I understand it makes little difference but I don't buy that keeping springs fully compressed for a year+ is the same as relaxing it.
Mag manufacturers say for instance reduce capacity by a round if you want & occasionally cycle them; since I can't reliably count on that I try to take it easy on springs during storage.
my mind is very numb just from reading this...
Guys have used otherwise clean 1911 mags that were loaded like 30+ years ago.... guess what, they still worked. If the most popular, fussiest f***ing gun ever invented* worked fine then this really is a fake problem...
* before somebody flames me I just bought another 1911 this week it works great, but that doesn't mean it's still one of the shittiest designs wrt overall reliability.
The only time I have ever witnessed "not keeping a magazine loaded" etc, to "help" something, was in a case where the springs of the magazine were already worn the f***
out. My shitty AMT Back-Up 380 DAO was like that. You could stretch the springs out and it would buy you some tension, for awhile, but not for any real length of time... because the stupid springs were all played the f*** out.
I don't understand racking the slide either. Just lock it back and visually inspect, twice. Done. Seems like wasted energy and unnecessary wear on your gun.
Because if you have a momentary brain computer failure.... let's say you were tired, distracted, or something... multiple slide racking motions will likely remind you of the gross error you just made when you forgot to remove the otherwise loaded magazine from the pistol. Tons of people have had NDs because they forgot to remove a magazine, racked the slide once, and all they did was eject one round and load another. Some people have even done it locking the slide back and not looking for the presence of ammo, etc.
Cycling the slide a few times is what one would call a "free gun safety bingo square" and if you just start doing it, will generally become a habit. You don't even have to "hard" cycle it, just work the slide a few times. If I have a gun that "incurs wear"' by doing that I don't want it in my safe or in my life, f*** that shit. Whats it made out of, tinfoil?
Also, as MH says, not all guns have slide locks. Or some have slide locks that only work under particular circumstances. Or you have difficulty actuating the slide lock on a given
gun.
Pulling the trigger after is not on my agenda either. Training yourself to pull the trigger when not on target seems like a potential training scare, unless you actually aim to practice that nice trigger press one last time before putting your ghat away.
That is more debatable but there are various gun games that require it as part of safety doctrine before reholster or bagging.
A gun should ALWAYS be pointed in a known safe direction when you are performing some kind of "administrative function. " whether clearing or pulling the trigger after doing
so, etc.