Last round loading on a pistol

[MiguelS]

I was at the range and was shooting some 45.

So 7 rounds and reloaded 7 times. So 49 rounds.

Can you just put 1 round in the mag and shoot it.

I tried that and I could not get it go into the chamber.

I tried pulling the slider, but that did not work. Then I did it again and it went into the chamber, but the slider would not go back. So I just took it out and gave away.


What did I do wrong?

[The SoCal Gunner]

What gun are you shooting?

I don't see any reason to why you can't load a single round in a magazine into the chamber. What exactly are you saying happened? Failure to feed?

[Army]

Don't ease or "ride" the slide forward. Pull it back, and let go. It needs to slam forward when loading.

Do not let it slam forward when empty though.

[bombadillo]

Did you shoot it without the magazine in it and try to shoot the round. Most new semi-auto's have a magazine disconnect feature that if you attempt to shoot the round w/o the mag it won't fire.

[minuteman]

Do not let it slam forward when empty though.

Why is that?

[MiguelS]

It was a Sig P220

The gun was in its normal position.
I loaded the round into the mag.
Put the mag in.
Pulled the slider back and it did not load, the slide just stayed back.
Verified the mag was all the way in.
Pulled Slider back again, this time I say the round in the chamber, the slider stayed back, but it seemed that the round was just loose in there. I tilted the gun and the round came out. I decided to just give it away.

[bombadillo]

Who knows then. Does your sig lock at last round open every time or are you having any issues there?

[gewgaw]

You GAVE AWAY a Sig P220? What range do you go to, I might want a free gun next time you decide to give it away!

[Experimentalist]

Don't ease or "ride" the slide forward. Pull it back, and let go. It needs to slam forward when loading.

Do not let it slam forward when empty though.

Good advice.

Accurized pistols (like custom 1911's) will suffer damage if the slide is allowed to slam forward on an empty chamber. As far as I know this is only an issue with accurized pistols, and possibly only with 1911's. Anyone have insight into this?

Also: on 1911 pistols you should always feed ammunition from the magazine, never put a round directly in the chamber and close the slide. Doing so will likely damage the extractor.

Is the slide locking back because the slide lock is engaging, or because the system is mechanically binding?

I'm surprised if your pistol slide locks back with one round remaining in the magazine. It seems that if it did this with one round it would do it with any number of rounds in the chamber.

[bombadillo]

It shouldn't damage the extractor on most guns. This is common practice with a lot of law enforcement. They keep one chambered and a full mag in their guns. At least the local cops here do as well as a number of the nuclear security I run into.

[rivviepop]

It shouldn't damage the extractor on most guns. This is common practice with a lot of law enforcement. They keep one chambered and a full mag in their guns. At least the local cops here do as well as a number of the nuclear security I run into.

He means feeding one into the tube by hand from (usually) the breech face -- what you're referring to is loaded from a magazine, then the loading mag swapped out for another full one (then re-topping off the loading mag). In competition this is referred to as a 'Barney' mag (one round in a mag, after Barney Fife who kept only one round in his pocket ) - a mag just for initial loads into the tube.

[MiguelS]

No I didn't give away a sig, I gave away the last ammo.

When I put in the 7 rounds in the mag and shot them all through, the slider does lock. There was no FTE, FTFeed at all.

So now that it is locked, I take out the mag and put just one round in the mag and insert it into the pistol. I tried loading the pistol but it did not.

I was just wondering if I was doing something wrong. I'll try it again and this time with some dummy rounds.

[MrClamperSir]

No I didn't give away a sig, I gave away the last ammo.
When I put in the 7 rounds in the mag and shot them all through, the slider does lock. There was no FTE, FTFeed at all.
So now that it is locked, I take out the mag and put just one round in the mag and insert it into the pistol. I tried loading the pistol but it did not.
I was just wondering if I was doing something wrong. I'll try it again and this time with some dummy rounds.

I'm not sure what happened but next time after you chamber your first round, drop the mag and load your "extra round" in the mag. No more single round at the end of your session do fool around with.

[bombadillo]

I've actually done both. I've fed one in from the breech face first, dropped the slide, and put a full magazine and done this repeatedly with no damage or issue with my gun. I've done this on multiple firearms and i've done it with lots of people around and nobody said anything about damage to the gun. How would this potentially damage the gun?? The extractor will just flex up around the lip as it usually would so I don't see the issue with doing this.

[Experimentalist]

I've done this on multiple firearms and i've done it with lots of people around and nobody said anything about damage to the gun. How would this potentially damage the gun?? The extractor will just flex up around the lip as it usually would so I don't see the issue with doing this.

It can happen on 1911 model pistols that have internal extractors, as opposed to most pistols that have external extractors. By feeding from the magazine, on a 1911, the extractor hook is able to slip into the groove on the round as the round rises.

Also: on 1911 pistols you should always feed ammunition from the magazine, never put a round directly in the chamber and close the slide. Doing so will likely damage the extractor.