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Old October 2, 2011, 10:38 PM   #8
Aguila Blanca
Staff
 
Join Date: September 25, 2008
Location: CONUS
Posts: 18,434
Quote:
Originally Posted by James K
"Also, stop dropping the slide on an empty chamber.
This practice batters the mating surfaces of the hammer & sear."

Well, what happens when the gun is fired? Doesn't the hammer drop on the sear then? The slide is moving forward faster than it does when manually released, so the hammer-sear contact should be faster and harder.
No.

When the pistol is fired, the sear nose rotates forward, releasing the hammer. Assuming everything is working properly, the tip of the sear moves far enough that the half-cock notch fully clears the sear tip and the hammer falls completely uninterrupted.

When dropping the slide on an empty chamber, the trigger is not pulled and the sear is not rotated forward. If the hammer is released due to bounce, the secondary (or half-cock) notch slams down onto the tip of the sear. That's what it was designed to do, and it prevents an accidental discharge if there's a round loaded, but the impact makes a mess of the sear nose.

As has been noted, it also puts unwanted stress on the slide stop pin, which is the only thing that stops the slide and barrel as they move forward into battery. When actually chambering a round, a lot of energy is used up in stripping the round from the magazine and pushing it into the chamber, thus reducing and/or cushioning the impact. None of that happens when you slam the slide closed on an empty chamber.
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