Manual

TO LOAD AND FIRE

Practice this important aspect of safe gun handling with an unloaded pistol

until you can perform each of the steps described below with skill and

confidence. But before you do anything with the pistol, first read completely

through this manual.

1. Be certain the muzzle is pointed in a safe direction. (See “The Basic Rules of

Safe Firearms Handling,” page 35.)

2. Move either the right- or left-hand safety lever fully downward to its “safe”

position so that the white dot is fully exposed. (See Figures 2 and 3 on page

11.)

3. Press the magazine latch inward from the left side and remove the magazine

from the frame. NOTE: The magazine is designed to fall free of the frame of

its own weight when unloaded, the slide is locked open and the pistol is held

in the normal firing position, but you should always prevent possible damage

to the magazine by not letting it drop to the ground unless rapid reloading is

absolutely necessary.

4. Place eight (8) or fewer .45 Auto cartridges into the magazine from the top.

5. Insert the magazine into the frame, taking care that the magazine is locked in

place by the magazine latch. Slamming the magazine into the frame forcibly

is not necessary.

6. Hold the pistol firmly in the shooting hand but do not touch the trigger. Keep

the pistol pointed in a safe direction and the safety “on.” With the thumb and

forefinger of the other hand grasp the r

ear of the slide and pull the slide to

the rear as far as it will go (see Figure 5, below and “Slide Retraction

Warning”, p. 20). When released, the slide will fly forward to strip the top

cartridge from the magazine and chamber it. The safety mechanism drops the

hammer automatically as the slide moves forward while simultaneously

blocking the firing pin.

The trigger is inoperable when the safety is fully engaged in its “safe” position