Rack the slide or use the slide stop lever?

[Feanaro]

The lever is there to stop the slide when the mag runs dry, hence the label "slide stop lever".

Someone better tell the Army that they got it wrong 70 years ago. Because I see, right on page 11 of FM 23-25, "If the slide is open push down the slide stop to let the slide go forward".

Why is there a lever at all? You could just as easily make an internal slide stop that couldn't be worn down by the end user. The argument, of course, is that you can lock the slide open manually. But I haven't seen many slide stops with checkering/serrations on the bottom. Lots on the top though. Is it that hard to accept that both are valid?

 

[pbonebright]

Hate to beat a dead horse but one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that - similar to the slide cycling after a shot - the firmness of the grip has as much to do with going solidly into battery as the tension of the spring. I would say whatever you can do with the strongest hold on the gun is best. That said, I shoot both lefty and righty, so I try to get in the habit of racking it.
PB

 

[Bix]

I've got a kind of interesting reason for choosing one over the other, so I guess I'll share:

I started out using the lever, without much concern over fine motor skills or parts wear because it was -for me- much faster than overhanding. However, every now and then, when I was trying to hit a reload at max speed (usually during a qual at class or a match), I would find myself snapping an empty chamber immdiately after a reload.

After working through the problem for some time, I discovered that I was, occassionally, tripping the slide release an instant before the magazine was fully seated during the reload. The slide would zip home without a round to strip, and I would attempt to engage the target with a Condition Three firearm. No fun. Incidentally, this was all happening so fast that I could not tell the difference between a reload that got the mag seated in time and one that did not.

So, I switched to overhanding because -for me- it is more reliable. I recognize that this is a training issue. But it seems that my brain can sometimes run that operation out-of-sequence under a bit of artificial stress, so I don't do it.

 

[brickeyee]

The 1911 patent issued to JMB calls out the use of the lever and pad to chamber the next round.

 

[Rob Pincus]

I hope you guys aren't trusting medical advice from the the middle ages along with those old army manuals, etc.....