger is back and the sear/hammer disengaged, it won't beat up the sear nose or hammer hooks when the slide goes forward.

If the sear/hammer is disengaged when the slide goes forward, your hammer will follow (ok, ok, granted, that won't beat up your sear nose at all! ). The sear gets reset as soon as the slide moving back pushes the disconnector down. Regardless of whether you're holding the trigger back or not, and regardless of whether you're chambering another round, the hammer will always engage the sear when the slide closes...if it doesn't, the hammer follows.

Now here's the interesting part: The whole time the slide is farther out of battery than the length of your disconnector groove, the trigger *can't* affect the sear (because the slide is holding the disconnector down). The slide has to close, and the disconnector has to raise back up into the groove, before the trigger can affect the sear. In order for your "trigger bounce" theory to be correct, the disconnector would have to pop back up into its groove, reconnecting the trigger to the sear, before the slide slams back into battery. [CONJECTURE] Given the very fast speed of a closing slide, the very short length of the disconnector groove, and the relatively weak disconnector spring, I'd be shocked if that were possible.

Let me restate that if it wasn't clear: I'm not saying that parts don't bounce, they do. I'm saying I seriously doubt that it's possible for the disconnector to pop up and get between the trigger and sear in the short amount of time between when the diconnector groove reappears over the disconnector and when the slide slams home. [/CONJECTURE] That's a short distance for a fast-moving slide to move, at an already high speed. The disconnector, remember, has to accelerate from a standstill after the groove reappears above it.

If that's true, if the disconnector can't pop up there fast enough, then you have to agree that there's no difference between shooting a slide-stop-disabled gun empty and dropping a slide from slidelock on an empty chamber. In both cases, the position of the disconnector makes the position (or movement) of the trigger irrelevant.

Thoughts? (other than the fact that I need to practice being less verbose... )