of the jaws when tissue is not present when the jaws are in the closed position the anvil is adjacent to the channel when tissue is present the second slide post may be lifted off the slide surfaces 45 and 46 of the channel due to the resistance of the tissue to clamping in addition since the closure tube and anvil have moved forwardly in tandem the distal end of the anvil is no longer rearward of the distal end of the channel but rather the distal ends of the anvil and channel are substantially coincident with each other referring to fig6 and 7 there is shown the clamping sequence to move the jaws from an open position for inserting bodily tissue between the jaws to a closed position for clamping the tissue when the clamping trigger 17 of the actuator 15 is squeezed against the palm grip handle 16 the closure tube 12 is caused to move from its rearward position to its forward position to consequently move the anvil from a position spaced from the cartridge filled channel to a position adjacent the channel in fig6 and 7 the bottom half of the frame is illustrated the top half of the frame can be simply molded to the bottom half to completely enclose the mechanisms for clamping and firing when the clamping trigger 17 is squeezed it pivots.