[Shemoves]

Firing on an empty chamber and slamming the slide closed on an empty chamber. I know that it can damage the gun, but I don't know how it or what gets damaged.

 

[fatcat]

Depends on the gun, Dont know of any guns that closeing the bolt will hurt it but only some .22's and some rusky guns can break fireing pins of dry fired.

 

[The Ghoul]

It's just a superstition. Like FatCat said, it's only cheap guns that will break. Any normal pistol or rifle will be fine with letting the slide go home with nothing in the tube and dropping the hammer with no round in the chamber.

 

[Shemoves]

If I were to do it often on a well-built gun, are there things that doing either would wear moreso than when firing normally? (Have no intentions of doing this, but it helps me understand the intricacies of a gun's design.)

 

[Ducman]

Dropping the slide / bolt on any firearm is bad form, especially when looking at a new firearm at a shop.

also, a 1911 is a controlled feed design, so dropping the slide on an empty chamber puts stress on the sear and hammer engagement and the bottum lugs, do it repeatedly and it is a sure way to ruin a nice trigger job.

 

[jamz]

Yeah I think this rumor is mostly 1911 derived.

If you think about it, the 1911 slide (and any semiauto slide/bolt) is designed to move forward with enough momentum to gather up a heavyish cartridge from a tight magazine, and push it firmly into the chamber. That's a lot of mass to move and position, so the slide is sprung such that it will do it reliably. Removing that mass from the equation means that the slide is banging home with much more force than it's designed to.

That said, most quality equipment would be able to handle it just fine, but it is undoubtedly harder on the gun.

 

[The Ghoul]

Well, if you do it when you don't fire it will put more wear on the gun. Moving it puts wear on it. Moving it when you aren't practicing puts unwanted wear on it.