Major said:
I had the same problem racking the slide with Fed HS and WWB. Speer GD didn't cause a problem.
But, after reading this forum and Jocko's advice and going back to the manual ... I tried the slide stop lever technique. I was able to chamber the first round for every type of ammo I have. I don't understand why ... but it works.
Big confidence boost.
try this: For some reason if you load one round shy in your magazine, u can rack that slide with much better success. My shooting drills has provent his to be true for my anyhow. Load one shy and rack away, u will also get better at it to, as ur success will get better and your confidence also.
When I load to carry I used to load full magazine and with slide lock lever it would load any round I wanted, and then I just popped out the magazine and put that extra round back in it. Ifyou gonna do what I do and want to rack the slide to load, then just load one round shy and thenpullthe magazine and load 2 rounds and you are good to go.
I can say that after 1500 rounds through my P380 it is for me the most difficlult of any gun I have ever tried to rack to load--successfully. There is no doubt those recoil springs are stout as hell, maybe also we are getting so many reports of a "nice" shooting low recoil gun also.
I don't worry about that stuff, for when I carry,it is loaded and I don't carry a spare magazine, so racking for me is a no brainer . YMMV.
they are rackable, some never have any issues doing it. My P380 is as smooth as glass but still not easy for me to rack with perfection and if you don't have faith in doing it, then use the slide lock lever, it won't let you down. It will release that slide every time with the same velocity needed to load a round properly. Using the slide lock lever eliminates any possably riding of the slide...