1911 - Letting The Slide Slam Home On An Empty Chamber

[QKShooter]

Is this THE MOST BORING 1911 Video you've ever seen?
Will you be able to suffer through its entirety.

QKShooter FYI
Actually MANY YEARS AGO I DID call Colt Firearms on the phone & spoke with one of the "higher ups" at Colt regarding the issue of allowing the Colt slide to slam home on an empty chamber.

I did that because (at that time) there was much debate and controversy as to if doing that would damage the firearm "in ANY way"....or not.

Some Colt Pistol Owners (back then) who paid good hard earned money for their little Colt babies would absolutely CRINGE if they inadvertently allowed their pistol slide to slam home on an empty chamber & they would actually kick themselves in the ass for doing it.

And they would post...OMG! Did I damage My Pistol!?!

So I decided to call Colt and end the debate "one way or the other" - Here is what I was told by two respected folks that actually make them.

The word that I got directly from the COLT HORSEYS mouth and also from one of the Colt Technical People is: That with a COLT manufactured 1911 that has a Colt Factory sear, hammer, trigger, disconnecter etc....feel free to slam away until you turn blue doing it.

It will not "batter the slide or frame" or harm the pistol in any way, shape, or form.

If you have a pistol that sports a gunsmith modified, highly tuned, lightened, competition trigger job done on your pistol then you might want to consider not doing it for that reason alone but, nothing will be harmed at all by doing it to a factory COLT.

That having been said - there remains some lingering (and pretty much unfounded) and non-reality based stigma attached to doing that - so it still considered to be disrespectful to do it to any 1911 pistol that you do not personally own.

So do not ask somebody if you can handle their 1911 and then slam the slide home on an empty chamber.

My personal 1911s are all Colt & while I don't make a practice of doing it...I don't give it even a passing thought if I ever do.

But, the bottom line "lesson learned: here should be; Don't cringe if your slide slams home on an empty chamber...(some folks DO) AKA - your pistol can handle it.

The 1911 has been through every major war & world conflict right up until today & somehow it has managed to survive that extreme use and total abuse.

Slamming the slide home on an empty chamber is part of the proper "function check" of every 1911 pistol anyway.
It is done to make sure that the hammer does not jump the sear and follow the slide.

Video Of 500 Slide Slams In A Row Proof Positive that some folks don't have anything better to do with their time.
Now this was a Kimber that this guy was using & it survived just fine.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[OldVet]

I think if it were really a problem there would be a lot more discussion on it. Nice of the Colt folks to tell you, more or less, "Go for it."

[JohnLeVick]

Credible advice from modern Colt personnel? Hmmm... On a Glock, no problem. Springfield XD? Slam away. On a Colt or BHP, if you don't mind ruining your trigger job or experiencing hammer-follow, go ahead. This question was answered definitively about 40 years ago, and it was not the answer Colt gave the OP recently. I do recall a column by Ross Seyfried in Guns and Ammo back in about 1981 or '82, wherein Ross said that to test sear engagement in a recently customized 1911 competion gun, he'd dry-drop the slide ten times to be sure that the hammer would not follow. 1911 smiths all over the country about swallowed their tongues. Will it always induce problems? Obviously not. Will it ruin a good trigger job? You betcha. Given the horrendous triggers with double the correct amount of sear/hammer hook engagement and sear springs from hell I've seen on recent Colts, I guess it's no surprise that Colt would give that advice.

[Mr7point62]

hmmmm, thats weird, Lima has a video posted on Youtube where she emailed Wilson Combat and they told her not to do it without a load because it could damage a piece and cause the 1911 to basically go into full auto mode....
so who is right? Colt or Wilson Combat?

[QKShooter]

I just love it when folks comment & reply in one of my threads without reading my original post.

[buckeye .45]

I'd never even heard of that before, since all my 1911's are stock, without any fancy trigger jobs, I take it they should be okay then.

EDIT: Springfield Armory's 1911 manual says this on the issue:
Notice: The slide of a 1911-A1 pistol should never
be released on an empty chamber; especially one
which has had an action job. Releasing the slide on
an empty chamber causes damage to the breech
face on the barrel and undue stress on all action
parts, including the hammer and the sear. This will
ruin the action job performed on your pistol.

[Sleipnir]

The way JMB designed it the 1911 is nigh indestructible; it's when people started tightening up all the tolerances by a factor of ten as well as all the customizing people did that issues like these arose.

[OPFOR]

That this is even - or ever has been - a question in the first place makes me....think. And...not good things.

[C hawk Glock]

QK,

Thank you for the post! I don't do this as it's been burnt into my brain, but having watched a Kimber do 500 slide drops in a row I feel pretty comfortable about my Colt's. Heck that means a Colt could handle about 50,000 slide drops!

[QKShooter]

What prompted this thread was an older post on another forum that I read last week.
I am not advocating that members sit around all day and repeatedly drop the slide on their 1911.

Only that if you do...don't lose any sleep over it & don't post a thread...Just wondering if I damaged my Colt. ??!?? <~~~

[OD*]

No good deed goes unpunished, QK.

[Sarge45]

Won't be happening on my Colt. I did this once at a match and found the inner lug on my slide stop broke right off. Coincidence ? Dunno, but no more for me.

[Drail]

The gentleman who posted the video on youtube titled 500 slide drops is shall we say, misinformed and wrong. I say this after having had a conversation with him and watching all his other ridiculous posts. What he is doing in the video is not "dropping the slide". Because he quite simply has no idea how a 1911 works he has decided that his opinion must be right and he will call you names and insult you all day and all night if you attempt to explain it to him. Youtube is full of "experts" like this guy. Regarding dropping the slide on any 1911 (Colt or other), there is absolutely no intelligent reason to ever do this and it will accelerate wear on the barrel lugs and slide stop. If you want to do it to your gun, go right ahead. If you do it to someone else's gun the chances are very good you will be asked to leave and never return. It is exactly like slamming the door on a nice car as HARD as you can. It may not break the first time you do it but it will do damage eventually and there no intelligent reason to slam it that hard. Don't be that guy. My opinion on this subject is from building National Match 1911s since 1989. When we sold a gun to a customer we would explain to them that they shouldn't drop the slide on empty and why. And some of them would do it anyway. Guess which guns were brought back in with peened and broken parts or hammers that started following? So if you insist on abusing your gun, it is definitely your right ot do so but you can't say nobody warned you. I am very surprised and find it hard to believe that Colt claims it to be harmless.

[QKShooter]

"and it will accelerate wear on the barrel lugs and slide stop."

Just FYI. - Your statement is incorrect.
On a properly fit 1911 barrel the barrel lugs should barely even contact the slide stop pin when the slide is in the fully forward position.
Nothing should bear heavily and there should be no force at all exerted on the barrel link, the link pin, or the barrel lugs, or on the SS Pin.
If the barrel lugs impact or bear on the the pin with any force at all then either the barrel lugs will deform or break...or the slide stop pin will break or bend or the link break will during the course of normal shooting even if you never drop the slide on an empty chamber.

[OPFOR]

Seriously? This is a real concern? I mean...I'm far from a 1911 guru, but really?!?! I can't imagine introducing a design to day and saying "here you go, I've got this great, super-durable, ultimate fighting handgun...but make sure you don't let the slide go forward or it might not work...."

I am seriously flabbergasted on this one, I must say.