Discussion: Keeping the gun in the fight, part 2 (malfunction clearance)

[vicious]

See part one for some general guidelines before posting. Part 3 will cover 1 hand manipulations

It's been said that "All skill is in vain when an angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket." These are the skills for staring in the fight regardless of equipment problems.

Let's start with some terminology to keep things consistent. Malfunctions are frequently broken down into "types", but i want to avoid that as they can be confusing and specific to a certain schools, so lets just use plain English. Here are the common ones:

-A failure to fire: You pulled the trigger and got a click instead of a bang. Also called a "type 1" in some schools.

-A failure to eject. The shell casing from the previous round failed to clear the ejection port and is now preventing the gun from going into battery. Also called a "stovepipe" or "Type 2" in some schools

-A failure to extract. The round in the chamber was not extracted before another round tried to chamber. Also called a "double feed" or "Type 3" in some schools

-A failure to go into battery. A round has been hung up by something while trying to chamber (in an empty chamber)

Fixing these problems is either done using a diagnostic or non-diagnostic model.

A diagnostic stoppage reduction means visually or physically assessing what type of malfunction you have and using the appropriate technique to clear it.

A non-diagnostic stoppage reduction means that, as a conditioned response to a malfunction, a broad-spectrum remedy is used to get the gun running without first assessing the problem.

Discuss what you use to solve these problems, why you use it, and how you go about doing it. If there's anything you think I left out, feel free to add it.

[JustinM]

I keep my manipulations non-diagnostic that way I avoid having to look at the gun to figure out what is wrong with it and then decide the remedial action that will fix it, instead of just fixing it. My other reason for preferring non-diagnostic gun handling is that it works in the dark. For now I'll go over how I clear malfunctions on a handgun.

Failure to fire – Pull the gun toward your chest. Keep it up eye level. Slam the magazine firmly. Rack the slide back very sharply and release it.

Failure to eject – Pull the gun toward your chest. Keep it up eye level. Slam the magazine firmly. Rack the slide back very sharply and release it. Sound familiar?

Failure to extract – Lock the slide back. Rip the magazine out. Rack, Rack, Rack the slide to hopefully clear the chamber and feed ramp. Replace the magazine by inserting the fresh one correctly and slamming it in firmly. Lock, Rip, Rack, Rack, Rack and Replace.

Failure to go into battery – Pull the gun toward your chest. Keep it up eye level. Slam the magazine firmly. Rack the slide back very sharply and release it.

[JustinM]

It's a shame these threads don't get more replies. This is pretty important stuff to talk about.

[RobW]

Justin, I don't follow what you are saying - you use a non-diagnostic response to malfunction, but you have diagnostic categories. If you are not diagnosing the problem, how do you know which option to go with?

Me, if the gun doesn't go bang I try to tap-rack-bang. If that doesn't work, look at the gun and go from there.

I keep my manipulations non-diagnostic that way I avoid having to look at the gun to figure out what is wrong with it and then decide the remedial action that will fix it, instead of just fixing it. My other reason for preferring non-diagnostic gun handling is that it works in the dark. For now I'll go over how I clear malfunctions on a handgun.

Failure to fire – Pull the gun toward your chest. Keep it up eye level. Slam the magazine firmly. Rack the slide back very sharply and release it.

Failure to eject – Pull the gun toward your chest. Keep it up eye level. Slam the magazine firmly. Rack the slide back very sharply and release it. Sound familiar?

Failure to extract – Lock the slide back. Rip the magazine out. Rack, Rack, Rack the slide to hopefully clear the chamber and feed ramp. Replace the magazine by inserting the fresh one correctly and slamming it in firmly. Lock, Rip, Rack, Rack, Rack and Replace.

Failure to go into battery – Pull the gun toward your chest. Keep it up eye level. Slam the magazine firmly. Rack the slide back very sharply and release it.

[itznfb]

I go with the tap-rack-assess or small variations of. Tap the slide, press the magazine, rack the slide and if it fails again then assess the situation.

When I'm practicing at the range i always bring several magazines and put one or two snap caps randomly in each magazine to simulate failures. I mix up the magazines so I don't remember where the snap caps are.

[Shawn.L]

This stuff is pretty cut and dry as far as the immediate action drill goes. Tap-Rack-ect .

But as a side note to that, no matter how many times I have been trained on doing that, no matter how many times Ive practiced it, I still have video of a malf actually happening where I simply racked the slide and rolled on.
Why?
Well the drawn out answer is that I know I have seated that mag, I have already fired multiple rounds, and so I skip the tap part because wether or not its a "diagnostic" act I KNOW THE STATE OF MY GUN and act intuitively to fix it and roll on.
For the begginner or someone without much practice or time on the gun, yeah, non-diagnostic immediate action makes the most sense. Later on, well the gun just gets fixed and shooting continues as appropriate.

Beyond that once we get into malf a T/R wont fix there are some interesting complications.
On a GLOCK one can rip the mag out without locking the slide to the rear, but on a 1911 one cannot.
Here is where the guys who want one system to work across all platforms diverge from those who want to work the gun they have on them as sweetly as possible.
One can (on a "double feed" on a handgun) rip the mag clean out on a GLOCK and rack the stuck case (or second round) out of the chamber, reinsert the same mag , rack again, and roll on. One could argue not to reisert the mag, but if its a failure to extract causing the stoppage its not a mag issue.

Truth be told immediate action is pretty intuitive and fast, once I see something is all fucked up I just unload , strip it all out and reload the fucker.

having said all that. Knowing how, and being able to clear a malf is the important part for me, not being so practiced in it I can cut 10th off my splits. If the gun malfs that much get a new gun. I honestly cant recall having many malfunctions outside of the ones staged in a class, I mean here and there, but not enough to count on two hands and I shoot 12k+ rounds of handgun a year.

Beyond even that becomes what is the fight your training for?
Should we look for cover first if the gun stops? Or, inside 10 yards I bet you good money there are a lot better things I can be doing instead of reloading the gun
IMO, at some point, when we are talking about training in context, our immediate action drill should be non gun centric.

Shawnmuzzlepunch.L

[350CI]

damn good threads, i've been reading them...

this these should be make a tactical sticky

[RobW]

I'm with you Shawn, I think that as a general concept training for a "firefight" has a vanishingly small return in a civilian context. I do find these discussions interesting in a general gun-handling sense. And I don't want to be a d**k and constantly repeat "I'll be the guy running for cover when the shooting starts. If the shooting stops, I'll stilll be running" ;->

IMO, at some point, when we are talking about training in context, our immediate action drill should be non gun centric.

Shawnmuzzlepunch.L

[vicious]

Good point shawn. When I train from retention I use and teach using a muzzle strike to break contact if the gun goes down. It has to come up from retention to solve the problem anyway, so why waste the movement?

[silverado_mick]

When the gun goes "click" instead of "bang", one should immediately take a fraction of a second to paste a dumb "whadafuck?" look on ones face and look dumbly at the pistol like it just called you a dirty name. Those of you who have hit malfunctions during competition and training know the look I'm talking about

But seriously:

I too use the tap/rack/ready (or bang) immediate action. I find that if done with man hands and not gently that it will fix both your FTF and FTEject type malfuntions a majority of the time. By gripping the pistol overhand over the top of the slide you will sometimes be able to feel an empty shell casing lodged in the ejection port and can rip it free while racking the slide. Turning the pistol on it's side and letting gravity help is also a plus. After that if the gun still isn't up and running I asses the problem while hauling ass to cover (which I probably should have been hauling ass for anyway, right?) and take the appropriate rip/rack type of action to deal with the problem.

To touch on what ShawnL said; I would never advocate utilizing any type of malfuntion drill at contact distance or even as far as seven yards out. At that point if my pistol takes a shit I'm closing the distance and using the two pound weight in my hand to destroy my adversary. Keep in mind that I fully realize that while closing the distance there is a strong likelyhood that I'm going to be shot at least once.

This is where the warrior mindset comes into play. You have to believe that you will be able to fight through being shot, stabbed, breaking a limb, and whatever else happens to you during the battle. That's where training with friends and co workers in full contact close combat is absolutely essential to developing a well rounded skill set. You don't truly know what it feels like to get punched in the face until you have been punched in the face, y'know?

Having an accessible backup weapon (gun, knife, or both) is another thing that I feel is essential maybe not to the armed citizen so much as to anyone purposfully going into harms way. Equipment fails. Most times it fails catastrophically and at the most inopportune time possible. You have to be ready to either fix that piece of gear on the fly and get it back in the fight (malfunction clearence drills), or discard that piece of equipment and move on to a tersiary system (backup gun, knives, hands, rocks, sticks, bottles, alley apples, etc...).

I guess what I mean is that in a dynamic situation it is the worst thing possible to get stuck trying to get your pistol back up and running when what you should be doing is caving in the head of your aggressor by slamming it repeatedly in a car door. Malfuntion drills are extremely important, but most important is the ability to think critically at speed, assess your situation constantly, and stay fluid with the changing tactical situation.