[1911luver]

I have a colt 1991A1 that I showed to a friend today (after unloading it ofcourse) and he proceeded to let the slide slam closed on an empty chamber twice and dry fired it once,afterwhich I took it from him and told him sternly not to to this to my gun. My question is is it likely that this damaged my gun at all? I know I might be a bit anal here but I don't trat my guns like this and don't like it when others do. Needless to say he won't be handling my guns any time soon again I thought he had more sense than this but I'am still pretty heated over it.

 

[Custom-guy]

I think you cool, I wouldn't make it a habit but if a 1911 can't take that, that in itself would be sad. I would just be careful who you let paw your hardware and if you are allowing this again and are unsure of their sence or experiance with guns or better yet 1911s I would politely explain how you would like to see them handle your weapon in the future!

 

[Greyson]

I am not real big on dropping the slide on a empty chamber on purpose.
But in the short term no worries. Dry firing on will not hurt your 1911. The firing pin
has shoulders on it that take the impact.

I learned that, guess where? 1911forum.com!

Regards,
Greyson

 

[dsk]

How often do think slides got slammed on the old Army .45's? A lot!

I agree it is abusive and might damage something if you do it all the time, but to freak out over it happening once or twice is ridiculous.

 

[DHart]

I agree... no harm that being done a few times here or there... but I would do what I could to prevent or limit the times that such a thing happens to one of my 1911's.

 

[Chuck S]

Letting the slide slam closed may damage a highly customized, modified, weanie, national match pistol but will not harm the pistol otherwise.

Dry firing does no harm whatsoever.

These are tools and are designed and built to take normal use. This is normal use.

Immediate action clearing drills let the slide slam closed all the time. Attend any good training course and you'll do this dozens of times over a 3 day weekend and hundreds over a week.

-- Chuck

 

[1911luver]

Thanks guys for the replies I guess like dsk said it was a bit ridiculous for me to get bent over this. But truth be told I was having a very bad day yesterday and that was just the trigger (no pun intended) lol for my reaction. I did hit him with a barage or profanity that I won't repeat here for fear of being banned lol,stay safe all.

 

[rimfire22]

I have a colt 1991A1 that I showed to a friend today (after unloading it ofcourse) and he proceeded to let the slide slam closed on an empty chamber twice and dry fired it once,afterwhich I took it from him and told him sternly not to to this to my gun. My question is is it likely that this damaged my gun at all? I know I might be a bit anal here but I don't trat my guns like this and don't like it when others do. Needless to say he won't be handling my guns any time soon again I thought he had more sense than this but I'am still pretty heated over it.

1911luver,

I've read that it's OK once in a while. To drop ones slide like that is considered hard on the pistol but is accepted about once a year when you want to check your hammers sear to see if it follows to half cock. If that happens then the hammer sear is worn too much and needs replacement. ONLY then should this practice be done. I mean why do it when you don't have too? You did right by removing it from him and telling him that it's a no no!!!! Your pistol just became a learning tool. Don't get to heated over it dude. Just don't allow ignorate people to handle your stuff unless your sure that they know what their doing.

rimfire,22

 

[halvey]

No harm done to the gun.

 

[Mike'sgooddeal]

Sounds a lot like a new car. Spinning the tires on a test drive probably won't hurt anything, but the next owner will have a different opinion. Do it enough and there will eventually be problems.

If you bought the gun to carry and shoot, don't sweat the small stuff.

If you bought the gun to be a museum piece, then sure every little nick and wear mark affects things.

Take your friend to the range, teach him proper gun handling and let him shoot a couple of boxes on your nickel. You'll both be happier in the end.

 

[Black Majik]

No real harm over 2 times of the slide slamming home.

But... for some reason I'm convinced non gun owners/shooters drop the slide on a gun to show that they do know that lowering the slidestop would drop the slide, as if thats suppose to impress me or something.

The gun owners I know always ride the slide back home, but all the non-gun owners, first thing they do drop the slide since I hand the gun to them action open.

This is after I've checked & cleared the gun. So now no one sees my firearms unless they're going to the range with me.

 

[dsk]

I assume most non-gun people want to see the gun in the "ready for action" mode. For that reason I always clear mine, pull the trigger to show it's not loaded (hey look, see? No "bang"!), and then let them handle it.

 

[WhyteP38]

The only warning I've heard about dropping the slide is when you manually load one round into the chamber and then drop the slide. I've heard that doing so will break your extractor ... maybe first time, maybe eventually. During my IDPA days, after completing every stage we routinely cleared the weapon, dropped the slide on an empty chamber, and then dry fired to ensure the weapon was indeed empty. That's a minimum of five times for each match.

As for dry firing, I attended a session with the Army Marksmanship Unit about two years ago, and those guys said that you can eventually bung up a trigger job if you keep pulling the hammer back and then pulling the trigger. (I'm no gunsmith, so I don't know why that would be.) The method the AMU guys recommended was to a) pull the trigger and hold it, b) pull the hammer back, c) release the trigger, and then d) dry fire. That's how I practice dry firing.

 

[pyunker45]

May I say you should issue verbal instructions before you allow persons to handle your firearms....its your firearm, you can do that....

 

[DHart]

what pyunker45 said! I never hand a firearm to anyone without covering a few critical bases first, including what's not ok to do with the gun and what is.

 

[ken_mays]

The only warning I've heard about dropping the slide is when you manually load one round into the chamber and then drop the slide. I've heard that doing so will break your extractor ... maybe first time, maybe eventually.

I have a beater 1911 I do this with every chance I get. I'm curious to see what happens more than anything else. If the cheap cast extractor breaks at some point or loses tension, I will at least learn that much, and then I'll also have an excuse to replace the part with a decent spring steel version.