Safety Question-

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You are aware that properly designed springs are killed only by cycles, not time under tension, right?

Obviously, you should do whatever gives you the warm fuzzies, but there's no mechanical reason to do these things. Unless you don't trust that the manufacturers spec'ed their springs correctly; if that's the case, why buy those firearms?
My dad's Woodsman had a mag that had been in the pistol for...some time. Rounds 1-7 fed fine. The rest stayed in the mag. Maybe they were shy.

I don't now if Colt improperly designed firearms, but..... [laugh]
 
Its just good habit to visually check. Because if you don't. That's when things go wrong.
A few years ago, a guy was explaing a ND that happened at his friends house. Glock, and order of unloading was: racked slide (visually saw round extracted from chamber) then dropped mag. The friend then went to remove the slide, so trigger pull, then bang. Because he removed the mag after racking the slide, a new round was chambered.

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Remember to check the chamber!
 
I understand it makes little difference but I don't buy that keeping springs fully compressed for a year+ is the same as relaxing it.

Mag manufacturers say for instance reduce capacity by a round if you want & occasionally cycle them; since I can't reliably count on that I try to take it easy on springs during storage.

my mind is very numb just from reading this...

Guys have used otherwise clean 1911 mags that were loaded like 30+ years ago.... guess what, they still worked. If the most popular, fussiest f***ing gun ever invented* worked fine then this really is a fake problem...

* before somebody flames me I just bought another 1911 this week it works great, but that doesn't mean it's still one of the shittiest designs wrt overall reliability.

The only time I have ever witnessed "not keeping a magazine loaded" etc, to "help" something, was in a case where the springs of the magazine were already worn the f***
out. My shitty AMT Back-Up 380 DAO was like that. You could stretch the springs out and it would buy you some tension, for awhile, but not for any real length of time... because the stupid springs were all played the f*** out.

I don't understand racking the slide either. Just lock it back and visually inspect, twice. Done. Seems like wasted energy and unnecessary wear on your gun.

Because if you have a momentary brain computer failure.... let's say you were tired, distracted, or something... multiple slide racking motions will likely remind you of the gross error you just made when you forgot to remove the otherwise loaded magazine from the pistol. Tons of people have had NDs because they forgot to remove a magazine, racked the slide once, and all they did was eject one round and load another. Some people have even done it locking the slide back and not looking for the presence of ammo, etc.

Cycling the slide a few times is what one would call a "free gun safety bingo square" and if you just start doing it, will generally become a habit. You don't even have to "hard" cycle it, just work the slide a few times. If I have a gun that "incurs wear"' by doing that I don't want it in my safe or in my life, f*** that shit. Whats it made out of, tinfoil? [laugh]

Also, as MH says, not all guns have slide locks. Or some have slide locks that only work under particular circumstances. Or you have difficulty actuating the slide lock on a given
gun.

Pulling the trigger after is not on my agenda either. Training yourself to pull the trigger when not on target seems like a potential training scare, unless you actually aim to practice that nice trigger press one last time before putting your ghat away.

That is more debatable but there are various gun games that require it as part of safety doctrine before reholster or bagging.

A gun should ALWAYS be pointed in a known safe direction when you are performing some kind of "administrative function. " whether clearing or pulling the trigger after doing
so, etc.
 
Remember to check the chamber!

Yes, there's no substitute for that. Racking the slide is part of the process of clearing the gun, but it doesn't substitute for inspecting the chamber because it is possible for the extractor to fail for one reason or another. You might be clued in by the fact that you don't receive a loose round when you rack the gun, but even if you do, there can still be a live round in the chamber at that point if you started the process with a double-feed malfunction and the extractor isn't working. Not that it should be a surprise to you then, either, but the whole point is not to screw up even when you're not mentally focused.
 
If you want to see someone excessively racking a slide just watch any of Hickok45’s videos. You can see he has developed a habit of racking the slide several times every time he picks up an “empty" semi auto handgun, even if he just cleared it and set it down. He also reflexively points the gun down range whenever he pulls the trigger. As far as I’m concerned, that is the kind of muscle memory I want. I’m willing to bet he doesn’t have any NDs, even with all the different guns he handles.
 
I don't understand racking the slide either. Just lock it back and visually inspect, twice. Done. Seems like wasted energy and unnecessary wear on your gun.

Pulling the trigger after is not on my agenda either. Training yourself to pull the trigger when not on target seems like a potential training scare, unless you actually aim to practice that nice trigger press one last time before putting your ghat away.
Point of order.....if you take part in 3 gun, steel challenge and the like.....its normal practice for some events to "show clear" to the ro then point the gun downrange and pull the trigger on the empty chamber before holstering. It proves the guns unloaded for sure.

I can see not pulling the trigger in your home.....I get that......but you said it's a potential "training scare".....I don't see that as a problem because the trigger pull is done deliberately to prove the guns unloaded and that's all.
 
Pulling the trigger after checking a gun for empty is just another confirmation that it is empty. It should obviously only be done if you are 99.999% sure its empty. And the practice should include pointing the gun in a known safe direction.

When I come back from shooting, I clear every gun as I put them back into the safe. This includes pointing each one at the concrete floor and pressing the trigger. Its simply another way to confirm empty.

You adapt to your environment. If I lived on the second floor of a wood framed multi-family I wouldn't do this unless I had some kind of bullet trap.

This practice is descended from military practice when clearing firearms. A buddy of mine who was in Afghanistan for several years jokes about how every once in a while they'd hear a BLAM. The guy clearing his gun, pointing it into a clearing barrel would have a ND. Better it happens there than later on.

Its also part of the practice in practical shooting games. After you finish your stage, you are instructed to clear the gun , point it downrange, then pull the trigger. Before holstering. It makes total sense in this example. Just one more check.
 
I added a bucket of sand as a protocol
Point into the sand-bucket
Remove the source of ammo
Rack slide- 4 times
Lock Slide
Check chamber ( stick my finger in the Chamber and the Magwell)
Rack Slide 4 times
Pull the trigger.
Say clear!
 
Point of order.....if you take part in 3 gun, steel challenge and the like.....its normal practice for some events to "show clear" to the ro then point the gun downrange and pull the trigger on the empty chamber before holstering. It proves the guns unloaded for sure.

I can see not pulling the trigger in your home.....I get that......but you said it's a potential "training scare".....I don't see that as a problem because the trigger pull is done deliberately to prove the guns unloaded and that's all.

I'm cool with "Deliberate", "Necessary"...when required, cleaning, so on.

For me it goes to people casually pulling triggers as part of some rote movement. Maybe not so much training scare as life scare. Like releasing slide and pulling the trigger while placing gun in bag before heading out. To me pulling the trigger is serious business. Pulling the trigger only when necessary keeps the chance of an issue to a minimum.
 
If you want to see someone excessively racking a slide just watch any of Hickok45’s videos. You can see he has developed a habit of racking the slide several times every time he picks up an “empty" semi auto handgun, even if he just cleared it and set it down. He also reflexively points the gun down range whenever he pulls the trigger. As far as I’m concerned, that is the kind of muscle memory I want. I’m willing to bet he doesn’t have any NDs, even with all the different guns he handles.
Clearing the chamber should be a conscious act, and - if your brain is engaged - you'll probably only need to retract the slide one time.

MINDLESSLY cycling the slide three times, or more, WITHOUT LOOKING is not the kind of muscle memory anyone should want.
 
\Clearing the chamber should be a conscious act, and - if your brain is engaged - you'll probably only need to retract the slide one time.
MINDLESSLY cycling the slide three times, or more, WITHOUT LOOKING is not the kind of muscle memory anyone should want.

Lol now we're firmly getting into extension cord mess territory. It's not, per se, "mindless" if its just one part of a sequence of operations. The idea is if you get caught off guard somehow that one extra part might save your ass. @meh gets this in post 124.
 
I learned three things in Boy Scouts, when I was 12 years old. 1. Always Treat every gun as loaded and always check. 2. Always point any weapon in a safe direction. 3. Never put your finger in the trigger area, unless you are really to fire. All the rest is common sense.
 
The way I've seemed to have evolved on this is that if I'm not in a place where I can safely "drop the hammer" on an empty chamber, I will reach in with my pinky and feel for an empty chamber. This breaks me out of the mindless trap since I always get a bit of anxiety about the slide closing on my finger when I'm reaching in there. Ha.
 
Yep, and coincidentally I just read that the guy has stage 4 lung cancer... 'Saved by the Bell' star Dustin Diamond diagnosed with stage 4 cancer
No mention of his career as a porn star though.


I changed it one time for a few days and got some grief for it to change it back.
I've been stuck with it ever since.


Reminds me of an old trick where if someone hotlinked to a pic someone else posted, you would delete your pic and reupload it
with a different filename, then you'd find a pic that was 100% NSFW, rename it to the same filename as your original pic, and
the hotlinkers post would display something that would make 'Tub Girl' look like wholesome family fair, but your post would
still have the original pic. [devil]



*had*
 
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