I remember reading a deal somewhere, the guy complaining about a copper rub on the left side of the slide inside just behind the ramp . It really bothered this guy because I guess the whole gun was foot deep almost plum blue except this copper rub .
In any case a guy , may have been one of y'all , explained in great detailed minutae about how exactly that 1/8 of an inch of slide travel interaction happened during the cartridge release from the magazine .
The very short version being that it pops up , rolls to the inside of the extractor , and rebounds off the slid to get in the chamber to just about the case mouth and the slide hammers it home . It was described in such a way that it played out like this delicate ballet where a stork is running on ice and gets hit by a truck . Oh and the gun , it's going to run dirty and fail to battery if it ISN'T making that little copper teardrop on the slide .
I shot the XD40 a lot and the HP-9 FEG too . I shot the assorted 38 Specials probably 2x what I shot those and the Security 6 357 almost as much . I was on quite a run with the 1917 which demonstrated in a hurry that while the 1947 M10 didn't have a bad trigger and the trigger was actually very good in the Sec 6 they both suck .
A perfect semi would have enough slide weight with it's preferred load to drag the muzzle back down to zero rise . It should have a compound grip type safety of 2 elements . I don't think DAO or single is the right answer DA/SA because as an all purpose side arm there will be times when you just don't want to pull that first shot through , dispatching a road strike that's flopping around trying to run with a broken back for example. Maybe just in a recreational use . For business odds are good you're never going to know if it is a 3# clean break single or an 8# double gravel driveway and it won't matter because any hit within 8" of where you wanted it is going to be close enough to the 3rd button .
Obviously it should be in a useful cartridge of enough. I can shoot a 445 super mag , and I'm a firm believer in if the pumps ain't working and or the brain pan is disconnected the fight ain't going to last much longer . But I also believe that if you cant poke a hole in it you should break it in as many pieces as possible. You have to do one or the other. If you can't control the arm and cartridge you cant poke a hole in it let alone break stuff .
I hate that there's no second strike in the XD .
I dislike the mag disconnect in the HP .
Decades of training make me hate the take down of the first gen Glocks , I can check it 15 times and I still wince at dropping the hammer to remove the slide .
Slide bite ....... thankfully that has been all but completely designed away .
Give me long enough I'm sure we can mod away every inconvenience . Then it will only take 15-20 yr of every horror on the planet to prove it's at least as reliable as GI box stock M9/92/96 , P35 , or 1911 . Probably nearly that long to perfect it's elegance.
With JMB in mind .......
He used a treddle drill press and lathe until 1900 unless he was working for Colt or Win .
When he went to trials with the 1918 there was 1 rifle . No spares , no spare parts , what he walked in the door with was it . Today we would call that a lot of things but I don't think smart would be on the list . It worked out. He built it on the treddle machines with files and a charcoal horse shoe forge ........
I think we take .0005 as and O/U slop dimension far too much for granted.
