Zombietactics wrote: (Regarding a woman racking a slide)....
It does not require strength. If you are using strength to rack your slide, you are doing it wrong.
That is both scientifically and mechanically incorrect. There are three basic ways to "rack" a slide and no matter how you slice it, they all require the
strength of the human to overcome the tension of the recoil spring.
Without counting esoteric unusual ways to rack a slide such as by working a lever on some old Spanish semi-auto's, or having a special holster that allows you to push the pistol down into the holster to rack the slide, or some such unusual way to rack a slide,....there are only three
usual basic ways to rack a slide and all of them require the use of human
strength by the operator.
The three basic different "techniques" for racking slides are:
1. holding the frame stationary and simply pulling back on the slide.
2. Holding the slide stationary and pushing forward on the frame.
3. Or the best way to maximize force using both those techniques wherein one pulls the slide back as one also pushes the frame forward at the same time.
But no matter which of those three techniques a person uses, they require the
strength of a human to compress and overcome the tension of the main recoil spring, in order to "rack" the slide and chamber a cartridge.
Depending on the pistol, and depending on that pistol's main recoil spring's tension, the human strength required will vary. Some people may be able to rack a slide on one semi-auto that doesn't have as strong a spring as another semi-auto, but find that they can't (or can't as easily) rack the slide on another semi-auto that has a main recoil spring that is much stronger in tension.
But no matter what, human strength is required to rack a slide, and the strength required to rack a slide and thus compress the recoil spring on anything much larger than a .22LR, is usually more strength than is required to just pull/function the trigger on say,....a double action Smith and Wesson .38 special revolver. That is a scientific factual measurable difference in strength required that is inescapable,.....and functioning the trigger on a double action revolver, only requires one hand instead of two hands to rack a slide.
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