Choice to not go to slide lock

[jsykes]

What is the reasoning behind not wanting/having the slide lock back on an empty mag? I know some have said they prefer this and recently got some Dawson followers for my mags and realized after assembly that they do not lock the slide back. I'm new to the "game" and started thinking about what the reasoning is.

So those that like this, why do you like it that way, what are the reasons?

Thanks.

[Duane Thomas]

On some guns the slide stop will prematurely pop up and lock the action open with rounds still in the magazine. Some people choose to avoid this possibility completely by deactivating the slide stop altogether.

I am not one of those people, BTW.

[38supPat]

I am. Every gun of mine (except my Ruger 22/45) are modified to not lock back...it can't happen accidentally if it can't happen at all. Not to mention, under stress it is easier to grab a slide than hit a wee lever.

[HSMITH]

Plus you can't bash a mag home far enough to break the ejector off and lock the gun up so tight it takes percussive techniques to get it out when the slide doesn't lock back.

I have both set ups, and I will configure for slide locking back to shoot L10 or Production. I wouldn't even consider it for Open or Limited, managing the gun so that it never goes empty is really easy with 20+ round mags.

[kevin c]

There is, of course, the opposite argument that locking back is good in certain situations (I'll leave the tactical aspects out of this discussion).

In the ten round games, there are times where the shooter will deliberately shoot empty, and then reload. Being locked back saves most of a second in getting the gun back into firing condition.

[Joe4d]

In limited or open if you run your gun dry most likely you are all ready fubar'ed. My USPSA gun's slidelocks all worked when I shot L10 but they were also used for IDPA. It did take some tuning of mags, followers, springs, and slidestop to get it to allways work. If you are good or you pay someone who is good they should be able to get yours to work, however it is easier to just use Dawson followers or deactivate the stop.

[jsykes]

Interesting, thanks for the insight.

[sfinney]

Big reason to me is speed. If you lock the slide back, and then reload, now you have to do one more action - letting the slide back down, either slingshot or using the slide release, and chambering a round.

If you drop your mag before the guns goes dry, there is till a bullet in the chamber, the slide is closed, and you get to do one less action after the mag is changed - gettting you back on target and shooting that much quicker.

[JThompson]

Plus you can't bash a mag home far enough to break the ejector off and lock the gun up so tight it takes percussive techniques to get it out when the slide doesn't lock back.

I have both set ups, and I will configure for slide locking back to shoot L10 or Production. I wouldn't even consider it for Open or Limited, managing the gun so that it never goes empty is really easy with 20+ round mags.

Though I have ran it dry more than once.

[steel1212]

Plus you can't bash a mag home far enough to break the ejector off and lock the gun up so tight it takes percussive techniques to get it out when the slide doesn't lock back.

I have both set ups, and I will configure for slide locking back to shoot L10 or Production. I wouldn't even consider it for Open or Limited, managing the gun so that it never goes empty is really easy with 20+ round mags.

Though I have ran it dry more than once.

Yeah the dreaded click. Its priceless to see an open/limited shooters face when that happens. They are like WTF I know I got more BBs lol I say that from experience

[CJDOUBLETAP]

Mine don't go to slide lock for fear of breaking the ejector off. Although I am planning on getting another slide stop for the Pro-Am match and make it lock the gun back...to prevent those "dreaded clicks."

Craig

[sfinney]

to prevent those "dreaded clicks."

Counting works well for that too......

[jsykes]

Big reason to me is speed. If you lock the slide back, and then reload, now you have to do one more action - letting the slide back down, either slingshot or using the slide release, and chambering a round.

If you drop your mag before the guns goes dry, there is till a bullet in the chamber, the slide is closed, and you get to do one less action after the mag is changed - gettting you back on target and shooting that much quicker.

No, I totally understand that. And its something that I would generally try to do anyway. My question was more about when maybe you didnt count well or whatever and the mag does go dry, if there was some more reason why it would seem quicker if the slide didnt lock back. To me that would always seem to take longer if you messed up and didnt count right. You'd end up getting the "click"that is mentioned. So if it locked back, it would be quicker if you ran the gun dry for some reason.

So to me, it seemed like silly thing to want to have happen, however, the insight based upon the false lockbacks seems to be the main reason why you wouldnt want the gun setup that way. I guess the figuring is the false lockbacks could happen more often than the occasional miscount and running the gun dry.

[bbbean]

Big reason to me is speed. If you lock the slide back, and then reload, now you have to do one more action - letting the slide back down, either slingshot or using the slide release, and chambering a round.

If you drop your mag before the guns goes dry, there is till a bullet in the chamber, the slide is closed, and you get to do one less action after the mag is changed - gettting you back on target and shooting that much quicker.

I understand that if you're paying attention to your round count, the question is moot - you'll always drop the mag with one in the chamber. But on those occasions when you miscount, accidentally forget to top off a mag, or face a Texas Star that simply refuses to be hit, it seems like releasing the stop would be faster than cycling the slide.

I like the idea of being able to use the same gun for Limited and Lim-10, and having all my guns work the same.

[-JQ-]

For what it is worth...since getting my CQB back from wilson, the "tiny lever" has been better than I could have imagined and is easy to hit in a "thumbs forward" position...for me at least. This is really the only pistol that I have that is this well tuned. My sigs have tiny flat levers and are impossible for me to hit consistently.

It just feels smooth with the wilson lever. ymmv

[Duane Thomas]

Big reason to me is speed. If you lock the slide back, and then reload, now you have to do one more action - letting the slide back down, either slingshot or using the slide release, and chambering a round.

If you drop your mag before the guns goes dry, there is till a bullet in the chamber, the slide is closed, and you get to do one less action after the mag is changed - gettting you back on target and shooting that much quicker.

And if your gun won't slidelock and you shoot it dry, you get to do one more action after the mag is changed - cycling the action to get a round into the chamber versus just thumbing the slide stop - getting you back on target and shooting that much slower.

[Duane Thomas]

Plus you can't bash a mag home far enough to break the ejector off and lock the gun up so tight it takes percussive techniques to get it out when the slide doesn't lock back.

Of course if the float of the magazine is correct, you can't do that anyway.

[M-TRAIN]

Both my Standard (10rd only) Infinity slides are set up to not lock back. When everything is going to plan it's not a problem. But I seem to be experiencing the "dead man's click" more often these days. When I get a chance it's my intention to have them re configured to lock open.

Mick B

[VegasOPM]

I like the slide to lock back. If the gun goes click- the first thing I do is to look at the slide to help diagnose the problem. If it is locked back, the gun is empty. If not the tap-rack drill should fix the problem. I had a mag that would not trip the slide lock. After 3 tap-rack drills, I realized that the mag was empty.

[bbbean]

FWIW, it took all of 5 minutes a mag to file the Grams followers on my mags to get them to lock back empty. Time will tell whether this is a permanent fix.

[G-ManBart]

FWIW, it took all of 5 minutes a mag to file the Grams followers on my mags to get them to lock back empty. Time will tell whether this is a permanent fix.

I did that on all of mine for my Limited rig and they've stayed fine since then. I haven't had any problems with this and I don't recall the last time I've seen a ejector break on a Limited-10/Production/Single Stack rig that anybody was shooting (yes, I know it's possible), but I have seen lots of "CLICK, oh SH!&, dump the mag, reload, rack the slide" which hurts a lot more than "oh SH!& the slide just locked back, dump it, reload from the belt and hit the release". Both hurt, but one hurts more than the other. R,

[JasonK]

I am. Every gun of mine (except my Ruger 22/45) are modified to not lock back...it can't happen accidentally if it can't happen at all. Not to mention, under stress it is easier to grab a slide than hit a wee lever.

Too bad that under that same stress you have to hit another wee little lever called a trigger. If I can manipulate the trigger with control every single shot, I can damn sure manupulate the slide stop once and a while.

[Duane Thomas]

I have never understood the idea that thumbing down the slide stop is "a fine motor skill cataclysmically impacted by the fight or flight response." Bending my thumb is not a fine motor skill.

However, I do think we're in danger of drifting into a "real-world gunfighting" discussion here. Probably time to cool it.

[ChristianHE]

I have never understood the idea that thumbing down the slide stop is "a fine motor skill cataclysmically impacted by the fight or flight response." Bending my thumb is not a fine motor skill.

However, I do think we're in danger of drifting into a "real-world gunfighting" discussion here. Probably time to cool it.

I prefer slide lock on empty:

I'm pretty new to the game also, though from what I've learned so far it's that I should plan my run thru a stage so that it won't matter if my slide locks or not, because I'm only reloading when on the move. My XD .45 mags hold 13 and can hold 16 with Arredondo extensions (which I tried with their spring too and locking back is not consistent) I also know there may also be an occasional situation where I may be in the same place and have to fire more than that.

[CHA-LEE]

Is it really that hard to come up with a stage plan that keeps you from shooting your gun dry? No matter if you are shooting to slide lock or empty it is still a waste of time to do it during a stage. You would be better off rearranging your target engagment strategy to keep your mag changes conservative so you never run out of rounds. For example, if a stage has steel that is hard to shoot account for 2 rounds on each steel target, then set a reload point not long after the steel regardless of how many rounds you still have in the mag. Its a lot easier to implement a position based mag change strategy and end up dumping extra rounds left in the magazine verses counting your shots and trying to do an unexpected mag change when you run out. The only time I will shoot my gun to empty is if the last round is for the last shot on the last target and I don't have to do a mag change during the whole stage. In that situation I will still have an emergency reloading point set somewhere in the stage in the event that I have to take an extra shot. Keep in mind that you can do things a lot faster when you expect it to happen. If you keep blasting until you run out, you won't expect it and your recovery will be at least 2 - 3 times longer than if you were expecting it. If you are shooting a stage that should be shot in 10 seconds and you waste 2 seconds trying to recover from an unextected slide lock condition you are wasting 20% of the stage time. Thats a big punch to the gut when your hit factor gets tallied. To each their own though. This is a game of trial an error with instant feedback as to what was the right or wrong way of doing things. So it shouldnt take many times of doing it the wrong way before you realize its really the wrong way.