Reloading Drills Re-Visited
Reloading Drills Re-Visited
From either military or law enforcement training, I've taken courses that entailed nothing but the handgun. It is the most basic defensive weapon that is until you fight to get your rifle.
The Handgun, be it either a revolver or a pistol. They are considered defensive tools and there are a few misnomers out there like the H&K SOCOM Offensive Pistol System...it looks nice in a box but I can personally tell you that no matter what handgun you choose to deploy, within a certain environment...and you pop it at someone, it has the ability to become a offensive tool to dispatch your Tango into the Great Void. Don't feel lacking...trust me. Even if your Tango is shooting a 10 shot .22LR revolver at you...it will feel offensive as hell.
I've literally stood for days over the course of the past twenty some years standing and doing nothing but reloading drills. Why? Because you will have to reload. Simple. The courses I went to stressed that although the shooting and accuracy is great and all, but if one cannot continue on in the fight, then the handgun is useless. Which, in some weird way...is ultimately true. We need to learn how to reload, do it quickly, do it efficiently and smooth as possible so we can re-engage. That's what this drill is for. It will build muscle memory but be careful; if you practice poorly enough times, that technique will also be seared into your system and you'll do that in a stress shoot so as my signature says: "train hard and sweat for a purpose and make the other bastard bleed".
With the techniques I wrote down earlier, I encourage you to practice safely at home with either your revolver, pistol, rifle and a supply of snap caps. If you do it correctly and find that particular sweet spot to keep your ammunition, you will notice that you will fumble it a few times but in a short time you will become faster and more efficient and your hands will automatically go to the correct areas. This is muscle memory.
Here's the downside to doing reload drills; although it's not required, snap caps are a helluva lot safer than real rounds and they are a bit costly. Plus, when using a pistol, dropping $20-$60 magazines on the ground may not be healthy for them either. Some guys will never drop their Wilson Combat mags or that expensive H&K USP Magazines. That's up too them. I advocate that one will do the same thing in a stress shoot if they've practiced it on the range. Dropping mags on the floor is part of the process of reloading. One shouldn't have to worry about the damage to a spent magazine during a stress shoot. It's empty or about to become empty...who cares? Get to the fight.
Another little technique which I adopted was taught to me by an former IDF Golani guy. I've mentioned it before...when you release that magazine, sometimes it's sticky or it's a "non-drop free" type. Just flick the handgun sideways by twisting your wrist. The weight of the magazine will be flung out centrifugally by it's own inertia and you will ensure that the magazine well is clear for your fresh magazine. Try it at home but make sure there's something soft nearby for those pistol magazines will fly out and damage something or someone.
Regarding snap caps...they cost about $3 a pop. No pun intended. When I was teaching up too 100 students we mixed in those weird colored snap caps into the ammo mix to give them some malfunction drills. The problem was that the students liked to cheat and started loading a 5:1 ratio in their magazines so they could almost count when they would have to do a malfunction drill or a reload drill.
Since we couldn't babysit a 100 some students and witness what and how they loaded their magazines...the other instructors and I cheated them by having a fella create a case of mirage rounds. Let me explain;
Snap caps are plainly evident with those day glow colors so they are easily recognizable. With the understanding that these students, they will do anything to pass. So they cheated and circumvented the random insertion of a snap cap by distributing them in their magazines the way they wanted. We know that in the real world that this fantasy doesn't exist so...
If one reloads or if you have a buddy that reloads, one uses the brass and just the bullet head. No primer, no charge. It is a dummy bullet that is the same caliber and looks just like the other rounds in the ammo bin. We just mixed a batch of 1k dummy "snap caps" into a bin of 10k some good rounds. The shooting became more realistic and the students had no choice but to adapt. We never gave them enough time to examine the new batch of dummy rounds. The only pain in the ass was segregating those dummy rounds from the actual batch later on and we always lost a few hundred here and there but we could always make more. We later adapted the same dummies into the 5.56mm ammo. It created a more realistic shooting scenario where the student is forced to fix malfunctions and proper reload drills. Use a few out on the range for practice and you'll get the hang of it but make sure you don't put them in the same batch with your combat loads!
Although I haven't covered malfunctions, you could use the same technique here and get some dummy rounds made for you and you can use them to your heart's delight while you practice at home or the range. Just be absolutely positive on what is live and what is a dummy or you will prove that you're the Dummy and that Darwin was right.
Tactical Reloads...why is everything "Tactical"? Tactical this, tactical that...what crap. Farmer Brown hates that term and so do I. Let's just call it an efficient reload.
What the "Tactical Reload" is all about is simple. Have a topped off mag before you engage bad guys. If you think you're at your last 40% in your mag...find cover and reload. Simple. It is more of a concept than a technique. With the Reloading drills one should have no problems. If my G17 mag is down to about 10 rounds...I reload. If my AR mag is down to it's last 10 rounds or so....reload. If your 1911A1 mag is down to it's last 3 rounds...reload.
Engage four Tangos with three rounds and you'll give some Tango a nice souvenir. Just practice.
From either military or law enforcement training, I've taken courses that entailed nothing but the handgun. It is the most basic defensive weapon that is until you fight to get your rifle.
The Handgun, be it either a revolver or a pistol. They are considered defensive tools and there are a few misnomers out there like the H&K SOCOM Offensive Pistol System...it looks nice in a box but I can personally tell you that no matter what handgun you choose to deploy, within a certain environment...and you pop it at someone, it has the ability to become a offensive tool to dispatch your Tango into the Great Void. Don't feel lacking...trust me. Even if your Tango is shooting a 10 shot .22LR revolver at you...it will feel offensive as hell.
I've literally stood for days over the course of the past twenty some years standing and doing nothing but reloading drills. Why? Because you will have to reload. Simple. The courses I went to stressed that although the shooting and accuracy is great and all, but if one cannot continue on in the fight, then the handgun is useless. Which, in some weird way...is ultimately true. We need to learn how to reload, do it quickly, do it efficiently and smooth as possible so we can re-engage. That's what this drill is for. It will build muscle memory but be careful; if you practice poorly enough times, that technique will also be seared into your system and you'll do that in a stress shoot so as my signature says: "train hard and sweat for a purpose and make the other bastard bleed".
With the techniques I wrote down earlier, I encourage you to practice safely at home with either your revolver, pistol, rifle and a supply of snap caps. If you do it correctly and find that particular sweet spot to keep your ammunition, you will notice that you will fumble it a few times but in a short time you will become faster and more efficient and your hands will automatically go to the correct areas. This is muscle memory.
Here's the downside to doing reload drills; although it's not required, snap caps are a helluva lot safer than real rounds and they are a bit costly. Plus, when using a pistol, dropping $20-$60 magazines on the ground may not be healthy for them either. Some guys will never drop their Wilson Combat mags or that expensive H&K USP Magazines. That's up too them. I advocate that one will do the same thing in a stress shoot if they've practiced it on the range. Dropping mags on the floor is part of the process of reloading. One shouldn't have to worry about the damage to a spent magazine during a stress shoot. It's empty or about to become empty...who cares? Get to the fight.
Another little technique which I adopted was taught to me by an former IDF Golani guy. I've mentioned it before...when you release that magazine, sometimes it's sticky or it's a "non-drop free" type. Just flick the handgun sideways by twisting your wrist. The weight of the magazine will be flung out centrifugally by it's own inertia and you will ensure that the magazine well is clear for your fresh magazine. Try it at home but make sure there's something soft nearby for those pistol magazines will fly out and damage something or someone.
Regarding snap caps...they cost about $3 a pop. No pun intended. When I was teaching up too 100 students we mixed in those weird colored snap caps into the ammo mix to give them some malfunction drills. The problem was that the students liked to cheat and started loading a 5:1 ratio in their magazines so they could almost count when they would have to do a malfunction drill or a reload drill.
Since we couldn't babysit a 100 some students and witness what and how they loaded their magazines...the other instructors and I cheated them by having a fella create a case of mirage rounds. Let me explain;
Snap caps are plainly evident with those day glow colors so they are easily recognizable. With the understanding that these students, they will do anything to pass. So they cheated and circumvented the random insertion of a snap cap by distributing them in their magazines the way they wanted. We know that in the real world that this fantasy doesn't exist so...
If one reloads or if you have a buddy that reloads, one uses the brass and just the bullet head. No primer, no charge. It is a dummy bullet that is the same caliber and looks just like the other rounds in the ammo bin. We just mixed a batch of 1k dummy "snap caps" into a bin of 10k some good rounds. The shooting became more realistic and the students had no choice but to adapt. We never gave them enough time to examine the new batch of dummy rounds. The only pain in the ass was segregating those dummy rounds from the actual batch later on and we always lost a few hundred here and there but we could always make more. We later adapted the same dummies into the 5.56mm ammo. It created a more realistic shooting scenario where the student is forced to fix malfunctions and proper reload drills. Use a few out on the range for practice and you'll get the hang of it but make sure you don't put them in the same batch with your combat loads!
Although I haven't covered malfunctions, you could use the same technique here and get some dummy rounds made for you and you can use them to your heart's delight while you practice at home or the range. Just be absolutely positive on what is live and what is a dummy or you will prove that you're the Dummy and that Darwin was right.
Tactical Reloads...why is everything "Tactical"? Tactical this, tactical that...what crap. Farmer Brown hates that term and so do I. Let's just call it an efficient reload.
What the "Tactical Reload" is all about is simple. Have a topped off mag before you engage bad guys. If you think you're at your last 40% in your mag...find cover and reload. Simple. It is more of a concept than a technique. With the Reloading drills one should have no problems. If my G17 mag is down to about 10 rounds...I reload. If my AR mag is down to it's last 10 rounds or so....reload. If your 1911A1 mag is down to it's last 3 rounds...reload.
Engage four Tangos with three rounds and you'll give some Tango a nice souvenir. Just practice.
11 年 前