Testing the APX Slide Serrations

[arcfide]

[I posted this on the Beretta Forum, but since I've seen talk about this here as well, I thought I would put my thoughts down in this forum as well.]

As has been talked about elsewhere, there is talk of the APX slide serrations being useless when wet. Let's see how much of this is true and how much of this is not:



For those who don't want to go through the video, here's the salient points:

1. If you're using gloves, it's a non-issue. The serrations are excellent with gloves in all conditions.

2. If it's only water, it's not trivial, but it's not bad. Overhand racking is the way to go.

3. If it's oily slick, then it's going to be hard to rack the slide, no matter what grip you use.

4. You can use the rear sight or the front serrations and the front of the pistol even when the gun is very slick.

5. The slide release works very well in all conditions, and is the most reliable way of dropping the slide under slippery circumstances.

[psalms144.1]

Great video - thanks for taking the time to post that.

Only one comment - as a guy who has limited function in his left pinky and some GNARLY scars on his left hand from a Negligent Discharge that occurred while I let my left hand get in front of the muzzle of a malfunctioning pistol I was trying to clear, the way you manipulate the pistol from the "nose" gives me the heeby jeebies, even knowing the pistol is unloaded.

[arcfide]

Great video - thanks for taking the time to post that.

Only one comment - as a guy who has limited function in his left pinky and some GNARLY scars on his left hand from a Negligent Discharge that occurred while I let my left hand get in front of the muzzle of a malfunctioning pistol I was trying to clear, the way you manipulate the pistol from the "nose" gives me the heeby jeebies, even knowing the pistol is unloaded.

That's fair. I think a lot of people would want to find a different method of manipulating the slide when it is wet than running it from the front. However, when it was super slick, the most reliable way to run the gun was definitely with the slide release, and a combination of either the rear sight ledge or the front of the pistol. If running it from the front is a no-go for you, then the rear sight ledge is quite functional as well.

If you have a strong grip and nails, it's also possible to use your nails to dig in on the slide serration ledges and make the slide work that way, but I'm not sure I would rely on such a technique.

For the most part, the gun would have to be very slippery before you would need to do anything like this. With something like water alone, it's not necessary. But I agree that grabbing from the nose carries an increased risk of burning or blasting the tips of your fingers should a round fire under those conditions.

[arcfide]

I was probably most surprised by how easy the slide release was to use under all these conditions. Initially, when handling the release, I was under the impression that it was pretty slick, and would probably be harder to use when wet/slick. I have had this experience with Glock slide stops, for instance, where even when they are dry I have trouble using them. Instead, it was clear that the slide release was as easy when wet/slick to use as it was when dry.