Is the slide supposed to be near impossible to open? Cant believe the effort taken to open it. Normal?

New pistol?

I don't recall it being that hard to cycle, but a common report from those starting out with the P365 is difficulty loading the magazines due to spring resistance. It gets better as they're used and carried.

I have an unfired P365 in one of the safes, and just tried it; the slide didn't feel much different tha a P365 that I daily carry and that's been shot a lot.

Is your firearm lubricated?

By open, I assume you mean rack it, not remove it?

They can be pretty stout to rack for people with limited hand strength.

One way to make it easier, is to hold the slide steady with your weak hand and push the grip forward with your strong hand.

I assume this is what the OP is referring to, not having much to work with.corneredcat.com - slide manipulation

If “difficult to open” means difficult to remove, make sure you’ve removed the mag first. The takedown lever won’t fully rotate with the mag in.

If having a hard time racking slide, check out the techniques posted above or on YouTube and try something that may work better for you.

It does have a pretty stout recoil spring but I didn't think it was that bad.

I've heard of this, where someone first inserts the magazine fully loaded, then tries to rack the slide to chamber a round.

Owners manuals aren't something American males condescend to read. I have photos of artificial Christmas trees as proof.

Rack slide FIRST, lock to the rear. Insert mag. Drop slide lever and release, chamber round. After that the "semi automatic" firearms do it all for you.

If that is being done, then a further examination by a trained firearms mechanic may be in order.

OP, welcome to the forum. A couple of suggestions though:

1) Use more descriptive titles when posting. "P365" doesn't describe your issue.

2) Try and be more descriptive of the problem you need help with. I have no idea specifically what your are asking for help with. From the comments, other posters seem confused as well.

The intent here is to help you get more helpful responses to your future posts. There are a number of VERY knowledgeable SF members here. However, the clearer the post, the better the responses.

Thanks, Nipper, for pointing out something that many members here—including some of the oldest—would benefit from. Although I don’t always follow my own rule, most of the time I won’t even open a thread with a one-word title.

That's no way to treat a new member. OK, his subject line was insufficiently descriptive. Some people are inexperienced at this forum stuff. That's no crime.

I don't want to see members who damn well know better, mistreating my guests. That is how you should view them when you post- my guests. Be polite to my guests.

And to be clear- my remark was prompted, not by the gentle guidance of those trying to help with the subject line or those attempting to answer the question, but rather, by 12131's snarky remark about the member's chosen name, and their absence after creating this thread. This is in no way helpful and it certainly does nothing to encourage a new member to hang around this forum, or even bother responding in their own thread. I don't want to see this stuff, ever.

The question of lubrication before is prompted by the resistance of all the moving parts as the pistol is cycled...not just a stiff recoil spring. Grease on the rail area (I grease in the slide grooves where the rail fits), but also on the lug area beneath the barrel, and between any parts that rub or contact. It doesn't take a lot of grease (or oil, where appropriate) but a little lubricant goes a long way toward a smooth functioning firearm.

A friend presented a Ruger pistol with issues. It was frequently malfunctioning. When I examined the pistol, it was bone dry. We cleaned it, lubricated it, and it ran flawlessly.

Does the slide cycle more freely without the magazine installed? As noted above, resistance from the rounds in a loaded magazine can make it seem a bit stiffer or harder to cycle by hand.

The magazine springs "break in" a bit with use. It's often said that compressing the springs in a magazine doesn't change them, but it's not true. There's a difference in the magazine after it's been loaded and sits for a period of time. Still plenty of spring action, but the magazines do get easier to load, and don't put as much upward force on the slide. Using the magazines, cycling the springs by loading, shooting, loading, shooting, also helps.

A good handgun should be reliable out of the box, but often a few hundred rounds through a pistol do serve to "break it in." It will cycle more smoothly with a little less effort, etc. You can also take the magazine out, clear the chamber, and rack the slide by hand a few hundred times while sitting on the couch watching TV...or practicing dry-fire (practicing shooting with an unloaded firearm, in a safe area).

Some small 9mm have strong springs, and once fired a few times the spring will be easier to manipulate.

I've not had issues with the ones I've fingered at the LGS, all have been easy to move. If you don't have issues with hand strength then perhaps take it to the LGS you bought it from or have another friend try it you trust with your firearm.

If it is hand strength, then try pushing forward with your grip hand while pulling back on the slide, two hand can be better than one. Of course clear it first and keep your finger off trigger when doing this...

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy: You can also take the magazine out, clear the chamber, and rack the slide by hand a few hundred times

I did this with a new CM9 years ago and it helped considerably in breaking that gun in- and those guns were (still are?) known for needing that with their very stiff springs. Wearing leather gloves helps.

One other thing I did with that gun which helped, and which might help the OP- is to lock the slide back and leave it that way for a while. And by a while I mean a few days or even more.

Techknicaully, a spring in compression isn't supposed to change.

Nonetheless mag springs on the 365 are known to change their rate, or, at least the max force when left compressed for weeks at a time. While the spring mavens declare this is unacceptable and a sign of a value engineered spring - it's what we do. And apparently it's what SIG does, too. They have the price, charts and graphs and we have what came with it.

And yeah, this aint Pirate4X4. I hear they aren't that way much now. Within the culture of a particular site, some give and take has been in the past their site their rules. With 16 million new gun owners and over half female, gun sites aren't going to allow it as advertisers start marketing to their audience.

quote:

Originally posted by Tirod:
Techknicaully, a spring in compression isn't supposed to change.

So they say, and springs only wear or lose their strength when cycled. However, I've seen a variety of magazines that clearly changed simply by sitting loaded.

The most glaring example was an HK P2000SK that I daily carried. I grabbed some magazines that had been loaded for some time and took it to the range one day, and when I attempted to shoot, experienced malfunctions. On examination, I found that there was so little tension on the feed lips from the spring that rounds rattled, and fell out. Of three magazines, each failed in the same way. Each sat loaded for an extended time.

I visited the NRA convention shortly after that and spoke with an HK representative at their booth. He said (I kid not) that I'd caused the failure by allowing the magazine to remain loaded. I asked how he thought I should prevent that in the future, and he said to only load the magazine prior to firing. At the time, I thought it may have been one of the most stupid things I'd ever heard. Looking back, it still ranks up there.

I have mag pull 30 round mags that I've let sit loaded for 10+ years, just to see if the magazine spred, the spring took a set, or other problems occurred. They didn't. P320 mags, HK, P365, and others, are easier to load after they've been sitting for a time, loaded. Despite statements to the contrary, it's my belief that some springs will change in compression, perhaps by a limited amount, but I do let my mags sit loaded initially, and I do notice a difference.

The best way to function check and get that spring where it's desired, is to use the mags, though, and cycling a spring is supposed to be how it's done.