Can you get the slide to close by slamming in a mag?

[MrIzhevsk]

Hey all, just spent the evening tinkering with one of my magazines, I fixed the existing problem (base pad would slide out of place when being seated) but while testing this, I noticed that I could get the slide to slam shut when I put a new magazine in.

Now, first off, the force with which I was seating this magazine was probably well over the amount of force I would ever really use to put in a new magazine. The magazine also had a snap cap in the top, I wonder if I am jarring the frame/slide enough to get the slide to close.

Can anybody do this with their auto-loaders? I have a feeling that I'm just defeating the design of the slide lock with brute force, rather than encountering a problem.

Edit---
I also noticed I can slap the bottom of the magwell pretty hard and get the slide to close on an empty chamber/no magazine. Yet I decided to try this on the 1911 and I can't seem to do it.

 

[Rail Driver]

My Glock does this reliably (IE every time I seat a mag with authority). I like it, though I do not rely on it. My 1911 does not do this unless I hold the pistol "just so" and really ram it home.

 

[Dobe]

I have a feeling that I'm just defeating the design of the slide lock with brute force, rather than encountering a problem.

Correct. Every HK I own will do this, especially if I tilt the handgun to its side when slamming the mag.

While this will work many times, it's not something I would practice, simply because the one time you would count on it, it wouldn't work.

 

[MrIzhevsk]

While this will work many times, it's not something I would practice, simply because the one time you would count on it, it wouldn't work.

This is the reason for my concern, I still don't rely on it while I'm practicing my magazine reloads, I don't want to have to worry about a slipped up motion, like trying to grab the top of the slide when it isn't there because it's already forward.

 

[Dobe]

You should consider using the slide release for many reasons, one of which is that if the slide does fall upon slamming a mag, you will not loose any time reaching for something that is not there.

 

[JayPee]

I'm a retired LEO with a background in police firearms training. In our training with the auto pistol we were taught never to really slam home a loaded magazine during a reload with the slide locked back out of battery. The reason is that when a magazine is slammed home with enough force, the top round has been known to stand straight up in the magazine and prevent the slide from closing, giving you a time-consuming jam to clear before the festivities can continue.

Now if the situation is bad enough to require a reload in the first place, this phenomenon can get you killed. Worse yet, incidents like this have occurred in which the top round jumped completely out of the pistol and the second round in the magazine stood straight up. So now you not only have a peachy jam to clear, but you've lost two rounds in the process.

You fellows do as you please, but I'll stick with fast and firm insertion and locking of the magazine followed immediately by manual release of the slide. Police firearms training in many venues teaches that in inserting the new magazine, the hand should never leave the magazine. No Tom Selleck/Mike Hammer half insertions followed by a hard slam are allowed.

Generally speaking, my experience with recoiling firearms is that when you force the gun to do something it was not designed to do in order to speed things up, you usually won't. I believe all of this falls under the general heading of "unintended consequences."

JayPee

 

[MrIzhevsk]

^

I agree with this, I don't insert the mag halfway, then take a second swing, I just noticed that while trying to seat the magazine hard enough to dislodge the basepad, I could also get the slide to come out of lock and chamber a new round. The reason I was doing it with so much force was to test if I had solved a previous problem, which, thankfully I did!

Like I said, I noticed that the amount of force it took me to get this to happen is well beyond the amount of force I ever would really use to seat a magazine.

 

[Dobe]

The OP wasn't saying he was relying or even attempting this maneuver.

 

[JayPee]

The OP specifically entitled his thread "Can you get the slide to close by slamming in a mag?" I responded to that question by enumerating some serious disadvantages of attempting to do so.

JP

 

[withdrawn34]

Some pistols are designed to do this. From memory, I believe the Beretta 92 will do this, but only if you send the magazine home at an angle. If you send it home at a direct 90 degree angle, the slide will stay put.

My XD does not do this.

It could speed up a reload, but isn't completely necessary. Just one of those things.

 

[Dobe]

I don't believe any auto is "designed" to do this. Many will do this, under the right circumstances.

 

[GLOOB]

Slapping a mag in is ok, if that's your thing. I squeeze the mag home, because I'm strong enough to do it that way.

Besides JayPee's excellent reason for not slamming, here are a couple more:

I prefer to hear/feel the mag click, rather than just hear the slapping sound of a mag that is probably seated.

Plus, the first time you slap an extended mag home with an open slide, you risk breaking off your ejector and/or mag catch.

As for which guns will do this (automatically release slide when slammed)... I think there's a lot of guns that will eventually start doing this. The slide stop notch can and does wear on most guns. They esp take a beating when you're using old mags that don't reliably catch after the last shot.

 

[nwilliams]

My HK45c slide will close on it's own most of the time and if the gun is held at the right angle it doesn't really require you to slam the magazine in very hard. Actually every HK handgun I've ever owned would do this and I can't say I've ever noticed it happen with any other gun other than an HK.

 

[RightCoastBiased]

When I seat the magazine, I do so with a reasonable amount of force. Changing the place where I put that force, I can get the slide to drop and chamber a round. This is on my M&P 45.

 

[Zerodefect]

Glock-rarely
M9- allways
1911-never

 

[bigfatdave]

Some will do it, if you slap the mag in in the (in)correct angle you can bump the slide back a bit and get it off the latch lever, particularly if those two parts are worn.

And there are a lot of reasons to not try to replicate it, jumped rounds, slide closing on nothing leaving you an empty chamber, busted extractor/ejector, bent mag lips, more wear on the slide latch lever/notch, etc etc.

 

[1SOW]

My CZ does it reliably, and I would pay extra for it if it didn't work this way.
I don't have to "hammer" it home, just a good firm insert. I'm well over 30K-maybe 40K- rounds and it has never caused a problem. My son's Shadow does the same since new.

My Sig takes a very firm insert, so I don't use/rely on it.

 

[sigmashooter]

My Sigma .40 does it every time with a firm insert of a full mag. -Swift, singular motion <insert> and the slide chambers the round every time. 1300rds so far ike this. It may not be the 'preferred method', but it works for this model.

 

[ursus100]

I certainly cannot. Shortly after I got my Beretta 92, I watched an episode of "Lock and Load" and saw R. Lee Ermey close the slide on an M9 just by slamming in the magazine. I then tried it on my gun, thinking I had discovered a new feature, but no matter how I slammed in the magazine, or what angle I held the gun, the slide stayed put.

I even replayed the scene several times on my DVR in both slow motion and stop-frame, just to see if I missed something, but R. Lee's finger certainly looked to stay clear of the slide catch. I guess R. Lee just has the knack, or maybe a military M9 with thousands of round behind it is a little looser than a brand new 92.

 

[Apocalypse-Now]

My Glock does this reliably (IE every time I seat a mag with authority). I like it, though I do not rely on it. My 1911 does not do this unless I hold the pistol "just so" and really ram it home.

any auto can do this if mags are jammed in hard enough. stop jamming your mags, this is not a feature. it takes little to no effort to seat a mag with slide open.

saying it's consistent when "you jam it in hard enough" does not mean it's consistent, and is therefore not a feature.

 

[Tokarevsrule]

My m57 tokarev does this, but it cannot jam then because it has controlled feed rails.

 

[Hondo 60]

I'd be concerned about a slam fire if my pistol did that.
So I don't even try.

(and I like my M57 Tokarev enough that it started me lookin at a 1911)

 

[ForumSurfer]

Every glock 17 or 19 I've handled does this if you slam the mag home hard, particularly with the base of your hand on the heel of the mag. If it is a problem, they are all bad.

I occasionally do it when I'm running drills that I'm not used to or pushing myself. I'm really bad for doing it when laying on the ground and changing mags. It has never been a problem as I feel the slide close and just move on. I try not to do it, but under pressure...I guess I just get more forceful with my mag change.

I think it is caused by the polymer frame's flexibility. My 26 doesn't do it, but it is more compact and offers less flex.

I'd be concerned about a slam fire if my pistol did that.

It is no more forceful than releasing the slide. No reason to be concerned with a slam fire.

I then tried it on my gun, thinking I had discovered a new feature, but no matter how I slammed in the magazine, or what angle I held the gun, the slide stayed put.

My buddy swore his 19 would never do this because his was fine and mine was defective. He was trying it with an empty mag. I handed him a magazine with no follower (or throw in a snap cap) and it did it every time he put the mag in hard.

The reason is that when a magazine is slammed home with enough force, the top round has been known to stand straight up in the magazine and prevent the slide from closing, giving you a time-consuming jam to clear before the festivities can continue.

Plus, the first time you slap an extended mag home with an open slide, you risk breaking off your ejector and/or mag catch.

All good reasons not to do it. But as I said, I do it sometimes by mistake under pressure. Stuff breaks and luckily glock parts are all cheap.

I prefer to hear/feel the mag click, rather than just hear the slapping sound of a mag that is probably seated.

When I'm running drills there are a 1000 things running through my mind and I can barely hear the rounds going off, much less the click of a magazine. I can only hear that click when I am shooting for accuracy while standing still and shooting paper or just plinking for fun.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

It depends on the gun, and individual examples thereof. My Glock 19 will not budge the slide under any circumstances no matter how hard I slam the magazine, nor will my CZ PCR. A Kahr E9 I had would almost invariably release the slide with the replacement (factory) slide stop I put in it (I lost the first one), but not with the original. A S&W 5904 (my first autoloading handgun) would do it sometimes. None of these guns ever failed to actually chamber the round. While I regard this as more of a feature than a fault, it is not something to depend on. Always be ready to manually release your slide stop or "slingshot" the slide (whichever you prefer). Finally, while I was planning to reload the gun anyway, I would rather have more control over the process.

 

[smalls]

My sigma does this. I have to use a little more force than you'd normally seat a magazine with, but I don't "beat" it in. Meh, I like this "feature", and it's never caused a problem. I can see it possibly damaging the slide release from repeatedly doing it,, though.