Training

Proper Handgun Racking Technique

How to properly retract the slide to load, unload, and clear a malfunction
and why the Chambermax TA-1 helps.

Hand Over the Top

The best way to retract the slide of your pistol is to place a hand over the top of the slide onto the TA-1, grip it, pull it fully rearward until the travel stops, and release.

When you load and unload, you want to pull the slide fully to the rear until it stops, which you will feel is a little past the slide lock. Doing so maximizes the potential kinetic energy of the barrel spring. This helps the pistol properly pick up and chamber the next round from a magazine for loading, or maximizes the breech area opening for ejecting a live round during unloading or clearing a jammed round.

This technique is practiced by shooting professionals as it is a gross motor skill that requires less accuracy in the placement of your hand and it maximizes your grip on the slide.

The Chambermax TA-1 accessory, with its unique wedge shape, helps prevent your hand from slipping off the rear of the slide and reduces the gripping force required from your hand to retract the slide. This is highly beneficial if you have reduced finger or hand strength or have wet or contaminated hands such as in defensive combat or a high stress situation. The TA-1 also directs your hand away from the muzzle end of the pistol for safer operation.

“Sling Shot”

We call this the “Sling Shot” way to retract the slide. We’ve all seen it in the movies but it’s a mediocre way to rack the slide and is not recommended. The problem is that it uses fine motor skills; you have to place your index finger and thumb in the just the right spot at the back of the slide, it requires a lot of finger squeeze when pulling back the slide, and it increases the likelihood that your fingers will slip off the back of the slide which can cause a malfunction. If it’s your technique the Chambermax TA-1 will make it easier, but the best way is the hand over the top method shown above. The “Sling Shot” technique is fine on the shooting range, but it is never taught or practiced in defensive handgun.

“Thumbing” The Slide Release

“Thumbing” the slide release button to close the slide and chamber a round is never a recommended way to close the slide. Again, you want to pull the slide all the way rearward, just past slide lock, to maximize the energy in the barrel spring to chamber the first round in a new magazine. Simply pressing down on the slide release button to snap the slide forward is not the proper way to handle loading a semi-automatic pistol with live rounds.