How to simulate malfunctions?

[ChrisUSMC]

I just load dummy rounds. Cheapest and easiest way. They only way to practice clearing a double feed is to experiance one while shooting.

[mbinpa]

There are 2 kinds of folks with guns.

The first kind will buy the cheapest one around, load it with hollow points that he doesn't even know will feed and put it in the night table drawer for 5 years. Let's assume this is not the kind of shooter we are talking about.

Then there are shooters like most of us. Relatively comfortable with the weapon we carry and we shoot a fair amount on a regular basis. For us I agree with some of the posters that say a jam is a rare thing and when you are only a couple of feet or yards away and things go south your options are so limited it is not something to worry about. But none the less I believe that knowing how to clear a weapon (jams, failure to eject, etc.), drawing properly, reloading quickly and keeping track of shots fired (pity the fool that runs out of bullets before he runs out of targets) are something that should be practiced as part of just knowing how to shoot well. It's like adjusting the rear view mirror even if you are not going to go backwards or fastening your seatbelt even if you aren't planning on hitting anything. Just good things to learn to do.

And it makes the range time much more interesting!

[ChrisUSMC]

There are 2 kinds of folks with guns.

The first kind will buy the cheapest one around, load it with hollow points that he doesn't even know will feed and put it in the night table drawer for 5 years. Let's assume this is not the kind of shooter we are talking about.

Then there are shooters like most of us. Relatively comfortable with the weapon we carry and we shoot a fair amount on a regular basis. For us I agree with some of the posters that say a jam is a rare thing and when you are only a couple of feet or yards away and things go south your options are so limited it is not something to worry about. But none the less I believe that knowing how to clear a weapon (jams, failure to eject, etc.), drawing properly, reloading quickly and keeping track of shots fired (pity the fool that runs out of bullets before he runs out of targets) are something that should be practiced as part of just knowing how to shoot well. It's like adjusting the rear view mirror even if you are not going to go backwards or fastening your seatbelt even if you aren't planning on hitting anything. Just good things to learn to do.

And it makes the range time much more interesting!

+1 I agree 100%. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Not to go off topic but another thing thats almost as important as praticing clearing your weapon is praticing what to do if you cant clear it fast enough. Chances are when you draw your weapon the perp is going to be within 20ft and coming at you. A little hand to hand training might go a long way. Maybe you have a LE instructor or prior miltary with hand to hand training near you or a $20 dvd could give you more options is the situation arises.

[Signmaker]

But none the less I believe that knowing how to clear a weapon (jams, failure to eject, etc.), drawing properly, reloading quickly and keeping track of shots fired (pity the fool that runs out of bullets before he runs out of targets) are something that should be practiced as part of just knowing how to shoot well.

Its one thing to practice the movements and maintain some semblance of muscle memory with them, but another to worry about generating them at random during live fire, which I beleive is what the OP was aiming at. The difference in resulting capabilities is so minimal that it is a practical impossibility for it to change the course of a fight. There are many more skill sets within self defense that will net you much better practical survival odds. Such as...

A little hand to hand training might go a long way.

Which is a great area to focus on once you have a base level skill set with your sidearm. However, I would caution against...

a $20 dvd

Which is nearly useless if you don't get up and get physical, hand's on training. Nobody wants to fly with a pilot who has read the manual cover to cover, but has never touched a flight stick.

[Egres]

UPDATE: personally I find it necessary to drill malfunctions. So here’s my way:

1. For failure to fire I use spent shell casing, If you load it into magazine like a regular round in my case it will camber.
2. For failure to eject I use black ammo with 60 grams.
3. For failure to feed I use spent shell casing which was loaded into magazine backwards.
4. For double feed I load blank round and then spent shell casing like a regular round.

I do not use CAPS anymore because I lost couple over time and it’s could be unsafe to look for them on range.

I use 3 to 5 “range” magazines and load one or two with failures so I would not know when failure going to occur.

Tap magazine - Rack slide fixes most of the problems if not then I rack up to three times and if that doesn’t work I drop the magazine.

I never lower me weapon and use reach around method to rack the slide.
Now it takes only a second to clear most jams and in close range I will not transition to second side arm. Only after tap rack did not clear the problem, and i have to drop the mag then i will reach for back up.

If I ever consider to sell my handguns, I probably will have problem because chamber looks like weapon malfunctions a lot because of little scratches inside.

It’s works for me but I take suggestions and improve all the time.

BTW: I really like this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJaQvV6q-D8

[dunsho]

"3. For failure to feed I use spent shell casing which was loaded into magazine backwards."


I've never tried that, thanks for the tip.
don't use snap caps for drills, use ST action dummies
http://www.amazon.com/ST-Action-Pro-...6457789&sr=8-6

alot cheaper.

AcidResGambit, disagree with your training methods. why even load it at home? load the mags, randomly throw in some dummies then mix up the mags in a bag, at least this way you can shoot the drill more then just once. and you won't have to keep loaded mag with dummy rds in the house. mags in the house should either be loaded or unloaded, not somewhere in between, or worst have dummies in them.

[Shawn.L]

UPDATE: personally I find it necessary to drill malfunctions. So here’s my way:

1. For failure to fire I use spent shell casing, If you load it into magazine like a regular round in my case it will camber.
2. For failure to eject I use black ammo with 60 grams.
3. For failure to feed I use spent shell casing which was loaded into magazine backwards.
4. For double feed I load blank round and then spent shell casing like a regular round.

I do not use CAPS anymore because I lost couple over time and it’s could be unsafe to look for them on range.

I use 3 to 5 “range” magazines and load one or two with failures so I would not know when failure going to occur.

Tap magazine - Rack slide fixes most of the problems if not then I rack up to three times and if that doesn’t work I drop the magazine.

I never lower me weapon and use reach around method to rack the slide.
Now it takes only a second to clear most jams and in close range I will not transition to second side arm. Only after tap rack did not clear the problem, and i have to drop the mag then i will reach for back up.

If I ever consider to sell my handguns, I probably will have problem because chamber looks like weapon malfunctions a lot because of little scratches inside.

It’s works for me but I take suggestions and improve all the time.

BTW: I really like this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJaQvV6q-D8

So, whats your shot to to shot time when you hit one of those dummy rounds ?

I suggest you
1. Get a shot timer (clearly you dont have one, or just dont use it for this)
2. Decide what "close distance" means
3. Think about what the "target" you are shooting must be doing for you to be shooting it.
4. Measire that distance off
5. Get your actual split time on that malf clearance shot-to-shot recorded
6. See how much space you can travel in that amount of time
7. think about what a determined adversary who already has a weapon deployed and is in the act of doing something that has you shooting them could do in that amount of time.

I'll tell you that just from your bolded statement maybe you think you have thought about the problem, but either you have been taught wrong or not taught at all because your premises are way way off base.

Shawncontactdistanceisfurtherthanyouthink.L

[ungawa]

Have you tried a Kel-Tec? That should do it.

[slinkwc2k]

BTW: I really like this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJaQvV6q-D8

If you like that series of videos, get a copy of Magpul's Dynamic Art of the Handgun and watch it. It covers the 4 types of pistol malfunctions in detail and a whole lot more. Its money well spent IMHO.

Good Shooting

[Huskyoverlord]

Checked to make sure nobody got to it before me , any 1911 will do to simulate any and all malfuctions you mave encounter and some you won't see on anything but a 1911 Sorry had to say it because it's true , is it because you guys screw around with the things some much or they don't work right out of the box?