Ok to drop loose round into the chamber?

[oldguysrule649 397]

Let me preface my question below by pointing out that due to arthritis, I am unable to load rounds into my Glock mags by hand.  I always use a Maglula.  I also carry with one round in the chamber and ten in the mag.  It is also not practical for me to use the Maglula while sitting in my car.

With that said, whenever I am carrying and need to visit a sensitive location (e.g. restaurant that serves alcohol),  I remove the mag and rack the round out of the chamber, then secure my G26.

After returning to my vehicle, I lock the slide back,  take the loose round and drop it into the chamber, release the slide, and then insert my mag. 

My question is:  Is there any safety or functional concern with respect to my loading the firearm in this fashion?.  I.e. dropping the loose round manually into the chamber.    (As opposed to inserting the mag first and allowing the slide to strip a round out of the mag and feeding it into the chamber in the normal fashion. Which would then leave me with 9+1.)

As an aside, a few days ago I came across this Youtube video  by Massad Ayoob.  At the 5:30 mark, he specifically addresses my question. For functional reasons(extractor damage) he advises not to do it;  albeat he is focused on a 1911, not striker pistols, in this video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJdsSJsNKU8

Appreciate any feedback or guidance on this topic.

 

 

[ESB 247]

It could damage your extractor.  Its not designed to be run that way.  I damaged the extractor in my 1911 dropping rounds into the chamber and releasing the slide.  I started getting failure to ejects.   Had to send it back to get fixed.   I don't see why a striker fired pistol would not have the same issue.  The extractor design and function isn't really different between the 2.  

[124gr9mm 859]

Your Glock will be fine.

1911's and pimped-out race guns based on 1911's warn against it.

Modern striker-fired pistols are designed better.

The only potential 'risk' I can see if the extra/regular manipulation you're doing with the gun and a live round.  if your hands are compromised to the point where you can't load a round in the gun without a tool, i'd say there's a chance something will go wrong with the way you're manually loading.

How about just carrying an extra (full) magazine in the car that you can use to top off the gun with?

[Mr.Stu 1,922]

There are basically 2 risks. One is extractor damage which is pretty low on a pivoting extractor design like a Glock. The traditional extractor on a 1911 is spring steel and it simply not designed to move out far enough to jump the rim of the case.

The second issue is that the case rim is not designed to have the extractor jump over it, so repeated loading like this with the same round could deform the rim so the extractor doesn't get a proper purchase on it. That in turn could lead to a failed extraction. It is less of an issue with brass cased ammo than a softer material such as aluminum. 

To mitigate the second risk, when you can use your uplula, swap the round you're chambering, with one from the magazine periodically. Maybe mark the chambered round with a sharpie so you don't swap back to it on a later rotation. 

[FDHog 613]

I would just carry an extra mag and not bother with the one in the chamber. What are the odds that you're gonna need to fire off 22 rounds? If you're in that bad of a situation 2 extra rounds aren't gonna matter. No matter what, even with just a 10 round mag, in your case you would be down a round every time you stopped at a secure location. Just keep an Uplula in your car. You can load on your leg. Having to unload every time you stop is a dumb law. Securing it in a locked box should be enough, but then again, this is NJ.

[maintenanceguy 510]

I do exactly what you describe.  Drop a round in the chamber / release the slide / insert mag.  I don't see any risk of discharge.  If I eventually wear out the extractor doing this, I'll install a replacement extractor.

[High Exposure 5,664]

I have seen an aftermarket Glock extractor (Apex No Fail extractor) chip from doing this.

One option is keeping an empty spare mag that you can top off from. Put one round in the mag, insert the mag with a single round, run the slide, and swap the now empty mag with a full 10 rounder.

In any event - chambering the same round over and over is not preferred either as you can run into bullet setback issues as well as the before mentioned failure to extract due to damaged case rim.

The real questions is why is it necessary to unload your gun every time you secure it? I take my whole setup with the gun still in the holster and secure it as a package, or I carefully remove my gun from my holster and place it in the my lockbox/safe at home. When I retrieve it, I carefully take hold of the pistol, making sure to not touch the trigger or muzzle any meat, and place the gun in my holster.

I would argue that repeatedly loading and unloading a handgun while securing/storing and making ready to carry offers more chance for an ND/AD than carefully moving a loaded handgun from a holster to secure storage and back again. 

[JohnnyB 4,325]

42 minutes ago, High Exposure said:

The real questions is why is it necessary to unload your gun every time you secure it?

^^^^^THIS^^^^^

[Mr.Stu 1,922]

1 hour ago, High Exposure said:

The real questions is why is it necessary to unload your gun every time you secure it?

It's because the statute requires it. You cannot legally leave a loaded gun in your vehicle, whether it's in a lock box or not. 

[JohnnyB 4,325]

24 minutes ago, Mr.Stu said:

It's because the statute requires it. You cannot legally leave a loaded gun in your vehicle, whether it's in a lock box or not. 

@High Exposure Your opinion!

[Mr.Stu 1,922]

This was discussed about a week ago. I even posted the statute and explained that only part of it was enjoined by the preliminary injunction https://www.njgunforums.com/forum/index.php?/topic/107572-ccw-question-in-the-car/&do=findComment&comment=1439067

[High Exposure 5,664]

6 hours ago, Mr.Stu said:

It's because the statute requires it. You cannot legally leave a loaded gun in your vehicle, whether it's in a lock box or not. 

Ah. I thought that portion was struck. Damn. Ignore my advice.

I leave my gun at home if I know I’m going someplace I have to disarm, and I try really hard to go to those places as infrequently as possible.

[oldguysrule649 397]

Thank you all for the feedback.  Based on it,  I plan to:

- I will no longer drop the loose round into the chamber, even if the risk of extractor damage is low in a Glock.

- The idea of having an empty mag to assist in reloading the loose round is a good one.  I may be able to manage loading that single round into the empty mag by hand.  And I can just keep that empty mag in the lockbox so it is always available.

- The suggestion to carry a second full mag was a good reminder to begin doing so in earnest for many reasons.  (I just received my PTC three months ago so had not yet progressed to doing that.)

- While I did carry with an empty chamber for the first month, I now always carry with one in the chamber. For all the compelling reasons that have been discussed in other threads;  as well as the fact that racking the slide quickly and efficiently is a challenge due to the aforementioned arthritus. (For now, I am carrying OWB at 3 o'clock.)

- I also avoid carrying if I know I am going solely to a sensitive place.  (Eg going to dinner with the wife at a place that serves alcohol.)  Also,  I try to arrange my trips/errands to avoid stops at sensitive places.

regards,   Art

[raz-0 1,259]

21 hours ago, 124gr9mm said:

Your Glock will be fine.

1911's and pimped-out race guns based on 1911's warn against it.

Modern striker-fired pistols are designed better.

The only potential 'risk' I can see if the extra/regular manipulation you're doing with the gun and a live round.  if your hands are compromised to the point where you can't load a round in the gun without a tool, i'd say there's a chance something will go wrong with the way you're manually loading.

How about just carrying an extra (full) magazine in the car that you can use to top off the gun with?

This isn't a "built better" issue. 

You can still mess up a glock doing this, it's just that the set of mechanical issues are slightly different. 1911s may get tensioning issues due to the case rim forcing a range of motion that is not part of the normal cycling movement. More modern extractor designs will potentially suffer from the snap back over the rim, the shock it generates, and the quality of mim components. Both are not going to be super common, and you can monitor them during maintenance. The failure of the mim part is likely to be physical breakage, and should be more obvious than reduced tension.