Cycling a semi handgun & hand strength

[garandman]

Opinion: Not hand strength. If one can hold out a gallon of milk, steadily, for 10 seconds, they have what it takes.
What matters more is grip and sight technique.
Strength lends to more endurance, meaning > 20 shots.

I agree. Your average mom exerts more grip strength holding a child's arm crossing the street than is needed to cycle your average 9mm slide

 

[Old Navy]

There are some that are just a bitch to cycle. I have several different brands and have only one that is just almost to much for me to rack. That one is a Springfield XD-9.

 

[cem]

Cornered Cat dot com covers the topic beautifully and at length. At one time there were cocking levers common on competition IPSC style guns with large slide mounted red dot sights so no overhand grip. It's an issue but for just about everybody it is easily solved with a little work and lots of practice. One commonly suggested solution for extreme - wheel chair type issues - is the tip up barrel found on some small caliber semi-auto pistols.

 

[1shot]

I was a firearms instructor for 29 years for the State of Ohio and always taught the opposing hand method. (gripping the slide with the non-dominate hand with the thumb pointing at your chest. The shooter keeps the weapon close to their body, grips the slide and pushes through with the dominate hand.) Using this technique even the weakest grip shooters had no trouble cycling the slide. In one case, myself and three other instructors transitioned over 700 officers to Glock model #23, all of which were brand new firearms. Additionally, it is quite easy to keep the weapon pointed down range without getting it anywhere close to pointing it at another shooter on the line, or at their own forearm.
One final thought. If you train using the pinch method, and your thumb becomes unusable, (for any number of reasons) you are basically screwed. Using the above mentioned technique, you are gripping with the entire hand, not two fingers.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd

 

[Rat Rifle]

^^^ I seriously wish You could instruct My Girlfriend

 

[senderoll]

^^^ I seriously wish You could instruct My Girlfriend

You might not want her to be able to rack the Slide!! LOL

 

[Rat Rifle]

Not to worry Fred, She has other means

 

[BlueWater]

Ditto, on much of the above.

Have old hand injuries, myself, which has reduced my general hand strength quite a bit as compared to 30yrs ago. In my own experience I've found the CZ 2075 RAMI just about impossible to operate, particularly when newer, and the H&K P30 about the simplest ... from the standpoint of racking the slide and operating the controls. Point being, the difficulty and stiffness of a given pistol can be extraordinarily different as compared to "easily"-operated pistols. Irrespective of injuries or arthritis or other conditions that might make it even tougher for a given person.

On the CZ 2075 RAMI, about the only way I've been able to get the slide to rack is: one-handed, shoving the gun down alongside my jeans and hoping it doesn't jam along the way. Can't rack it, just with my two hands, no matter what alterations to technique I do. (CZ 75b and P-01 are fine, by comparison; the H&K P30, about as easy as it gets.)

About the greatest amount of force I can bring, to racking a slide is: holding the gun firmly in my strong hand, just across the front of me, and using the weak hand to grab over the top of the slide while shoving the two hands in opposite directions. (Shoving the gun with the strong hand toward the weak hand, and shoving the slide with the weak hand sharply toward the strong hand.) Works great. Unless the gun in question is extraordinarily stiff.

 

[jdh47]

Most women have more trouble loading the clip that cycling the slide I think.

 

[std7mag]

Sitting here with my left hand bandaged up & right hand recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, there is no way i could shoot a pistol. Much less rack the slide on my 1911 with 4" barrel.
For defense purposes, i'm down to my .410 shotgun. Still enough gun with #4 shot.

Don't forget, the shorter the barrel on a semi auto pistol, the stiffer the spring.
My friends 5 inch barreled 1911 is a pussycat to rack compared to my 4".

 

[MikeT124]

My wife and I (both seniors) use the method described by 1shot. We shoot 1911's all 45ACP, we have no difficulty racking the slide and raising the slide lock with the index finger of our left hand should we want to have the slide remain open. Loading magazines is an easy task using a tool called the "Uplula". look them up in at Natchez or Midway, if they don't come with single stack converter pop for one of those too. They will handle all calibers from 380 through .45, both single and double stack magazines.

Mike

 

[Rsadams]

There's handguns made just for this , alot easer to load mags and cycle them.... I also suggest to people to simply sqeeze a tennis ball to help build hand strength...

 

[1shot]

^^^ I seriously wish You could instruct My Girlfriend

If you ever come to Ohio, it would be my pleasure.

Lloyd

 

[divingin]

I teach new shooters the opposing Hand method where the grip hand pushes one direction and the support hand pushes the other direction. This eliminates the need for hand strength as basically just the open Palm pressure on the top of the slide is enough to cycle the gun.

That's usually what I suggest. Though one caveat is to stress NOT getting the weak hand/arm in front of the muzzle (and also not pointing the pistol sideways at the guy shooting next to you, but you already know that. Turn your body to keep the thing pointed towards the target.)

One other point I usually stress is that any time you pick up a pistol, you pick it up with your shooting grip in your strong hand, and do your handling/manipulation from there.

But even if somebody uses the pinch method on the slide with the support hand I don't really think that much hand strength is needed if you grab the slide up near the muzzle... Even with the tip of the thumb and the forefinger slightly beyond the front of the end of the slide

For new/weaker shooters, it can be difficult to pinch the slide between thumb and finger or 2 hard enough to compress the recoil spring. Hence the push-push method. Or push down on the slide stop with the weak thumb.