Guns Custom Made to Avoid Slide Lock?

[Myles]

For the competition shooters here, why are some custom made guns made so that the slide won’t lock to the rear when empty?

When I bought my Hyperion, I was asked if I wanted the slide to lock back or not.

Any Ideas what the benefit is?

Fred Ruiz any idea?

[Myles]

For anyone interested, I heard back from Atlas Gunworks:

"The design is so flawed in 1911s that for a long time it was not an option. People got in the habit of counting rounds and just stuck in their ways."

[JoeFarewell]

It's something that I've heard several explanations for... but none that really satisfy me. Some people prefer it to not lock back and that's their prerogative, but my personal belief is that I'd rather have the notification that the gun is dry than take another shot before realizing it. Because I've worked a lot with my Hyperion I've gotten a really good feel for when it's dry and can pretty well call it when I'm at that point before I drop the hammer, but there have been a handful of times at matches where it cost me a second because I took that dryfire shot before realizing I needed to reload. Much of that time can be masked in movement and cut by effective manipulations, but it's still lost time.

[Myles]

It's something that I've heard several explanations for... but none that really satisfy me. Some people prefer it to not lock back and that's their prerogative, but my personal belief is that I'd rather have the notification that the gun is dry than take another shot before realizing it. Because I've worked a lot with my Hyperion I've gotten a really good feel for when it's dry and can pretty well call it when I'm at that point before I drop the hammer, but there have been a handful of times at matches where it cost me a second because I took that dryfire shot before realizing I needed to reload. Much of that time can be masked in movement and cut by effective manipulations, but it's still lost time.

Yeah, me, too. I prefer that it lock back even if I don't plan to have it lock back, i.e. speed reload from one position to another. I'd think it would be nice to have just in case. I got the featured added to the pistol, but the mags are competition mags and the follower has a cut out that doesn't allow it to lock--but it's all good.

(Joe, FYI, text you earlier after my class...Will give you a ring tomorrow.)

[Fred Ruiz]

From my understanding of the option is that the magazines are the weak point of a 2011 and the followers are not reliable in producing slide lock. Now, this may be old news, because my Limited .40 2011 is from 2006. I don’t play in the 2011 world for competition anymore so I don’t have any new age experience. I do have clients with Atlas guns and the mags now days are so
much better. So because the followers were unreliable in producing slide lock, people just preferred to remove the option. In fact, I actually have some old mags that produce slide lock with one round still in the mag. That’s a mag lip issue, but I haven’t fixed it. I like my
P80s!

[gunfixrjoe]

I think we can all agree that while firing in a high stress environment of any kind, we have more important things to think about than counting our shots. We're not Archer..........