Side to side movement of slide of pistol

Most average defense pistols have some slide movement. Way pore than some high end 1911's . Some very tight hand fit pistols have to be shot in and kept cleaner than the average handgun out there . I carry kahrs , they have some wiggle in them vertical and horizontal and still they shoot well as the barrel is tight. My ria can rattle but the barrel to bushing is tight and has a good trigger and is a accurate pistol as the barrel slide and sight don't care if the slide to frame is a little loose.

Have you had any other shooters look at your handgun or talked to the maker.

IMHO Slide to barrel fit is more important to accuracy than slide to frame fit. Your sights are on the slide, and the projectile comes out of the barrel, so it is important that those two line up consistently.

Slide to barrel fit is more important to accuracy than slide to frame fit. Your sights are on the slide, and the projectile comes out of the barrel, so it is important that those two line up consistently.

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Yup!


Slide to frame fit is really only important on fixed barrel pistols where the barrel is fixed to the frame and the sights are on the slide -- its why these guns will generally shoot impressive groups with a Ransom Rest, but never get close to that good off sandbags.

On a normal tilting barrel autoloader, the slide to frame fit is at best a second order effect through the link or cam on the barrel bottom lug affecting the slide to barrel lockup consistency.

If you are threatening to win some 2700 bullseye matches it might be worthwhile to worry about it, but for most of us, the potential decrease in reliability is not worth the possible increase in accuracy.

Can I ask why is it more loose before it is cocked?

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If its a striker fired pistol its because the striker is "grabbing" the frame in a second place via the sear.

On an external hammer fired pistol it'll rattle more when cocked because the hammer will not be pressing on the slide.

It may be tighter with a round chambered. In any event, within reason of course, slide to frame fit doesn't have a big effect on accuracy. The fit of the barrel within the slide gives you most of it.

Since the sights and the barrel have no choice but to follow the slide it really doesn't matter very much.

As the other posters have said: slide to bbl lock up is the key to consistency.
If it wasn't, everyone who owns a P-series Sig would throw them away.
My Sig P239 slide rattles when shaken, but hits POA when fired.

Slide with sights and barrel are locked together until after firing. I would venture to say that your own movement would be way more than any slide/frame movement.