Slide release lever

[WhiteKnight]

At a recent CCW class, the instructor told us to always "slingshot" the slide manually instead of using the slide release lever. He said that during the stress/adrenaline rush of an actual gunfight, fine motor skills are the first thing to deteriorate (around 115 beats per minute) and thus there is a very strong possibility you will be unable to use the slide release and thus should always rack the slide.

However, shooting the IDPA match at the same gun range that evening, every single shooter I saw (around 30) all used the slide lock lever on their gun during a reload. They said they had no idea why anyone would every simply rack the slide.

I asked the instructor about it the next day, and he reclarified about the motor skills and then added that out of all the pistols that come with a slide lock lever, all but one call it a slide lock lever and the one oddball actually calls it the slide release.

What are your views on this? Should a slide release/lock be used to chamber a round (non-tactical reload) during a defensive shooting scenario? Or is it just to add speed during a shooting game?

 

[c_yeager]

Well, i was taught to always grab the slide to release. It seems like the best way to do it for me simply because i have a hard time comfortably getting my thumb up to the slide release lever. I do it more now out of habit than anything.

However i don't do the actual "slingshot" method. It seems to me that that requires nearly as much in the way of motor skills as hitting the button. I always did the "overhand" method and grabbed the whole top of the slide.

Really, all told i don't think any one way is "better' than another. Just pick a method that you like and ALWAYS do the same thing and you should be fine.

 

[1911Tuner]

Release

Whenever I hear the word "Always" I do a and understand
that I'm dealing with an armchair commando. There's nothing that you can
count on "always" being able to do in a kill/be killed situation....including
getting a two-hand grip on the gun or having time to align the sights.

To make using the slidestop pad to release the slide less fumble-prone,
just reach for it with your left thumb as you slam in a fresh magazine. Your thumb is already in position, and the firing grip on the gun is nearly established as the magazine goes home. Faster than trying to find it with your right thumb, and you don't have to shift the pistol in your hand in order to reach it, and no need for a silly extended release pad which can
cause premature slidelock.

Rather than slingshot the slide, practice also the overhand release. It
teaches you to wipe a stovepipe jam out of the port and rack the slide in one motion. Neat...and the gun points where you're lookin'. Stick an
empty case in the port for a more realistic malfunction drill.

Practice releasing the slide by wiping the pad against a shoe or a knee...
Careful! Might wanna practice that move with snap-caps a few hundred
times before ya go hot with it.

Practice firing from the hip or from waist-level with one hand while backing up. Chances are that you'll have to shoot while fending off a knife or blunt weapon attack. If the gun rewards you with a limp-wrist stoppage, get it fixed. If it requires a solid, two-hand grip to function reliably, you can't trust it because there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get that perfect grip.

Imagine all sorts of situations and scenarios...especially anything that can go wrong. Murphy is everywhere!

Luck!

Tuner

 

[Old Fuff]

Ah now ... Some excellent and practical advise. But Tuner hasn't made any friends among those that make and sell extended slide releases/locks.

The advantage in theory of using the "slingshot" method is that if the slide's pulled all of the way back it gets more and faster runup when it goes forward to pick up and strip the cartridge out of the magazine. Is this necessary? Well if you've loaded your pistol up with plastic buffers on the recoil spring guide, have one of the sub-sub-sub compacts with a short slide and Micky Mouse recoil spring system, or a full-sized gun with a light recoil spring ... well it might be. Otherwise release the slide in the manner Tuner suggested.

Two other things ....

The game players are not especially good role models for actual combat. The environment and hopefully the equipment will be entirely different.

To get it right, practice ... practice ... practice.

 

[Ktulu]

I was also trained to grab the top of the slide to release it from slidelock. Something about stress and motor skills. I heard both sides of the argument and frankly, I don't care anymore.

Do to habit I rack the slide every time. It doesn't take that much longer. I've won many an IDPA match doing it against a class and division of guys that use the slide LOCK to release the slide.

Whichever method you choose do as Old Fuff says and practice, practice, practice.

 

[1911Tuner]

Practical Advice

Grumpy Old Fuff said:


But Tuner hasn't made any friends among those that make and sell extended slide releases/locks.
____________________________

Nor among those who market full-length guide rods, shock buffers, recoil reducers, 8-round magazines, +P ammunition, and various insundry other bells, whistles and Bling-Bling that some folks are convinced that they need because it was on the cover of a gun rag and had the word "Tactical" attached to it....but I digress. THEY know the truth...
"What's that for?" "Why...to SELL, of course!"


The truth of the matter is that Old Fuff is my evil twin who has
dispatched an A-10 for the purposes of runnin' me out of my bunker
and doin' me in.

Mama always liked me best!

Cheers!

TUner

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

It would seem using the slide release method would be a more positive way as you are forcing the lock out of the way----slingshot method you are counting on the lock to drop out of the way for you.

 

[C.R.Sam]

1911 "type" guns

Nuther reason for pullin the slide back to ready it.

Have seen a number of very low round count guns, mostly stainless, that had the slide stop notch in the slide badly buggered from using the stop as a release.

Have not seen that problem on a real 1911 or 11A1 and they were part of my tool kit for quite a few years.

Sam

 

[1911Tuner]

More

All things considered, it's probably best not to let the gun go dry if at
all possible. It takes time to discover that the gun is empty, and time to react to that. Time is something that we don't have when the game is real.
When you allow the gun to go dry, you're forced to reload on the gun's
say so...When you reload with the slide in battery on a hot chamber, you're doing it at your own choosing...and that's always faster.

Add the fact that it's one more function that has been known to fail...and
a gun going to battery empty would use up even more critical time to
get back into the fight. TIME...is the issue. TIME is something that we just don't have. A half-second can and often does determine who goes home and who winds up on a slab.

I tune the slidelock function to work every time...and then I ignore it.

Luck!

Tuner

 

[MrAcheson]

I have been using the slide release, but I often run into trouble because its not in the same place on different guns. Its worse on larger pistols because it can be somewhere I just can't reach comfortably with just my shooting hand. The slide is always in the same place. The serations are basically in the same place too. Plus I have the added benefit of reducing wear on the release/stop/etc.

 

[Jim K]

Well, I always called that "thingy" the slide stop for the silly reason that that is what the JMB and the makers call it. Nice to have new names, though, just to confuse folks.

The main reason so many people shy from using it to release the slide is that they think the slide and/or the stop will wear out. That may be true with alloy guns or on some guns with soft parts made from recylced Bud cans, but should not be true of properly hardened steel parts. FWIW, I insert the fresh mag and slap it with the left hand while thumbing the slide stop at the same time. Faster than moving the left hand around to grab the slide.

Edited to add: Of course, some pistols (e.g., Luger) don't have an external slide stop; with those, the slide/breechblock has to be retracted to release the stop. Others have only a very small or poorly positioned slide stop, so again, grabbing the slide is easier than trying to find the stop.

Jim

 

[Walt Sherrill]

I've seen subsequent studies that argue that PULLING THE TRIGGER IS A FINE MOTOR SKILL, TOO, yet that doesn't keep some folks from firing accurately when under an adrenaline surge! Some of the studies, including a supervised one a few years back (in Gun World?) had folks get pumped up on injected adrenalie (under a doctor's supervision) and go at it.

Grabbing the slide requires, it turns out, just about as much dexterity and fine motor skills as does flipping a slide stop. But...

With some hands and some guns, the shooter might find that SLING-SHOOTING is more practical.

With other hands or guns, the shooter might find that using the OFF HAND (since its in the area anyway, from having just reloaded a mag) could work, too.

In shooting IDPA, I've found that I can use my off hand to release the slide more quickly and surely than I can sling-shot. And using the slide release with my gun hand doesn't work for me -- perhaps my hand is unusually shaped, but I've only got one gun that lets me easily work all the controls without changing my grip. (A Glock 34...)

Using the OFFHAND is, for me, faster, and the gun doesn't move as FAR from a potential target as it does when I use the sling-shotting technique or try it using the slide stop/release lever.

Others, no doubt, will get different results.

 

[Old Fuff]

I have noticed the same thing that CR Sam mentioned - namely that the slide stop notch on the slide gets messed up on (some) stainless slides, and when that happens the only good solution may be to replace the slide.

Prior to the introduction of "hard slides" commercial Colt and USGI slides were spot hardened around the notch, and as Sam said, they didn't wear out.

 

[C. H. Luke]

"What are your views on this? Should a slide release/lock be used to chamber a round (non-tactical reload) during a defensive shooting scenario? Or is it just to add speed during a shooting game?"

Personally never pay attention to what's faster for IDPA & have shot lots of their Matches.

Since most clearance drills are best done with "hand over" on the slide prefer to keep it the same if need to jack a round into the chamber in general.
If required to shoot to slide-lock in a gun game think it's no big deal to release the slide with the lever. {Am left handed and have to come up underneath the gun to hit the release}
Most important point tactically, is that a speed reload should be done "at the point" no matter which way you prefer. The "IPSC" style of rotating the gun to right in your face is NG at all tactically.

That instructor is all wet on gross motor skills. More likely to "miss" with the slingshot tech. under stress than grasping rear of slide with entire palm.

 

[KMKeller]

I use an overhand release to drop the slide. It's what sort of naturally fell upon me and what I used instinctively. Instinctive is the best for me.

 

[9x19]

Walt has is right, if your fine motor skills are so far gone that you can't depress a slide release, your chances of manipulating a trigger are apt to be compromised as well.

Train in whatever way works best for you, and under stress, you'll likely perform the same way. Competing in IDPA or IPSC can help you decide what works best for you, as both will add a small amount of stress to your practice sessions.

 

[1911Ron]

I use the overhand method to release the slide, learned that in the millitary and do it at work and home.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

if it weren't meant to be used, it wouldn't be serrated.

 

[rebbryan]

so my fine motor skills will be deteriorated to the point of where i can't hit a slide stop, but they're somehow good enough to hit the even smaller mag release? please. i can hit it just fine on my xd and it's more natural for me, so i'll be doing it slide stop. do what works for you, as people are designed differently. i don't walk, eat, or talk the same way you do because i'm different, it wouldn't make since for me to walk like you when i naturally walk the way i do and there's no problem with it.

as for the motor skills thing i think it's bs. my motor skills are fine after awaking from a deep sleep by an alarm and riding down the road in a big red truck on the way to a working fire while trying to get my gear on so i don't become a crispy critter and listening to dispatch. but then again, i may be fine while someone else is not.

 

[slim whitman]

Hello everyone -

I am no professional but have run pistols for quite awhile.

Slingshot, overhand, slide "stop" - used them all at one time or another.

A couple of observations:

As one person already said here, pulling the trigger is a fine motor skill in itself; dropping the slide by thumbing the lever should be no harder to execute.

Overhand always ran my palm against sights, or caught my sleeve on the rear sight.

Slingshot works well, and puts more "meat" of the hand on the slide versus overhand.

Just a shooter and sometimes a competitor. I use the extended slide stop on my Glocks. When the mag slams home, the slide goes forward. I know that I drop the slide with my shooting thumb, but I do it so reflexively I don't notice doing it.

To each his/her own. Great thing about forums like this is that we can learn from one another. Also, a good shooter will know different ways to do the same thing. Remain flexible, or you will break, so to speak.

SW

 

[Schmit]

I teach people not to use their slide stop and to come over the top and rack the slide. I do this to reinforce clearing stoppages.

1 - Mis-Fire - Tap mag, rack slide, Bang.

2 - Stove Pipe clearing - Rack slide while swipping stove pipe case out.

3 - Mag change - Tap mag in, rack slide, bang.

They all involve the exact same motions... and as they say, "Repetition is the spice of life!"... or something like that.

 

[joab]

If fine motor skills are impaired, wouldn't that increase the likelyhood that you would ride the slide instead of slingshotting it causing the round not to properly go into battery.
The more impaired I am usually the simpler I like things to be, just seems natural to me to release the slide stop since my hand is already there

 

[El Tejon]

I train to use an overhand motion to rack the slide, not the weaker Robin Hood bow and arrow thingy. It works for all guns, and no one promised me that I would be fighting with my gun. Heck, I don't want to fight at all.

Now, lean in close, this is a secret, sometimes, I hit the slide release.

Schmit, I thought it was "repitition is the mother of skill"? Oh, well, doesn't apply to me because I have common sense and do not need to train.