Slingshot or slide release when reloading a 1911?

[Murdock]

Professional instruction in gunfighting I obtained while on active duty taught me to release the 1911 slide by swiping the slide stop when reloading. My understanding is that many schools now teach "slingshotting" of the slide with the non-firing hand as the preferred method.

My presumption is that the rationale for slingshotting the slide in preference to swiping the slide stop is tactical rather than mechanical, but I'm clueless about why.

Educate me, please.

 

[steelyblue]

You don't have to change your grip.

 

[BamBam-31]

Slingshot = gross motor skill.
Slide release = fine motor skill.

Slingshot = same technique on all pistols.
Slide release = different locations on different makes and models.

 

[owlhoot]

Use the thumb of the support hand. Of course, if you are a lefty, the sling shot makes more sense.

 

[possum]

i use the "sling shot" method, on all handguns. kiss, it is like the power stroke method that is tought by some, have as many weapon maipluations as you can the same. ie reload, clearing malfunctions etc.

 

[RNB65]

Slide release. I use my left thumb to release the slide on 1911's. Right hand never changes position.
-

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Another idea behind "slingshotting" is getting a little extra slide travel to more positively chamber the round. I still prefer to trip the slide stop, mostly out of habit. On the 1911 (and the similarly placed slide stops on "old-school" Smith & Wesson autos), the slide stop is a little difficult to reach with my thumb one-handed unless I shift my grip, but is perfectly placed to trip with the thumb of my support hand. Which brings me to a disadvantage of slingshotting - you need both hands. If one hand or arm has been injured this may not be an option.

 

[AndyC]

Slide-stop here

 

[Steve in PA]

I wonder how all those shooters manage to hit that itty bitty magazine release when they loose those fine motor skills.

 

[TAB]

using the slide stop is a little faster.

 

[CWL]

It's easier to find the entire back end of the slide to slingshot than it is finding the small "slide stop" when under stress. Easier also if your hands are covered in sweat, oil or blood.

Remember that it's called a "slide stop" on the M1911.

 

[ANGUSLINCOLN]

I use the slide stop on my 1911, but using the slide stop on some guns will wear out certain parts such as the bolt "lock open after the last round" feature on my Ruger Mark III. Ruger fixed it, now I slingshot the bolt on that gun,(as it says in the manual!)

 

[romeo212000]

I use the sling shot on all my guns. It is more natural for me and it makes more sense for me to use what my muscles are able to more naturally already.

 

[Monkeybear]

If you use the slide stop enough on your "duty" gun you don't even have to think about it, you just do it. I hit the slide stop half a second after I jam the magazine in every time without thinking. It just happens.



Edit to add: sorry forgot we were talking about 1911s only.

 

[Black Majik]

Slingshot = gross motor skill.
Slide release = fine motor skill.

Slingshot = same technique on all pistols.
Slide release = different locations on different makes and models.

Hit the nail on the head. I agree.

I use the overhand method of sling shotting to chamber a round. It's universal on almost all autoloaders.

 

[riceboy72]

Sling shot method. Well worded thought, Bambam-31.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I thumbed the slide release.

 

[1911Tuner]

The gun should feed and go to battery reliably with either method. If it doesn't...get it fixed.

Using the slidestop isn't the fine motor skill that many think it is if correctly done...and it's faster than slingshot or overhand...assuming that the shooter is right-handed.

As the magazine is slapped home, just point the thumb skyward...roll the gun to vertical and the hand into the firing grip...and the thumb falls onto the slidestop's pad in one fluid motion. Quick and fumble-free. Hand finds hand...Thumb finds pad...pull.

 

[1911 guy]

Fine motor VS gross motor skills.

There is nothing about shooting a handgun that ISN'T fine motor skill. Pulling a trigger, pushing a mag release, inserting a magazine, lining up sights, thumbing the safety, etc. Knock that silly argument out of your head now. People fall apart under pressure because they're unprepared and flustered, not because their hands stop working. Ask me how I know. P.S., it involves a M-16 that wouldn't fire. Until someone reached over and flipped the selector from the "safe" position.

Having said all that, I've taken to slingshotting lately because my wife carries a SIG P232 and it has no external slide stop. Until she got it, about four years ago, I was a slide stop kinda guy, with both the 1911 and M9.

Learned properly, the slide stop method is faster and requires no grip change because you use your left hand.

 

[Ltlabner]

There is nothing about shooting a handgun that ISN'T fine motor skill. Pulling a trigger, pushing a mag release, inserting a magazine, lining up sights, thumbing the safety, etc. Knock that silly argument out of your head now. People fall apart under pressure because they're unprepared and flustered, not because their hands stop working.

So the years of phisological research and real world data from thouands of actual incidents are all bunk then? The blood doesn't drain from the extremites, tunnel vision occurs, auditory exclusion happens and an adrenneline dump doesn't take place? Maybe I totally misunderstood your post.

Lack of preparidness certinally doesn't help (I'd say this is what gets most "normal" shooters in trouble.) but if you think the body doesn't react differently under extreme stress than under normal conditions...well....good luck with that.

 

[1911 guy]

Mark Twain said there are Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

Sure, the body has conditioned responses. Denying so would be silly since there are, as you mention, numerous studies and years to go over the results. What you're missing is the fact that well trained people tend to perform despite the onset of natural reaction because they have yet another set of conditioned responses.

Remember Ms. Assam this past year in Colorado? She didn't deny being a little scared about what was happening, she even said she had a small "meltdown" afterward. What made it happen afterward and not during was a set of conditioned responses that over-rode the simple "fight-or-flight" response.

Do you really think our soldiers manipulate weapons, think strategically and tactically on their feet and under fire and never have "episodes"? What keeps them alive is training, to include stress management (polite term for "crap yourself later, not now) to defeat the immediate stress.

You do not live at the whim of a primal defense mechanism. Mastering your own actions and responses is what seperates us from the apes. Personally, I have higher aspirations than dragging my knuckles and licking ants off a stick.

I think you understood my post perfectly, you've just not seen the other side of the argument. As an aside, the whole "slingshot because it's a gross motor skill" is a recent invention that accompanied the advent of the Glock handgun. It has no useable exterior controls other than a trigger, so an alternate method of returning it to battery was needed. Of course a supporting argument was needed, so...

The M1911 served the U.S. military for over 75 years, during which time the official doctrine was, and still is for the M9, to use the slide stop. You'd best tell our troops they're incapable of doing so before someone gets hurt.

 

[mnw42]

I don't have much to say other than: You should do it the same way every time with all you guns. The less you have to think about it the better.

 

[Walkalong]

I use the slide release. If it does not have one in the right place, I don't own it.

I am much more flexable with revolvers than auto's. Narrow minded with auto's.

 

[jimbob86]

Slide release. I use my left thumb to release the slide on 1911's. Right hand never changes position.

Works for me.........

 

[sargenv]

Um.. if you are shooting to empty then you are doing it wrong...

At least that's what I've been told....

In most cases the few bottom feeders I use will drop the slide when I seat the mag anyway so I don't need to do anything but raise it back into position and keep shooting.

 

[AndyC]

Um.. if you are shooting to empty then you are doing it wrong...

At least that's what I've been told....

Those who say that have never been there - total bollocks.