1911, firearm-reloadingI was told that it can damage a 1911 style pistol to release the slide on a loaded chamber by simply pressing the slide-stop release lever. I was instructed to instead pull the slide back by hand and then release it. Is this true? The reason I was given is that when the slide is pulled back by hand the slide-stop release lever slows the slide down a bit.
You’re asking two separate questions here.
#Sending the slide home by pressing the slide-stop It’s called the slide-stop not the slide-release. It’s function is to be pressed up by the floorplate of the empty magazine, locking the slide to the rear to indicate that your pistol has run dry, as well as making it easier to reload the pistol by simply sending the slide forward and not needing a complete stoke of the slide. Can it be used for releasing the slide? Yes it certainly can. Should it be? I’ve been told by many a 1911 gunsmith that it should not be used for releasing. Their reason is that it wears on the rear edge of the stop — the portion of the slide-stop that actually enters the notch in the slide — and if done frequently can lead to either early replacement of this part or failure of the slide-stop to lock back the slide reliably.
The real bottom line for this issue can come down to two things: how often you replace your parts, and what quality of parts you choose to purchase. A slide-stop made from machined bar stock will probably stand up to this just fine. A cheap MIM (metal injection molding) part will not stand up to this nearly as well. As with all things, you get what you pay for.
Other arguments can be made for sending the slide home with a normal slide-racking stroke. First, it helps you maintain a better grip on the pistol. I know plenty of people who don’t have long enough fingers to hit the slide-stop without breaking their grip. This forces them to reacquire a good firing grip before they can resume shooting. Second, it is a fine motor skill. Fine motor skills are accessible under stress. They simply require training. People like to say that when you’re flooded with adrenaline you won’t be able to do small movements, or use fine motor skills, but this is certainly incorrect. Proper trigger control is a very fine motor skill. Even very poor trigger control is a fine motor skill. If you don’t shoot the gun under stress a lot to get these fine motor skills engrained into your mind, you will probably have very little luck doing them efficiently in any stressful situation.
#Sending the slide home on a round in the chamber
Forcing the extractor to jump the rim of the cartridge is bad for the extractor. There is almost never a reason to do this, and the extractor was not designed for it. You will cause unnecessary wear to the extractor and risk causing damage to it if done repeatedly. In the 1911 specifically, the extractor — I should say, the standard extractor as designed by John Moses Browning — is a tuned piece of spring steel. It has a reputation for being occasionally very picky about how you treat it.
There’s really no reason to ever do this. Just put it in a magazine and load it normally. If you have to “+1” a carry gun or use up a single left-over round from the range, just rack a loaded magazine, eject and reload the top round, and reinsert. Or load it from an empty mag normally.
If by a loaded chamber you mean that there’s already a round in the chamber when you send the slide forward, then it doesn’t really matter which method you use to release the slide, either can cause damage (or at least excessive wear and tear) to the extractor. This is sometimes called ‘station house loading’: inserting a round manually into the chamber than dropping the slide. It’s not recommended, especially on guns with external extractors like most 1911s.
Letting the slide slam closed with a cartridge already in the chamber will damage the extractor on most semi-automatic pistols no matter how it is done.
As for the difference between using the slide lock lever or releasing the slide by hand on an empty chamber but loaded magazine, I believe there is little to no difference. There is often much debate about which one is better, some say that a round may not chamber correctly if you use the slide lock rather than pulling the slide by hand because the timing of the slide is different but I’ve got nothing but anecdotes for that.
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