From: bercov@bevsun.bev.lbl.gov (John Bercovitz)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Dropping slide on empty chamber
Date: 19 Aug 92 18:42:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: bevsun.9208191721.AA06979
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, California

In article <1992Aug19.052052.20459@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au> ghm@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Geoff Miller) writes:

#pauly@netcom.com (Paul Yoshimune) writes:

##Well, here's what Bill Wilson has to say about dropping the slide on an
##empty chamber:
##.... If the hammer doesn't follow--that is, ride down to the half-
##cock notch when the slide falls on an empty chamber--the first time, it will
##after you drop the slide three or four more times!  If you do this, what you
##have done is ruin your new trigger job.  Period.  Wasted money."

##"The gun was not designed to withstand dropping the slide on an empty chamber
##without the trigger being held back.  There is never any reason to let a 
##slide slam home on an empty chamber.  It not only destroys your expensive
##trigger job, but it batters the barrel lugs and the breech face and is, in
##general, very hard on the gun....

[stuff deleted] Geoff Miller:
#....  Now, if Bill Wilson is
#saying that when he has finished modifying a gun it is so fragile that
#it is likely to be put out of action by a perfectly conceivable accident,
#that is no doubt something which all his potential customers will wish to
#consider.  Personally, if I were going to be participating in a competition
#in which rapid loading is required, and hence mistakes become more likely,
#I'd look for a gun which is not quite so vulnerable to accident.

more from Wilson:
#"Look at the way a .45 Colt is meant to operate.  When you fire the gun, before
#you can ever get your finger off the trigger, the slide cycles.  The slide
#cycles while the trigger is held back; everything is disconnected.  You're
#still holding the trigger back when the slide slams home.  That's the way the
#gun is designed"

Wilson's whole argument is mere tautology, isn't it?  Basically what he's
saying over and over is that the gun wasn't designed for dropping the slide
on an empty chamber.  It makes me think he doesn't know what the heck goes
wrong or he's inept at expressing himself.  Regardless, the effect of dropping
the slide is to damage the trigger job.  Doesn't much matter if you have
the job done by Wilson or Clark or anybody else; they'll tell you the same 
thing.  All of these guys are great gunsmiths; I'm just criticising the lack
of a logical, credible explanation.  What we have here is rhetoric.

We all know that dropping the slide on an empty chamber causes the gun
to jump forward and the trigger to activate the sear because the trigger's
mass tries to hold the trigger still when the rest of the gun jumps forward.
That's why dropping the slide can give you an A.D.  My theory as to the
cause of the damage to hammer and sear is that when you drop the slide on
an empty chamber, you're letting the hammer hit the sear more quickly
than usual (slide is at maximum possible speed) while at the same time, the
sear is being moved by the trigger's inertia.  If you do hold the trigger
back, the hammer notch is still hitting the sear at higher than usual speed
which is also not too good for the surfaces.  If anyone has another theory,
I'd sure like to hear it.  Maybe we can come up with the definitive answer.

None of this applies to the standard hammer and sear of the government
model; they have engaging surfaces which have easily three times the area
of the surfaces of a match sear and trigger.  They also have a different
engagement angle which helps.

John Bercovitz     (JHBercovitz@lbl.gov)