If you’re not, Handi-Racker it my friend:
Instructions:
- Place the Handi-Racker over the sight at the front of the slide.
- Make sure you have a secure connection between the Handi-Racker and the sight/slide.
- Push the grip forward or push the Handi-Racker rearward.
- Release pressure from the Handi-Racker, allowing the recoil spring to drive the slide forward
- Remove Handi-Racker from the slide
You can check out a full review and more pictures over at Average Joes Handgun Reviews.
Check out the Handi-Racker website, where you can purchase one for $20. It comes in small, medium, and large. No word on when you actually hit the checkout if that $20 will be adjusted for inflation, seeing as that website was obviously made in the 1990s.
Thoughts? Know someone that could use it, or do you think the idea is dumb?
Hat tip: Jeffrey
Comments
34 responses to “Sure You Own A Handgun But Are You Strong Enough To Chamber A Round?”
One of the great things about guns is how they act as the great equalizer. If a person who is (old, disabled, weak, whatever) is attacked by a younger, stronger, or more skilled predator, they stand a chance at being something other than a victim. To that end, if this device helps someone who would otherwise be unable to utilize a handgun, more power to ’em I say.
Good way to put it. I was thinking along the same lines, and this might actually help some women chamber full-size newer autos. My mother has a hard time racking the first round and I don’t like handing someone new at guns a chambered weapon. The price really isn’t all that bad, either. Stuff like this seems to become a collector’s item either way, so why not?
or they just carry loaded at ALL times forever lol
+1
My ex-girlfriend can’t rack a slide to save her life.
A few years ago a buddy of mine and I smithed an old pistol for my buddy’s grandfather. He had arthritis and could no longer grip the slide to pull it back. So we drilled and tapped two holes in the side of the slide, one on each side. And threaded into those holes two lathe turned stubs, about an inch long each, and loctited them in place. That way he had something he could loop his fingers over, or use the side of a table to cock the gun. Over the years I’ve thought about other improvements that could be made on pistols so older shooters (since all the baby boomers are entering their golden years) can still enjoy going to the rage, even if affected with arthritis and reduced hand strength.
Seems pointless if the tool has less grip than the pistol.
Needs more jimping.
+1
There are plenty of tutorial videos like this one that show persons who don’t have much hand strength how to retract the slide and (un)chamber a round:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbayNc6D9HY
If you can’t use a technique like this because your hands are *that* weak, I wonder if you shouldn’t just carry a revolver or a tip-up-barrel Beretta pistol instead…and if you’re so learning-challenged that tutorial videos and written descriptions don’t help explain the technique to you, I question whether you should be carrying a gun in the first place…
If your hands are that weak how are you gonna fire a revolver?
Unfortunately the gun community has a few loudmouths who love to talk about things they don’t understand. In this case, muscle groups and the different conditions that can cause problems.
Different conditions, different solutions. Sorry, just because a woman makes a good video on guns doesn’t mean it’s certainly going to work for every person out there. Loudmouthing a link won’t make it so. It won’t do any good to try to explain to airheads that extreme weakness in some muscles for some motions doesn’t mean you’re too weak to fire using other muscles and motions. Different muscles, different resistance, different movements. Just like having a strong mouth and a weak brain.
It’s good we have all these efforts…good instruction on techniques, good devices like Handi Racker, and different types of guns. All good. The only thing that’s not so good is dim bulbs calling people with hand troubles learning challenged. The irony! Someone here is learning challenged, all right!
Factor in arthritis, 80 year old skin, and a maimed hand (That’s my mother) and most autos are not an option. This little tool opens up new options for a whole-lotta people who want a modern gun for protection.
Put a magnet in the ‘trench’ to hold the gun and some screw holes so you can mount it some where. Then I might bet stupid enough to buy it.
I’m stuck on contemplating the deep wisdom and inscrutable meaning of the slide bring retained by the slide retainer….
Revolver.
Thats what I got my mom into, after cancer twice her grip is next to nothing. Can’t even rack a 22, but she can load a revolver just as fast as I can change a mag with her speed loaders. And with her 9-shot 22 and unload in a 10″ disk at 15yrds hitting with deadly accuracy. Modern or not its not something to protect and that’s all that matters.
That said, this product will help for those who already own modern handguns and want to keep firing them at old age or with disabilities, in an emergency situation they’ll be better off with a revolver.
Hey man, weakness or not, there’s nothing wrong with having your mom shoot a revolver.
The semi-auto is *not* an end-all be-all weapon. It has its own set of problems, many of which a revolver is devoid of (and vice versa, I know). But there’s a reason they’re still so popular — they work. Yeha, the round limitation is annoying, but if you carry and you carry a sub compact, you’re not pushing out many more rounds anyway, and if you have big hands like me, reloading those tiny semi’s are a pain in the ass. If I HAVE to carry a sub compact I carry a Ruger, but I’ve been mulling a revolver as an option between carrying the LCP and a full size M&P9.
Props to your mom for hitting with that accuracy.
I agree with Critter….Just buy a revolver.
Don’t own (or use) a firearm you can’t properly operate.
Mom’s way ahead of you; her go-to house gun is a .45 Blackhawk, and she also has a Single-Six. Her newest gun is a Single-Ten. She has an LCP for a pocket gun, but it is tough for her to rack.
Single action revolvers are easy for weak hands to operate, and they are fun to shoot at the range.
Why would you need this, just buy a holster that does it for you.
https://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2012/11/20/stupid-holster-alert-the-audacity-of-carrying-a-loaded-handgun/
Zing!
I could never use this or any other product until it has been Buck Yeager Approved!
what mlk18 said !!! In all seriousness though, we have tons of old retired police officers and firefighters in my club, and father time has not been to kind to them, and some has some disabilty going on in the hands, but they still like to shoot and show us young ‘uns how they used to roll. I could see this being used by them on the range.
My concern is that if you don’t have the hand strength the rack the slide, you might not have the hand strength to keep the pistol steady during cycling (limp-wristing). I’d have to vote for smaller caliber autos with less recoil (and less required racking strength) or revolvers.
You only need good strength in one hand to fire a self-loading pistol, but you need two good hands to load them. A friend of mine (who prefers 19+1 to 6) could put this to good use.
“Israeli Carry 4 Life”
Said no one sane, ever.
+1. I have this argument with my dad all the time. He thinks it’s okay to carry with an empty chamber. I told him just buy a tube sock and a paperweight then.
Not a clue why people (mostly women) cant rack a slide… Uhhh… Makes no sense to me, it’s not that hard and certainly doenst require any more strength one would need to save their own lives. I mean… seriously… Dont be scared… Give it a good tug, you know what I mean girl, and when it stops let go.. Hey hey hey hey!! Finger off the trigger!
Hook two to your belt and dual wield!
Seriously though, I wonder if that would work for airsofting.
I don’t want my hand in front of the muzzle. no.
He makes a good point about the CZ model pistols that hasn’t been acknowledged yet
I used to own and fire a 10mm EAA witness. Tiny Slide + 22lb recoil spring meant I had to really get a good grip to rack it.
Could you see some moron asking his or her attacker to wait a second so they can chamber with that thing? “OK, ready now.” It would look like Monty Python. “Every round is sacred.”
Square peg meet round hole. Just chamber the damn round and keep your finger off the bang switch.
This is as great an idea as that guy selling corner molding to tape on the side of your pistol as a point shooting aid and a hair curler on the top of the slide for instinctive aiming…
This is not a dumb idea. It is hand for the disabled shooter or a wounded soldier / LE officer so they can get their handgun reloaded / cleared and back in the gunfight so they can move back to safety; therefore it can be a PPE item. Needs a belt clip, PALS attachment, LE belt buckle version; but in subdued colors please.