[ewah]

i handed my unloaded p99 to a friend with the slide held back by the lever and the mag out. after the common eyebrow raising astonishment of how light and comfy it is to hold, i told him to close it up, thinking of course he would just hit the lever and let the slide close. instead he grabed the slide by the serations and pushed it close without using the release. i cringed and reminded him of the right way but i wonder two things. should that be possible to do? and should i have the weapon checked now that it has happened.
everything seems to function fine.
-thanks.

btw, he'll be spending time at the range with me to better familiarize himself this weekend.

 

[MLB]

Take a look at the slide catch for damage to be sure, but it only takes the slightest of backward pull to release the catch. It probably went that way. Try it out yourself: Check to be sure it's clear (unloaded), lock the slide back, drop the empty mag. Now pull back just slightly on the slide. You should be able to hear the slide release click down and gently ride the slide forward (don't let it slam on an empty chamber.)

If you leave the empty mag in, the slide lock will stay up and the slide will stay back.

Take Care,
MLB

 

[P88]

ewah,

I agree with what MLB said.  He probably release the slide lock lever by pulling back on the slide slightly.  I can't imagine that he could force the slide forward.

Now lets examine more of what he did.

If he held the slide all the while it was moving forward, than yes thats bad.  This can cause mis-feeds and failure to go into battery problems.  However the majority of gun handling schools teach you to NOT use the slide release lever.  The best way to reload a semi-auto when in slide lock it to grab the rear of the slide with your fingers rolled over the top (pinky towards the muzzle, thumb towards your body) and pull back hard and allow your hand to hit your upper chest as the slide is released.

 

[ewah]

thankyou both for two good tips.
-dont let the slide slam empty.
-pull back fully and release to load reliably.

also, i looked carefully at the notch and the lever and they are fine. i think you guys are right.. he must have moved it back first. whew.

 

[P88]

There's nothing wrong with letting the slide slam on an empty chamber. There is no percievable difference between an empty chamber and a round being chambered. A metalic cartridge is not a pillow.

 

[MLB]

I think you'll hear differing opinions on the empty chamber issue. I see the following main arguement against it.

By allowing the slide to impact the breech face, you have steel impacting steel, rather than the brass cartridge head which is softer and more malleable. (although admittedly far from a pillow

) The bullet nose then impacts the feed ramp before everything's locked up. This makes for a big difference in the impact speed and energy too as the recoil spring does not have to do the work of stripping a new cartrige from the magazine either.

I agree with P88 in that you don't want to ride the slide when chambering a round though. It may not go fully into battery.

These may be minor issues. For my investment, I'll save the wear if I can. Nice thing is that it's your gun and you can do as you please

. When handling someone's gun however, I'd error on the conservative side.

 

[NM_P99]

Drop the slide on an empty chamber all you want, it will not hurt a thing.
The fear of dropping a slide on empty got started with 1911's that had trigger jobs. It could damage the sear.
But on modern pistols it won't hurt anything.
Same with dry-firing, 1911's with poor trigger jobs - don't do it, a P99 you can dry-fire till your finger falls off and not hurt anything.

 

[SpamDog]

Quick question I understand that you are not supposed to "Ride the Slide" forward when chambering a round because it could cause misfeeds.. However when I make my P99 safe (Empty chamber and no mag) I always ride the slide forward to close it instead of letting it slam.. Am I doing damage to my pistol that I don't know about?

 

[P88]

SpamDog,

No.

 

[fearandloathing37]

You know...I think the reason I bought my S&W 99, was because it was tough as a Glock, but with better ergonomics.

I rack and dryfire the holy heck outta mine and have no problems what so ever. If you have to treat you primary sidearm like a fine china figurine...Chances are you've made the wrong choice in pistols.

The 99's are as tough as they come. Chances are that your buddy pulled the slide back slightly, before letting the slide go forward. This is possibly an indication that his level of training is more advanced than your own, So I'd be careful about trying to set him strait, sounds like he knew what he was doing to me.