Is it that this is your carry gun and you are extracting a live chambered round prior to a dry fire practice? Just want to be sure we aren't practicing indoors with live ammo. For your neighbors sake.

 

I wouldn't. In any semi auto pistol, the extractor is designed to have the case slide under it as it strips the round from the magazine and guides it to the chamber, not to be forced over the case when the slide is closed on a pre-chambered round. Let the gun work like its supposed to; everyone will be happier that way.



What is your carry ammo? If it's a +P or +P+ loading, I can understand being especially conscious of bullet setback, and the greater pressures they generate, but more often than not, that won't become an issue until the bullet has moves a goodly distance rearward. Just chambering a round once isn't going to overpressure your ammo.



How I combat bullet setback is to take an Ultra Fine tip Sharpie marker and draw a line around the bullet where it meets the case; when that line is no longer visible, I know the bullet has been setback a fair amount, and I remove and replace it with a fresh round.

 

I dry fire my EDC full size M&P357 a lot when I'm home, I sometimes directly chamber a round when I'm done. I have not broken the extractor yet, but I figure if or when I break it I'll order an Apex Tactical FRE. I do have a spare extractor should I break the one in the firearm so I don't have to wait on an FRE. I don't recall the manual saying not to do so but I could be wrong.

 

This was a well known no-no with 1911's because the extractor on the classic 1911 is one long leaf spring and direct chambering bent it beyond it's designed flexure.



I'm not sure about the spring-loaded pivoting extractors. They're surely designed to pivot far enough, but the geometry on the front surface of the extractor may not be conducive to camming over the cartridge rim. I'd be concerned about the rim getting deformed and breaking on extraction, leaving you with an empty case stuck in the chamber and no quick way to remove it. On the other hand, so much "conventional wisdom" is flat-out wrong, like dry firing without snap caps or magazine spring taking a "set" if they're left loaded.



I don't do it on mine because of the aforementioned reason. But if you've done it with no bad effect, and you're not using the gun for self-defense, keep doing it and report back.

 

I don't do it on mine because of the aforementioned reason. But if you've done it with no bad effect, and you're not using the gun for self-defense, keep doing it and report back.

I EDC my 9c, but the 9fs pretty much stays in the safe for HD. If I try it with the 9fs, what should I look for? Extractor wear? Dinged/dented cases?

 

We've probably done it at least 2000 times loading just one of our M&P pistols, without any ill effects. I'm sure it causes some additional wear, but it hasn't caused any damage as far as I can tell. I find that our Aluminium snap caps wear fairly quickly when you load them this way, but a few of them may have been "direct chambered" 500 times or more, which is a lot to ask of aluminium.

 

I've loaded a round into the chamber with the slide open many times to achieve my "+1" rounds for carry duties. I've never had any issues.



I will say though that if I attempt to do this on my UBER FUSSY

Taurus TCP .380 that any chamber loaded round will always fail to eject when I fire the gun. However if I load the chamber by peeling a round off the top of the mag, then reload that missing round in the mag, I never have issues with ejecting. Weird! I would think that a chambered round is a chambered round, but I guess not with that PITA little gun.

 

Call smith see what they say

 

Unless you're reloading the same round over and over, not rotating your carry ammo, I'm guessing no damage is done at ALL to the extractor, and negligible damage to the rim.



I do it all the time.

 

If people really do worry about this stuff, there is another option. You can place the bullet under the extractor claw and then slowly move the slide forward into battery. The process is easy and quick, but you should test it with your gun at the range to make sure everything still works fine.

1. Lock the slide to the rear.
2. Hold the gun vertically with the muzzle pointing up.
3. Set the bullet on the breechface.
4. Push the bullet (push towards the bottom) until the round slides under the extractor and hits the ejector. Once it's under the extractor, it'll stay in place.
5. Grasp the rear of the slide and begin to slowly move it forward while pushing the bullet downward. Once the round moves in front of the ejector, it will go right into position and into the chamber.
6. Push the slide fully into battery and do a press check to make sure everything's correct.

That, or just keep slamming the rounds home. I've never had any issues with slamming the same round home over and over, but that's just me.

 

I direct chamber to avoid setback in my carry ammo. I haven't had a problem either.

 

It hasn't hurt mine, and I did it a lot before everyone started telling me that the gun would self-destruct if I did it.

I still do it (I figure that the only part to wear might be the extractor, but then I'd have a reason to buy an APEX extractor -- so far I've resisted. Maybe I should buy one now just to have it on hand......

 

The 1911 is a contained extractor, meaning it projects from within the slide, and would put undue stress on it causing them to break or be tweaked causing issues. On the M&P the extractor is external and spring operated. Direct chambering will not harm it unless you do it an extreme amount. Very remote if properly heat treated and the spring is working properly.

As far as setback just rotate the rounds in the mag. I do not worry about setback of a round unless it is a visible difference. Minor differences in OAL aren't a real issue. Any experienced reloader has seen variations. Just caliper factory ammo and you will see it isn't all the same.

 

WARNING: ALWAYS LOAD A ROUND INTO THE CHAMBER BY FEEDING IT FROM THE MAGAZINE. FAILURE TO FOLLOW THIS WARNING CAN RESULT
IN SEVERE INJURY OR DEATH TO YOU OR OTHERS. NEVER ATTEMPT TO LOAD THE PISTOL BY INSERTING A ROUND INTO THE OPEN EJECTION PORT.

Just saying S&W puts this in the manual for a reason.

 

Good point. The mother ship usually provides sound advice.

 

NO! Not ok. The extractor is designed to hook around the shell casing when the bullet is coming up from below in the magazine and being fed into the chamber. It is NOT designed to slam into the back of the shell casing and then claw onto the shell casing. This can break the extractor or cause other issues.

 

S&W recommends against 'direct chambering'. Jabs at the 1911 aside, the throw of the extractor really isn't designed to accommodate snapping over the rim. Sure, it will work (it works on a 1911 too!) but it's not what the gun was designed for.

GsT

 

I can personally attest that direct chambering in a 1911 is really hard on extractors, I broke several extractors on my 1911 before I read that you shouldn't direct chamber on a 1911, I haven't broken one since and its been over 30 years. The extractor on a M&P has a coil spring which the 1911 didn't have, so it should be less of a strain, but if the factory says not to do it, I wouldn't.

 

You'd have to go to the range 50 times to spend the cost of one box of ammo.

I'd say that's not enough money to be worried about vs possibly doing something to damage your pistol.

 

Good point.

 

One of those things that you could probably get away with forever, but probably something you shouldn't do. When I was a kid I did it all the time, even with 1911s (all we had back then...) but then I better understood what was actually happening and quit doing it. It forces the extractor way out of its intended range of motion.

I also never worried about bullet setback but as I have gotten older I have become more aware of the dangers. I would be less concerned if you are talking 9x19, more concerned if you are talking 40S&W, less concerned if you are talking 45ACP.

It is against all I am sure you have been taught, but I would consider riding the slide closed. You are going to be able to verify the thing went all the way into battery before you return it to your holster.

Oops, just reviewed and saw you specified 9x19. As was mentioned, in the managed risk department I would rather risk a little bullet setback that may or may never occur as opposed to KNOWINGLY misusing the extractor every day. Maybe an experiment might be to take a round and chamber it normally and check it against a new round to see at what point it might setback. Like do it five times and check it, ten more times and check it, yada, yada, yada. If it does not setback after twenty times or something then adopt the practice of replacing the round every week or two (maybe on payday?) rather than every single day.

 

I was really surprised to read direct chamber loading described in my Beretta 92 manual.