feed 1 round into your semiauto: break extractor?
a website on wax bullets shows how to load and fire them. the way they do it, the wax is flush with the mouth of the case.
for a semiauto, he recommends taking the spring and follower out of the magazine,
insert the magazine so your gun can fire, and put 1 bullet under the extractor claw
and ease the slide closed. why do it that way? because
quote:This requires the loading of each round individually, by hand. DO NOT simply drop the case into the chamber and let the slide fly home -- this can, and probably will result in damage to your extractor.
wha?? I thought pistols like a Beretta Tomcat (tip-up barrel) or Ruger LCP, say that you can leave out the magazine and load a single round, by putting it in the chamber and letting the slide slam shut. and then insert your loaded magazine.
but this guy says that can break the extractor.
who is right?
for a semiauto, he recommends taking the spring and follower out of the magazine,
insert the magazine so your gun can fire, and put 1 bullet under the extractor claw
and ease the slide closed. why do it that way? because
quote:This requires the loading of each round individually, by hand. DO NOT simply drop the case into the chamber and let the slide fly home -- this can, and probably will result in damage to your extractor.
wha?? I thought pistols like a Beretta Tomcat (tip-up barrel) or Ruger LCP, say that you can leave out the magazine and load a single round, by putting it in the chamber and letting the slide slam shut. and then insert your loaded magazine.
but this guy says that can break the extractor.
who is right?
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I have shot thousands of drop in rounds in my 1911's. I have never broken an extractor, although I did need to weld up two that were worn out. I still have a nearly smoothbore barrel from shooting a lot of cast bullets. I don't use steel cases. 0 -
Just another anal, self anointed, net expert. Blowing smoke. Although theoroetically it can happen. It hasn't happened to me in the last 50+ years, of shooting various autos. Don't anticipate it happening, anytime soon. 0 -
didn't think so. thanks. 0 -
There is "some" truth to what the guy says.
When my department issued Browning BDA's and later he Sig P220 back in the 80's we were having numerous broken extractors. It was determined that ofcrs were loading the first round by dropping it into the chamber and letting the slide slam shut.
We contacted Sig and they said don't do that. After a memo went out to load only from the magazine, the problem went away. The extractors on our model guns are not as robust as others.
On some guns you can get away with letting the extractor hit the rim of a chambered round, on others it can, over time, cause breakage. It probably depends on the design of the extractor. Some are just built stronger than others.0 -
"Just another anal, self anointed, net expert"
Go look in the mirror. There's enough fact to the claim that I seldom(well, never)load by dropping a round in the chamber. Do as you like but don't fault the cautious.0 -
if you set up a 1911 correctly it will feed empty cases from the magazine just rack the slide for your flush wax wadcutter bullets I would clean the barrel before shooting any standard ammo 0 -
IMO, Laredo has it.
Whether or not its OK to single load rounds by dropping them right in the chamber depends entirely on the design of the gun and extractor in question.
Some guns have flexible or pivoting extractors and dropping rounds directly into the chamber causes no issue at all. IIRC, Beretta 92 was designed this way, and its OK to single-load rounds.
Others have rigid extractors, that aren't really intended to ride over rims and you can damage them this way.
I don't believe this is an "old wives tale", many manufacturers specifically advise against dropping single rounds in this way, and plenty of people have described broken extractors from loading their pistols (including 1911s) this way.
EG, Smith and Wesson specifically advises NOT to drop rounds directly into the open slide port of its 1911 pistols on page 18 of its manual. See here: https://www.smith-wesson.com/wcsstore/SmWesson2/upload/other/S&W_1911_Pistol_Manual-07-10-2014.pd
Sure, you may be able to get away with this, depending on the exact nature of your extractor (some are more "springy" than others), how its tuned, etc. . .but I don't think its good practice.0 -
I used to load my first pistol, a Ruger Standard .22, by dropping a round into the chamber, closing the action, and inserting a loaded magazine. I loaded my second pistol, a Colt Government Model, the same way. I didn't know any better, and never had a problem.
Fast forward a good many years, and I was firearms instructor for the PD where I worked. We had just started allowing officers to carry a personally purchased 9mm auto pistol. A rookie showed up for his first range day with a fairly expensive two-tone SIG P226. It would not work. I had to remove the gun from service and lend the rookie a revolver from our armory until he could get his SIG repaired. The problem was the extractor. The tip was broken off. Gun went to a SIG armorer who replaced the extractor. Turns out, rookie had just come through basic academy training, and he had loaded his pistol several times by dropping the first round into the chamber. It only took a few times to break it.
Fast forward a few more years, and we decided to issue duty pistols, all SIGs and all .40 S&W caliber. I was elected to attend SIG Armorer School. The instructors made it clear: Always let the first round load off the magazine. ALWAYS. Doing it that way allows the rim to slide under the hook of the extractor, as it is designed to do. Allowing the slide to slam shut on a chambered round requires the extractor hook to slam into and then snap over the cartridge rim, and when that happens, it can break.
So, figuring the good folks at SIG/Sauer knew more about their product than I did, I loaded my pistol their way, and instructed others to do the same. I always load off the magazine now, regardless of the pistol design.
On another note, I recall reading an article by Charles "Skeeter" Skelton a long time ago, in which he described a pistol match popular with the Mexican police. It seems most of the police at that time were armed with 1911 pistols chambered in .38 Super. The match works like this: The shooter has his pistol in his strong hand, slide locked back and an empty magazine in place. In his weak hand the shooter holds a specified number of loose rounds. On signal, the shooter drops one round into the ejection port, manipulates the slide catch to close the slide, and fires one round. Of course, the slide then locks open again, and the process is repeated until the prescribed number of rounds is fired. This match is shot against a timer, and the shooter with the lowest time wins. Seems to me this is a good exercise in manipulating the pistol controls, but could be hard on the extractor.0 -
The majority of auto pistols are designed with controlled round feed. That means as the slide picks one up from the magazine, the rim slides up the slide, and under the extractor. Basically the same system as the 98 Mauser, and a lot of copy cats, like the Pre-64 style Winchester Model 70's, the Ruger 77, 77 MK II, and Hawkeye, and several other's. Closing the bolt/Slide on a loaded chamber, does indeed run the risk of breaking the extractor, no matter how robust the extractor is.
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