TJ1: It used to be that some old Army drill Sargeants would love to take your 45, and as they cocked the slide back to , ummm, inspect the piece, they would purposely pop the slide stop so that when they let the slide go forward the piece would come apart and they would say - 'ooops' Trainee, you screwed up, now gimme 25 (pushups that is). I saw that little trick not work once and later found the spring to be kinked up inside. That was one embarrassed DI.
Glad you got it back together. Don't let your buddy get his hands on it again (lol). Mikey.