rbernie-- i am unable to cycle the slide as you describe without regard of the guide rod length.
can you please elaborate?
Sure.
Stand in front of a table or counter or doorframe or any other hard surface. Kitchen counters work best for learnin', so we'll start with that. Hold your traditional 1911 (no extended dust cover or FLGR) in either hand with the barrel parallel to the countertop. Place the flat front of the slide - that section just below the muzzle of the barrel, where the guide rod plug sits - against the side of the countertop with the barrel just peeking out over the top of the counter and push forward. You want to push the frame forward
under the slide, with the slide solidly jammed up against the hard surface, until the frame's dust cover hits the hard surface that's pinning the front of the slide. The dimensions of things are calculated such that you can completely run the slide to the rear in this fashion, both clearing the chamber and getting the breechface behind the top round in the magazine so that it can pick up a fresh round on its way into battery.
This takes a bunch of words to describe, but it's insanely simply to do. I can do it using the heel of my sneakers, or just about any edged surface that I can find. I often do press checks using the base of my index finger on my weak hand as the 'edge' and slightly pushing the slide back with the off hand and pushing forward a wee bit with the strong hand.
If there's a guide rod sticking out of this flat front of the slide - you can't do it. If the dust cover is too long - it won't work. To the best of my knowledge, only the stock 5" 1911 and BHP have this capability. (The CZ75 comes close, but the dust cover is a wee bit too long and the slide won't go far enough rearward to pick up a new round..)
This method of running a pistol with one hand is a
whole lot easier than trying to hook a rear sight or someothersuchthing...