User Panel
Posted: 1/3/2021 8:44:44 PM EDT
vs loading magazine to max, chambering round, dropping mag, putting in another round, reinsert magazine.
How much damage does it really do to the extractor? |
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No I wasn't serious.
Any semi auto, if some are more damaging than others lets talk about it. |
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I've read your post 5 times and it makes no sense. Dropping the slide vs chambering a round? Does not seem to be worded correctly.
But, to answer your question, no. Why would dropping the slide do any damage? That is what happens when firing the gun. |
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Old school advise was that it was very hard on a 1911 and would/could mess up the extractor.
I never did heavy research but seeing as I did not need to do the drop one into the chamber I have only loaded from a mag . The very few times I felt the need for a extra cartridge I load and then top off the mag . Be sure the mag seats correctly after topping it off |
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Quoted: I've read your post 5 times and it makes no sense. Dropping the slide vs chambering a round? Does not seem to be worded correctly. But, to answer your question, no. Why would dropping the slide do any damage? That is what happens when firing the gun. View Quote Keep reading it. It makes sense. |
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Quoted: I've read your post 5 times and it makes no sense. Dropping the slide vs chambering a round? Does not seem to be worded correctly. But, to answer your question, no. Why would dropping the slide do any damage? That is what happens when firing the gun. View Quote How it was explained to me was a slide slamming forward on a chambered round forces a extractor to jump over the cartridge rim . In the normal firing sequence with the cartridge coming out of the magazine and tilting into the chamber the rim slides under the extractor hook from the bottom |
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Quoted: How it was explained to me was a slide slamming forward on a chambered round forces a extractor to jump over the cartridge rim . In the normal firing sequence with the cartridge coming out of the magazine and tilting into the chamber the rim slides under the extractor hook from the bottom View Quote |
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I was taught to chamber semi autos from the magazine and that breech loading was a "last resort" due to stress on extractors. I don't even like to drop the bolt on an empty AR
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Quoted: I was taught to chamber semi autos from the magazine and that breech loading was a "last resort" due to stress on extractors. I don't even like to drop the bolt on an empty AR View Quote Yep, same here. Has anyone actually done test on pistols to see if/how/when it breaks or does damage to the extractor? |
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The better question to ask here is why would you even need/want to do that?
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It won’t damage anything until it does.
Any decent gun, 1911 included, is designed to be able to do it with no damage, but it’s not designed to work like that all the time. |
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Insert round into empty chamber. Release slide. Nothing bad happened.
How many times am I going to need to do this until the extractor breaks? How many times is acceptable? Seems to be more “I was taught to do it this way so I do it this way” on things than anyone ACTUALLY testing it out. Extractors aren’t the most impossible thing to find, they’re not impossible to replace either. Drop the bullet in, find out if the extractor breaks, if it doesn’t you can tell the internet they were wrong, and the internet will tell you “well no not one time, but continue doing it and it’s going to break” and you can wait for it to break and report back. |
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Quoted: It won’t damage anything until it does. Any decent gun, 1911 included, is designed to be able to do it with no damage, but it’s not designed to work like that all the time. View Quote Do you design guns for a living? How do you know they are designed to only be loaded using a magazine? |
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I've always been told don't drop the slide on an empty chamber or a manually loaded round with 1911 because of extractor tuning.
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Drop old mag Slap in new Drop slide Bang Or not, ymmv eta, maybe I'm not reading your question right. Nevermind. You're talking about dropping slide on a chambered round. I wouldn't do it. |
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It can be rough on some extractors!
MIM extractors might arguably be more prone to breakage |
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Generally, dropping the slide on a loaded round can damage the extractor over time because it has to ride up and over the entire rim, instead of sliding up and over it as it feeds from the magazine.
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I will say, I've been loading my USPc like this for years now, and have yet to have any issues.
Open slide, i drop the round into the chamber and then release slide, load a fully loaded mag, holster the pistol and go about my day. This is the first I've ever read about it. |
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Quoted: I will say, I've been loading my USPc like this for years now, and have yet to have any issues. Open slide, i drop the round into the chamber and then release slide, load a fully loaded mag, holster the pistol and go about my day. This is the first I've ever read about it. View Quote |
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Most magazine fed pistols are generally designed to be fed from the magazine. So that's typically how I fed such pistols.
Now, have I dropped rounds into the breach and let the slide slam home, sure. Is that probably hard on the extractor, probably. These are generally Glocks, I probably wouldnt on a internal extractored 1911 or similar. It's just not designed to work that way so in doing so you will probably see greater parts breakage. |
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Some of y'all might have done it thousands of times... but only one time too many to make your pistol a single shot!
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I always load from the magazine.
Gotta be good to your life saving tools. |
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Ok, now that that is settled.
On a recoil operated firearm, during live fire, will it eject just fine with no extractor? |
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Huh. I've never even considered this. A few months back I was shooting my friends shield with some white box Winchester ammo. One round didn't fire so I ejected it by racking the slide.
After the mag was empty I popped the round directly into the chamber and hit the slide release (to see if the round would fire with a second primer strike) just by instinct. It's one of those things I've always done with any semi auto pistol since I was a kid. I never considered it could be any different than feeding from the magazine |
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Quoted: Generally, dropping the slide on a loaded round can damage the extractor over time because it has to ride up and over the entire rim, instead of sliding up and over it as it feeds from the magazine. View Quote Exactly this. And it does matter what gun, it's harder on some guns than others. Best rule of thumb, don't be lazy and don't do it. |
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Quoted: Huh. I've never even considered this. A few months back I was shooting my friends shield with some white box Winchester ammo. One round didn't fire so I ejected it by racking the slide. After the mag was empty I popped the round directly into the chamber and hit the slide release (to see if the round would fire with a second primer strike) just by instinct. It's one of those things I've always done with any semi auto pistol since I was a kid. I never considered it could be any different than feeding from the magazine View Quote It is different than loading from magazine. On most pistols the rim of the case will slide under the extractor. Loading that way causes the extractor to jump over the case rim. It is bad practice and can lead to premature failure. |
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Quoted: Huh. I've never even considered this. A few months back I was shooting my friends shield with some white box Winchester ammo. One round didn't fire so I ejected it by racking the slide. After the mag was empty I popped the round directly into the chamber and hit the slide release (to see if the round would fire with a second primer strike) just by instinct. It's one of those things I've always done with any semi auto pistol since I was a kid. I never considered it could be any different than feeding from the magazine View Quote Normally, as the round feeds out of the magazine the rim slides under the extractor. |
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So no one has done any test on this to see if it's true or not? Everyone is just saying "I heard" or "it's not a good idea".
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Quoted: So no one has done any test on this to see if it's true or not? Everyone is just saying "I heard" or "it's not a good idea". View Quote It's not just hearsay. It's knowledge of the design and function. We are explaining to you the physical reason it's a bad idea. If you don't believe it then go on your way and ignore it. |
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Beretta Px4 owner's manual specifically said it is ok to close the slide on a chambered round.
I have always read to not do so on 1911s but don't own one and have little experience with them. |
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Quoted: It's not just hearsay. It's knowledge of the design and function. We are explaining to you the physical reason it's a bad idea. If you don't believe it then go on your way and ignore it. View Quote I understand its a bad idea. What I asked was does anyone know how much damage it has done or how much before failure? So far no one can say anything past it's a bad idea. |
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Quoted: I understand its a bad idea. What I asked was does anyone know how much damage it has done or how much before failure? So far no one can say anything past it's a bad idea. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: It's not just hearsay. It's knowledge of the design and function. We are explaining to you the physical reason it's a bad idea. If you don't believe it then go on your way and ignore it. I understand its a bad idea. What I asked was does anyone know how much damage it has done or how much before failure? So far no one can say anything past it's a bad idea. It depends on the specific firearm. Designs vary widely. Even then, no one is going to be able to precisely tell you the extractor will fail after dropping the slide on a round 87 times. |
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Quoted: I understand its a bad idea. What I asked was does anyone know how much damage it has done or how much before failure? So far no one can say anything past it's a bad idea. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: It's not just hearsay. It's knowledge of the design and function. We are explaining to you the physical reason it's a bad idea. If you don't believe it then go on your way and ignore it. I understand its a bad idea. What I asked was does anyone know how much damage it has done or how much before failure? So far no one can say anything past it's a bad idea. It has happened over the years... there is no way to say after X number of time your extractor will break. As to how much damage... with a broken extractor you can't extract fired cases. If you use the bad technique and the extractor breaks after chambering a round, you now have a single shot pistol. As the saying goes... a word to the wise is sufficient! It is up to you if you continue doing with the personal history of you have never broke an extractor. YOLO |
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A 1911 is designed to feed from the mag. That's why new extractors need to be tuned. The rim is captured by the extractor when it feeds from the magazine. It will damage an extractor over time without question. It is almost like controlled round feed. Most more modern designs have much sturdier extractors than a piece of spring steel and it is no big deal.
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On some guns you can put pressure on the rear of the extractor to open it up. That’s what I do on the ones you can do that with. Let the slide down easy with your hand while pushing on the back and it’ll go right over the case rim. On guns where you can’t do this I just load from a mag.
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Quoted: It won’t damage anything until it does. Any decent gun, 1911 included, is designed to be able to do it with no damage, but it’s not designed to work like that all the time. View Quote Which is why I don't do it. It will screw up your ejector very quickly (1911, no idea on other style pistols) |
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Damaging extractors is one thing and a good reason, unquantified, not to drop the slide on a chambered round.
Missing here, what I was expecting to see is mention of a partially chambered live centerfire round or one sliding back out of the chamber or a rimfire not completely chambered that is struck by the extractor or some other part of the breech face and the primer is set off. That would be very exciting. That was agency training reason not to chamber load. |
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Quoted: Beretta Px4 owner's manual specifically said it is ok to close the slide on a chambered round. I have always read to not do so on 1911s but don't own one and have little experience with them. View Quote I've also heard (though never seen written proof from Beretta) that the 92 was designed to be "port loaded" and doing so would not damage the gun. As for the 1911, I've read it's a no-no because of the internal extractor. With the extractor in the hole in the slide, it cannot bend out as the "hook" snaps over the rim. Again, nothing I've experimented with, just saying what I've heard. I've never port-loaded a handgun, except for my Beretta 21A and 950BS (both have the tp-up barrels and are designed to be loaded like that). |
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