Watching a video and the shooter talked about “why you shouldn’t rely on a magazine slam to send the slide foward.”
My question what is a “magazine slam” and why it would|how send the slide forward?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xXVT0IgpNw&feature=uploademail
If you insert a magazine hard enough (SLAM!) it will often times release the slide.
some pistols will drop slide if you ram the mag in hard… he’s saying you should never trust that.
If you read that guys video description it explains more. There are arguments for or against this technique. Doing a mag slam is a fairly reliable or repeatable technique and can be done on more than just the Glock. They key word IMO is “fairly”. However for myself the reliability or repeatability diminishes under speed or stress situations. I can sit at a desk and perform this technique all day long. I can even do it very reliable under normal training situations on the range. However turn up the heat, put on some stress and I actually bobble this technique more than I find to be acceptable. The failures that may arise which I have personally experienced using this technique particularly with a Glock or a Sig Sauer are;
A round may not actually chamber. On certain weapons this can be due to a jarring the weapon without a clean insertion.
Failure to correctly feed due to the round popping or nosing upward.
Missing the reload all together because I am more focused on the hard insertion. Of course this can be looked at as a training issue and not a mechanical one.
I would say for myself it does not save any time vs a slide release and the failures that I have encountered do not justify the technique. Like anything else everyone’s mileage may vary so to speak. What works for one, may not work for another.
Besides who the hell is that guy and what does he know anyway?
it saves time, for sure… but as you say, it’s a question mark. i’ve done head-to-head drills with guys who do it intentionally… its faster when it works, but when it doesn’t work, you get absolutely smoked.
Tortoise versus The Hare, slow and consistent trumps speed and unreliable any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Seems to be the method on Glocks as the slide release lever on my G30 sucks when I compare it to my P220…
That’s because Glock (according to the training I’ve received over the years as an armorer) never intended its primary function to act as a release. They designed it as a detent (Glock calls it a slide stop) with the intention of the shooter using the cocking serrations with the support hand to return the pistol to battery. It can be and is taught to be used as a release by instructors like Larry Vickers and Jason Falla. Installing an “extended” slide stop will greatly assist in this.
I watched a local shooter who relied on it at a national championship one time. He slammed the mag so hard that the baseplate flew off and dumped everything at his feet. He was left with an empty mag body he had to strip out of the gun to get back in the game. The look on his face when it happened was priceless! 
To get most polymer frame guns to auto froward; the trick is not just a hard “slam” of the magazine into the magazine well. Instead, its a magazine insertion with the palm striking the bottom of the magazinewell at an angle which causes the gun to auto forward.
Thanks for the info, will try this afternoon at the range, never seen anyone use that technique.
again thanks,
I have actually never been able to get the slide not to auto forward during a reload on my full-size M&P 45. The only time it doesn’t happen is when I’m reloading with snap caps, and even then, it’s only sometimes. I do want to use the slide release during my reloads, and want to train consistently that way, but every time I jam the mag in, the gun will auto forward before my thumb can get anywhere near it. Thankfully, it has never failed to chamber a round. But the fact that it could happen concerns me. The only way I can think of to not get the slide to auto forward is to try not to insert the mag so hard. I’m not too sure I wanna do that though, as part of what causes the degree of force at which I consistently slam the bottom of the mag with, is caused by the speed at which I insert it into the mag well. So that means I would have to slow down my reload.
It is called “auto forwarding.” Many polymer pistols do it (some easier than others).
Some believe it is a form of loading a weapon. It is not. You can also do damage to the gun or mag by slamming it home and or cause a malfunction.
C4
There is a definite technique to it. I don’t think the guy in the video wanted to describe how its done. Not hard to find out, but not something that really needs to be continued or passed on.
For myself in a pistol that I can release the slide with my primary shooting hands thumb, like the Glock or the Sig, I really do not find myself noticeably faster on the reload. The slide is forward and back into battery before the muzzle is back on target anyway.
Now if I could do the technique on say a 1911 or similar set up where I use the support thumb to release the slide, I would definitely be faster. But again I wouldn’t trade the potential downside for the amount of failures that I have experienced using it under stress type training. Not too mention if real bullets were flying at me.
Just returned from the range: big as shit every time I “slam” the magazine my G17 slide goes into battery. Worked with Glock & KCI magazines. Neat but I will stick with my tap-rack-shoot.
Learn something new everyday.
It’s the angle that does it most of the time. If your gun does it great, train like it doesn’t. Never relie on it, think “murphy’s law”. You don’t want to be fumbling around if your life’s on the line. I use the slide release ymmv.
V/r
Uglyguns
Sometimes it just “happens” but I dont think you should count on it. With my Glock I noticed that it happened more often the older the gun got.
This used to happen to me all of the time on the range when we carried Glock 23’s it does not happen so often now with our G22’s. I was not doing it on purpose, I have a huge paw. More than once the slide went home on an empty chamber, not good. I’ve learned not to hit the rear of the mag well as hard during reloads.
Yeah…the risk you run is that you never know for sure if the slide actually stripped a round when it went forward. And I have also noticed that with my G22 that sometimes, if you happen to be touching the slide lock with your extended thumbs, you may prevent the slide from locking back when empty.
I was practicing speed reload with my HK USP 45c and it happened to me ,Not trying to! had the mag in the palm of my hand and inserted it hard as i was moving to the right to engage another target ,I was thumbing My slide release and was like WTF:confused:
This thread has opened a new light for me ,I just thought it was a goof up on my part.learn something new everyday here