Pre-loading Slide Release

[BoppaBear]

Ok, so I know this has been talked about at length here (says my Search-fu). I've read the various threads that discuss the technique.

I've been looking into switching my MOA up a little bit. Admittedly, I've been in the "overhand" camp for years. It works, and was good for me.

I've been shooting and carrying HKs now for 5 years, and they all auto-forward most of the time.

Due to the auto-forward not working ALL of the time, I have continued to keep the overhand movement in my reload, just in case the mag seated and the slide did not AF. Redundancy, but not the most efficient economy of motion.

A few months back, when I started thinking about changing things a little as far as my reload, I even tried to incorporate hitting the support side slide release with the "meat" of the base of my thumb, as I re-acquired my support hand grip. I figured that if I could drop the slide and correctly position my support hand simultaneously, that would be a bonus.

It worked, but not 100% of the time, and it would position that meaty part of my support hand too close to the end of the slide release lever...i.e. Slide lock issues, along with having to adjust the support hand ever so slightly. Another issue is that due to the motion, you have to hit give the release a good smack in order to drop the slide that way.

So fast forward to this weekend and trying out pre-loading. First, I have no idea if the momentum was dropping the slide, or if I was inadvertently pressing down with my strong hand thumb and releasing the slide...maybe due to anticipation. Further, I dropped the slide early almost every time. ETA- this probably means I was relying on momentum.


Long story short, I'm interested in cleaning up my reloads and making them as efficient as possible. I would also like to have similar MOA as releasing the bolt on my AR.

Anyone have any suggestions, videos, or the same issue as me?

Thanks

[KevinB]

Do not pre-load with your strong thumb. Your going to initiate the slide release early countering the weapon movement when the mag is being inserted.

I am an "autoforward" user -- I'm running M&P's - but I use my support hand thumb to drop the slide as a backup (and still go thru motions if the autoforward worked) to autoforward.

[BoppaBear]

Good suggestion. Thanks KevinB.