Good point 🤷‍♂️

 

I took a class 2 weeks ago and most of the folks in it were competition shooters- and a number of 2011's in it. I don't recall anyone running guns dry without locking back, even with 22/23 round mags. But maybe they plan well... they all preplan the stages and only reload on the move between shooting stations.

This might be a better question for the competition/gamer forum.

 

If an auto is designed for a last round slide/bolt stop, I'd let it do its job. If not, just keep pulling the trigger until stuff stops exploding out of the barrel

 

Not any different from releasing the slide on an empty chamber.

There are other examples of slides dropping on empty chambers.

Magazines that fail to lock back when empty for example. This could occur many times while shooting and trouble shooting. Or testing ejection of a round with the magazine removed. That might also be performed several times.

Whether any of it matters depends on the gun.

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Just don’t make a habit of slamming the slide shut on a empty chamber on a 19/2011 pistol and don’t slam a cylinder shut on a revolver with the flick of wrist—Hollywood crap no real gun owner does,

 

Not to get too far afield, but I've seen at least two movies in which a character's gunhandling prowess is established by their closing a cylinder with a wrist-flip; people who don't know any better would think that's the way it's supposed to be done by an expert.

 

Is running a mag dry somehow different that releasing the slide on an empty chamber?

Looking at a graph of actual slide velocity, it's actually worse.

When manually dropping the slide, it starts with an initial velocity of zero. When the slide drops during a firing cycle, it rebounds with some starting velocity greater than zero, and therefore impcts with a greater velocity.

The graph was from here:

1911 Slide Speed Analysis | 1911Forum

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If the mags don't lock the slide back I suppose you don't have a choice so it probably doesn't matter. It is a competition gun, shoot it until it breaks and then fix it.

 

I don't understand what kind of 1911 mags do not lock the slide back or why that would be tolerated since repeated slamming of the slide without loading is harmful to the pistol. However, slamming the slide without loading is a legitimate test for proper functioning of the sear/hammer (without following) but its not done frequently.

 

Some competition 2011 mags don't, they give up that feature on the follower to get an extra round or two capacity. All these guys plan their stages and reloads accordingly. Now that I think about it maybe that's why I've never seen a USPSA stage that said load only six rounds and shoot six then reload, sort of like they do in IDPA where you don't use monster mags and are limited to 10-15 rounds.

 

What type of competition requires a 22/23 round mags for a 1911???

Had a 25rd Taylor 'drum' mag years ago.

 

What type of competition requires a 22/23 round mags for a 1911???

Had a 25rd Taylor 'drum' mag years ago.

USPSA, 3Gun, Multi gun

 

Yes, it can be more harsh. Abuse of the sear & wear on the slide stop are accelerated. Competition guns are going to to be higher round count guns, so expect more service/wear overall.

Setting up a no-lock pistol will ensure it won't lock back errantly during mid-CoF, because it can't.
The idea is to reload on the move and always prior to empty anyway.

 

Count rounds, no matter what, you loose a lot of time going to slide lock.
Go to slide lock in a match is almost instantly you loose, just can not make that much time back up......

 

Count rounds, no matter what, you loose a lot of time going to slide lock.
Go to slide lock in a match is almost instantly you loose, just can not make that much time back up......

Exactly. If you are doing it right your slide won't slam on an empty chamber.

 

I asked the same thing of George Smith, back when EGW built my first Limited gun. His answer was "yeah, don't do that."
If you plan your stage properly, you shouldn't run your gun dry.

 

Okay, I see. I've never shot competition and never will, so I never heard of that. In competition, regardless of which sport, many things are done for the competitive edge that a non-competitor would never think of doing.

 

If we are responsible for every round fired, its good to know how many rounds you have.

Competition or not, a person should always know how many rounds he has, or has fired, or has left to fire, how many rounds in the spare mags etc.

 

I think you guys missed the MAIN reason why you should not drop the slide on an empty gun, because it can cause the hammer drops to half cocked and ruin the sear face if the hammer does not have the relief cut (Springfield hammers) due to trigger bounce, especially on guns set up for light trigger pull.

The difference from that and the slide drops when the gun runs empty with a modified mag is you still have the trigger pressed in, and that disconnect the sear from the trigger..

 

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It's also real hard on the lower lugs and slidestop, stops and lower feet cut thin have broke before.