Came across something for which I was oblivious. My wife and I were out of town and on the way back we stopped at Rural King in Martinsville. We were taking in the descriptions and information which the attendant behind the gun counter was walking us through.
If you look at my original description of the handguns which we are seeking ....
https://www.indianagunowners.com/threads/took-long-enough.547355/post-9857001
Our main concerns are that it is easy to rack and that we get a 22 and a 9mm which are fairly similar in layout, button positions, actions, etc. That way our older minds shouldn't have to grapple with which one do we have now, how is it different; in short if the moment of need should be thrust upon us, we shouldn't have to make any "oh yeah" mechanical decisions with the piece itself.
At Rural King, we were handling and sliding the slides of numerous semi-autos; we shuffled our feet along as the attendant described the next and on to the next we scooted making our way along the gun case.
What took me by surprise is that those non-easy-to-rack 9mm handguns require differing amounts of force to rack. I didn't expect that. Somehow, without much consideration, I had conceived the notion that there were a few easy-to-rack models and all the rest were all hard to rack and about as hard as each other. What I learned was that some non-easy-to-rack models are easier to rack than others; and some quite noticeable. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Once that concept had lit up a small space in my old brain, it made perfect sense. Not all barrels are the same length; not all recoil springs are the same; not all slide masses are the same. And there may be many fundamental differences in the internal mechanisms.
And interestingly, my tiny little wife was more able to rack some than others. Hmmm. Perhaps this opens up the possibility spectrum of potential firearms which we might acquire.
Are there any measurements of these forces? Someone have data?
If you look at my original description of the handguns which we are seeking ....
https://www.indianagunowners.com/threads/took-long-enough.547355/post-9857001
Our main concerns are that it is easy to rack and that we get a 22 and a 9mm which are fairly similar in layout, button positions, actions, etc. That way our older minds shouldn't have to grapple with which one do we have now, how is it different; in short if the moment of need should be thrust upon us, we shouldn't have to make any "oh yeah" mechanical decisions with the piece itself.
At Rural King, we were handling and sliding the slides of numerous semi-autos; we shuffled our feet along as the attendant described the next and on to the next we scooted making our way along the gun case.
What took me by surprise is that those non-easy-to-rack 9mm handguns require differing amounts of force to rack. I didn't expect that. Somehow, without much consideration, I had conceived the notion that there were a few easy-to-rack models and all the rest were all hard to rack and about as hard as each other. What I learned was that some non-easy-to-rack models are easier to rack than others; and some quite noticeable. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Once that concept had lit up a small space in my old brain, it made perfect sense. Not all barrels are the same length; not all recoil springs are the same; not all slide masses are the same. And there may be many fundamental differences in the internal mechanisms.
And interestingly, my tiny little wife was more able to rack some than others. Hmmm. Perhaps this opens up the possibility spectrum of potential firearms which we might acquire.
Are there any measurements of these forces? Someone have data?