Polymer slides

>Replacing inexpensive tool grade steel with more expensive, weaker polymer

>Improvement

Pick one

>>35132525
Slides and barrels will remain metal until polymer rigidity advances to parity. I think lighter alloys are more likely, but then the question has to be asked if you really want to reduce the slide or barrel weight that much. Doing so would put more stress on the frame and internals, as well as greater transfered energy/recoil to the user.

>>35132525
The question has to be "why"? Slides are fairly simple to machine and if you make them lighter you're going to have recoil issues. Steel is exactly what you want them to be made of.

>>35132525
well the slide sort of has to be made out of metal. It's part of the bolt. The slide is a telescoping bolt that wraps around the barrel to give it enough mass. Obviously you just need a better metal. Diamonds are the hardest metal. They should just make slides out of diamonds.

File: 1503363995213.jpg (77KB, 640x360px) Image search: [Google]

77KB, 640x360px

>>35132525
>we

Polymer barrels when

The reason a slide is metal is because it needs to be heavy enough to counteract most of the force of the round detonating so it can cycle the weapon in an appropriate amount of time. Polymer would mess up timing of the action.

Ignore the other idiots.

OP was a major faggot today

What is the 5-7?

>>35132525
Slides actually need to have weight, so trying to replace it with something lighter you end up having to make the slide extremely fucking huge to give it the right amount of mass, optionally a really stiff recoil spring.
So either you defeat the purpose while making a shit gun, or you make a lighter gun that's even more shit.

The only gun I've seen with a plastic bolt was the USFA Zip22, an unfathomable piece of shit, and that's just in .22 caliber, I'd loathe to see that idea scaled up to 9mm, even .32ACP

>>35132553
This.

>>35132662
Diamonds would be too heavy by about 15 times.