From: well!garbanzo!jimbo@apple.com (Jim Bianchi)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Dropping slide on empty chamber
Date: 19 Aug 92 23:43:54 GMT
Organization: Garbanzo BBS, (707) 529-1279, Santa Rosa, CA


# In article <rani.713990042@barsoom> rani@barsoom.nhh.no (Ragnar Nielsen) writ
# 
# #In a fit of thoughtlessness, I managed to abuse my friend's Browning HP
# #in the above mentioned fashion at the range today, whereupon a bystander
# #offered the following enlightenment:
# #-'What you just did equals at least 1000 shots' worth of wear to the gun.'
# #I am fully aware that dropping the slide on an empty chamber is a no-no,
# #but I'm curious to the REAL amount of wear it contributes.

bercov@bevsun.bev.lbl.gov (John Bercovitz) writes:
# Well, the first thing to do is to ask the bystander to cite his sources. 
# This'll give him something to do.  8-)

     [stuff deleted]

# In conclusion, I don't think this error is as serious as many people say it
# is, but I still wouldn't do it as a regular practice.

     I was early on told this about autoloading handguns and rifles, and 
relatedly about dry firing .22 rimfire arms. On the latter, what was 
s'posed to happen was the chisel pointed firing pin would directly strike 
the face of the bbl (the part which would otherwise be supporting the rim 
of the ctg) and cause an indentation there. The story went that, were one 
to continue this practice of dry firing a rimfire arm, fairly quickly the 
firing pin would dig itself a hole in the face, with the result that the 
rim of a ctg would no longer be supported there; not being firmly support- 
ed, at firing time the rim would bend instead of presenting a firm surface 
to the impacting firing pin, possibly resulting in a misfire.

     Howsomever -- sitting down one day with my Ruger 10/22 (bought when 
the total price (including sling, cleaning kit and a box of 50 ctgs) was 
$85) I realised that, on an empty mag (last shot fired), the bolt does not 
stay open. My Dads Ruger red label .22 handgun didn't either. I've fired 
quite a few rimfires since that time and on none of them does the bolt stay 
open after the last shot. Nope. The bolt slams forward (!) and the user 
pulls the trigger and gets >click< for his efforts (!). Now you can't tell 
me that every .22 rimfire mftr inna world depends on users counting rounds 
to determine when to stop pulling the trigger. And were there any overrid-  
ing truth to the statement that "unrestricted forward progress of the bolt 
or slide will damage the internal workin's" you'd kinda expect it to show 
up in cheaply build rimfire arms first. And if some mftr had a design that 
prevented this kind of damage, don't you think he'd advertise it to his own 
products benefit?

     John mentioned a gunsmith dropping the slide to test a trigger job. I 
once fitted a trigger shoe to a 1911a1. The hammer would "follow" the slide 
forward (stopping at the "half cock" notch) every time the slide was rele- 
ased. The inertia of the shoe would cause the gun to "fire." Removal of the 
shoe eliminated the problem. A gunsmith showed me this -- by dropping the 
slide with and without the shoe.

     While violent metal<=>metal contact -- as in the two above cases -- is 
definitely to be avoided, I rather doubt the tale that "..letting the slide 
run home on an empty chamber is worth 1,000 rounds of wear." Fifty or a 
hundred rounds, I can have ..a thousand, no way.


     --
     jimbo@garbanzo.UUCP (Jim Bianchi)
     Garbanzo BBS, (707) 529-1279, Santa Rosa, CA