Frank Proctor on Slide manipulations

[JCS]

Forgive me if this has been discussed but I came across this video.

https://youtu.be/Tw8cWNj3qQ4

Specifically the first 8 minutes when he talks about slide manipulation when loading, press checking and clearing malfunctions.

What are the opinions on this? I'm intrigued by the speed of it but wonder about possible dangers of putting your hand in that position?

Also a side question, is Frank Proctor a resource I can trust? Forgive me for my ignorance I'm still learning.


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[SLG]

Frank is a good guy and a forward thinker.

Having said that, I am not sold on front slide manipulations. It is faster, no doubt, but I don't consider the speed advantage to be worth the safety trade off.

Others, no doubt, feel differently.

[Josh Runkle]

Frank is a good guy and a forward thinker.

Having said that, I am not sold on front slide manipulations. It is faster, no doubt, but I don't consider the speed advantage to be worth the safety trade off.

Others, no doubt, feel differently.

I actually have identical thoughts to you:

Frank's a good guy. He knows a lot. Definitely a lot more than me.

I choose not to use this technique for multiple reasons: safety, gun-to-gun transferability of skills with overhand rear of the slide instead (you can't really do front of the slide with, say, an LCP), and my focus is on self-defense and not competition so I favor reliability over speed.

Other people will feel differently than me, and that's ok, but it's not really going to affect how I shoot.

[Matt O]

I took a class with Frank back in 2013 and he, at least according to what he mentioned in class, was just starting to work on this manipulation at that time. It works really well for Frank and, as with most things, he makes it appear smooth and effortless. In the class we specifically did some malfunction clearing and tap-rack-bang drills in which we worked on using that particular technique.

There are definitely some concerns about being closer to the muzzle, but also the difficulty in doing this on firearms without forward slide serrations. At the time I was shooting a Glock 17 and after several repetitions my hands were getting slick and one time the web of my hand slipped off the front part of the slide and got eaten by the barrel tilting up and coming into battery which left a nice bleeder and meant I was pretty much done with that technique for the time being.

I will admit to doing press checks using this technique, but for malfunction clearance and tap-rack-bangs I lean more towards a traditional overhand method.

[Luke]

Frank is awesome. He is about an hour away from me. We've shot a couple matches together (one together and 1 he was there lol). Super cool dude and his transition speed is absolutely mind numbing.

I do everything from the front EXCEPT malf. Clearing. It's just natural to tap rack over hand for me. I'm also limited on the amount of strength I can put in the slide from the front area.

[Matt O]

Frank is awesome. He is about an hour away from me. We've shot a couple matches together (one together and 1 he was there lol). Super cool dude and his transition speed is absolutely mind numbing.

I do everything from the front EXCEPT malf. Clearing. It's just natural to tap rack over hand for me. I'm also limited on the amount of strength I can put in the slide from the front area.

Sweet man, I'm jealous. Being able to pop over for steel or 2 gun matches on his range on a regular basis would be incredible.

Frank is an incredibly gifted shooter. I hope to have the opportunity to train with him again in the future.

[Luke]

For now he is only doing the steel match. We went to his first one and squaded with him. placed 4th out of like 25? That was his biggest steel match so far. It ran late into the dark and I think a lot of people got turned off. But he has it running smooth now. Shot 81.09% of him the last uspsa match we shot together. And he was a cheater limited guy




Anyone who hasn't trained/shot with/ been around him, you should. The dude just oozes cool calm and collected. It puts me at ease being around him, like no joke. Awesome dude.

[JHC]

I took a class with Frank back in 2013 and he, at least according to what he mentioned in class, was just starting to work on this manipulation at that time. It works really well for Frank and, as with most things, he makes it appear smooth and effortless. In the class we specifically did some malfunction clearing and tap-rack-bang drills in which we worked on using that particular technique.

There are definitely some concerns about being closer to the muzzle, but also the difficulty in doing this on firearms without forward slide serrations. At the time I was shooting a Glock 17 and after several repetitions my hands were getting slick and one time the web of my hand slipped off the front part of the slide and got eaten by the barrel tilting up and coming into battery which left a nice bleeder and meant I was pretty much done with that technique for the time being.

I will admit to doing press checks using this technique, but for malfunction clearance and tap-rack-bangs I lean more towards a traditional overhand method.

When my younger lad and I trained with him he showed us this and I never got the hang of it and never messed with it again. Frank has some massive mitts.

[JCS]

Frank is a good guy and a forward thinker.

Having said that, I am not sold on front slide manipulations. It is faster, no doubt, but I don't consider the speed advantage to be worth the safety trade off.

Others, no doubt, feel differently.

That's what I figured. I hadn't considered the speed aspect until I saw the video


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[Totem Polar]

There are definitely some concerns about being closer to the muzzle, but also the difficulty in doing this on firearms without forward slide serrations. At the time I was shooting a Glock 17 and after several repetitions my hands were getting slick and one time the web of my hand slipped off the front part of the slide and got eaten by the barrel tilting up and coming into battery which left a nice bleeder and meant I was pretty much done with that technique for the time being...

That's my knee-jerk concern as well: aside from my being a klutz and worried about getting a hand that close to the muzzle on the fly, I have concerns about a technique that looks like it could fall apart sooner with hands slicked up with whatever in a bad situation. Sure looks fast and cool though.