Home 1911 Pistols Empty Chamber Slide Drop – How It Happens

Empty Chamber Slide Drop – How It Happens

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1911: Empty Chamber slide drop how it happens.
1911: Empty Chamber slide drop how it happens.

1911: Empty Chamber Slide Drop – How It Happens

I have noticed a sudden uptick of interest in a video we made a few years ago regarding dropping a slide on an empty 1911 pistol chamber. 

That video discusses what the acton does to a 1911 and at what threshold it becomes an issue. <CLICK HERE FOR THAT VIDEO>

This video is more of a demonstration of how one ends up dropping the slide on an empty 1911 during the normal course of shooting and training.


But since people here probably won’t click that link, let me reiterate again: I do not intentionally drop the slides of 1911s on empty chambers as a manual of arms standard. And I don’t recommend you do either. 

Now with that out of the way, lets get into it:

As much as one tries to not drop the slide on an empty 1911, in reality it happens. Sometimes through malfunction clearance drills, other times just because of user error. 

And if your trigger job immediately fails because of it? Maybe you have too-lite of a trigger job? Too much of any good thing can ultimately end up being a bad thing, right?  Isn’t that a universal truth. So seek a balance between the two. 

Let’s get into a similar example:

Guns are a lot like cars. Static displays in the museum or man cave don’t need as much maintenance as race cars. And just like how race cars have consumables and need to pit every so often, so do working guns. 

The trigger-job on a 1911 is a consumable. How often it needs to come into the pits and be addressed is a reflection of how many laps it gets, how hard those laps are, and how lite and crisp the trigger-job is. 

Don’t want a pistol with a consumable trigger-job? Don’t run a 1911. Get a striker gun. 

Want to run a 1911 and see how good of a shooter you can become with one? Great. Decide right now the balance of trigger-job versus pit visits you can live with. 

 

 

Sincerely, 

Marky

www.John1911.com

“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”

Marky