Slide release

[speedsix]

...it's about time we lefties got a little respect...used to pay $5 more for a holster and wait a month...pay gunsmiths for ambi safeties...several guns are becoming more ambi...

[The Annoyed Man]

...I like to yank the slide on a new magazine...but I'm a southpaw, and to drop it with the latch requires me to shift the gun in my hand...so, if my weak hand's free...it's easier for me and I don't loose my grip...

That's exactly my habit too, also being a southpaw. That said, I do sometimes use the slide stop with my 1911s. Over the years, I've gotten used to using my left index finder to release the slide stop and to depress the magazine release button.

When I bought my M&P45, one of the things that attracted me to it was that it could be made truly ambidextrous. It already had an ambidextrous thumb safety and an ambidextrous slide stop, and the mag release could be reversed for left handed users. Here's what I found after having it set up like that for a while........ I have to actually remind myself that the mag release is on the right side of the grip now, or else I will instinctively try to use my index finger to drop the mag. The slide release levers are of that diminutive sort that AndyC bemoans from "Glock-like" pistols, and the one on the right side of the frame seems to be marginally less useful than the one on the left side of the frame. It took me a while to realize that the slide stop on the right side of the frame needs to be pushed in on almost as hard as it needs to be pushed down on in order to release the slide. The left side slide stop is almost the same way. The significance of that is not lost on me: The slide stop is not really intended to be used as a slide release. Those guns that have slide releases also tend to have the lever somewhat extended with enough "purchase" for the user's thumb to be able to gain a hold on it.

In theory, if one "overuses" the slide stop, the corners of the slide stop notch cut into the slide can become rounded off to the point where it will no longer capture the slide stop on locking back when the last round is fired. That may have been true for most semi-autos at some point in time, and it may continue to be true with less expensive, less well made pistols. However, higher quality "duty" pistols intended to be carried daily for combat purposes tend to be manufactured using higher quality metals, and the manual of arms under combat conditions ought to allow for the use of the slide stop lever to release the slide into battery for exactly the reasons that AndyC outlined—it's faster. In a gunfight, speed can be life. Unfortunately, not all duty pistols recommend that. Page 16 of the owner's manual for the S&W M&P series pistols says:

• Pull the slide to the rear, press down on the slide stop to release the slide and allow it to carry fully forward. This strips a cartridge from the magazine and seats it in the chamber of the barrel.

Conversely, quoting from page 10 of the H&K USP owner's manual:

Slide Release- This lever is located on the left side of the frame directly above the trigger. This lever is used to lock the slide open, to release the slide, and to disassemble the pistol.

Both pistols are arguably duty pistols intended for use in real gunfights. My personal inclination for most pistols, most of the time, is to pull the slide back and release it into battery simply because it is universally applicable across all platform types for a left-handed shooter. But that said, I make myself familiar with the manual of arms for all my pistols, and in a gunfight, I can and would devolve to the faster method, and I do occasionally practice it. No real harm is caused by pulling the slide back, so long as you actually release it and don't ride it forward. Similarly, using a slide stop as a slide release is not going to do any significant damage to most modern pistols, especially if you don't do it all the time.

[texanron]

It took me a while to realize that the slide stop on the right side of the frame needs to be pushed in on almost as hard as it needs to be pushed down on in order to release the slide.

So thats how the slide release on the M&P's works. I'll have to try that. I had come to the conclusion, in my mind, that S&W intended for the users of their M&P's to pull the slide back and release forward on mag changes.

[MoJo]

my Para Carry you HAVE to release it via slide stop. It will not pull back any farther. Is that a standard 1911 thing or just with Para?

Do you have a shock buffer in the gun? If you do that could be the cause. Shock buffers have no place in carry guns - - - they are jams waiting to happen.

[The Annoyed Man]

It took me a while to realize that the slide stop on the right side of the frame needs to be pushed in on almost as hard as it needs to be pushed down on in order to release the slide.

So thats how the slide release on the M&P's works. I'll have to try that. I had come to the conclusion, in my mind, that S&W intended for the users of their M&P's to pull the slide back and release forward on mag changes.

They do intend for the slide to be pulled back, based on their owner's manual. But the slide stop can release the slide if proper pressure is applied. On the other hand, what I call "proper pressure" may in fact be damaging to the gun. I don't really know. BTW, the one on the left side of the frame seems to work normally. It's only the "left-handed" one on the right side of the frame that seems to require that inward pressure.

[SQLGeek]

Ah, that makes sense. On the M&P pistols I rented, I was practically standing on the slide release and I couldn't get it to drop the slide.

[flechero]

I've gotten used to using my left index finder to release the slide stop and to depress the magazine release button.

Same here... but it wouldn't matter anyway, I can't reach it with my thumb- so in my case being a lefty actually allows me to use it.

[b322da]

All I had to do was read the subject line on this thread to feel my back start itching. Fifty-eight years ago my recruit training included memorizing the names of all the parts in a real m1911, and "slide release" was nowhere on the list. Of course "slide stop" was there. If my DI ever heard the expression "slide release" bad things happened. If he ever saw the slide stop used as a slide release in order, for example, to drive the first round from the magazine into the breech, the recruit was lucky to live through it. Our DI had explained more than once how this little piece held the whole thing together -- it held together a device upon which our life could someday depend, and for many of my squad-mates I am sure that it did in fact depend.

We have some people here on the forum who are well-experenced with not only the real m1911 but also the many clones we see today, and many, if not most, of them, credibly explain that using the stop as a release does not put any unusual adverse strain on this little piece of metal, which well may be a much better breed of metal today than it was when John Brown's device was being cranked out from all sorts of weird places. Imagine, for example, a sewing machine company making the finest handgun some would argue the world has ever seen.

I will catch heck from all sides if I take part in the current discussion about this issue, which has existed for a very long time, including here on the forum before, and due to my ignorance of metal fatigue, metallurgy and the forces at work in an m1911, and particularly in those modern clones, of which I own several, I would undoubtedly deserve it. It appears clear now that I am in a very small minority here. I will say, however, that I have owned my c.1916-17 m1911 for 52 years, and I have put literally thousands of rounds through it. In those 52 years I have had to replace one part -- the slide stop. I know that this proves nothing other than that in 52 years -- that is possibly 95 years, for all I know -- a slide stop just couldn't take it any longer, and it was honorably retired, as was I, in turn. We both know that we are both old fuds now.

But being the old man I am, who thinks back to that DI as being the first of many Gods I encountered while in the service, and an old man who still thinks that John Brown's classic pistol has been unmatched for more than 100 years, I am just too set in my ways, and I still follow the first rules I was taught.

So I certainly do not take a position on the question asked by the OP here. I am not competent to do so. This is just another story from an old man.

With the greatest of respect for not only our members, but also John Brown, and the m1911. Long may the latter wave as modern manufacturers strive to match it, or beat it, at what it was designed to do.

Elmo

[The Annoyed Man]

If my DI ever heard the expression "slide release" bad things happened.

Hey Elmo, was this him?
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=-QNws4CC9NI[/youtube]

[b322da]

If my DI ever heard the expression "slide release" bad things happened.

Hey Elmo, was this him?
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=-QNws4CC9NI[/youtube]

Chris,

More appropriate might be the field morphine syrette needed by a few recruits after they regained consciousness. DIs in those days did not have rules like they do today.

Elmo

[G26ster]

OK, so it's named a Slide Stop, not a Slide Release. On that basis, I need to go out and buy a Garage Door "Closer" as I only have a Garage Door Opener. Can someone tell where to get one, as I am obviously damaging something using my opener as a closer too?

[G26ster]

It's just a name; I wouldn't get too wrapped up in it because most folks these days seem to call it a slide-release anyway as that's what they use it for - no harm. It's certainly not as a bad an issue as "mags" vs "clips"

I would suggest you close your garage door the same way you do your Glock - with your weak hand

My "tongue in cheek" remarks were in support of your position that "it's just a name."