tactical reload

Sometimes, when you go to do a reload...

you discover that the only mag you have left is in the gun.
Maybe you lost count, maybe you dropped your spare; the reason is unimportant. If you are doing a slide down speed reload or a tactical reload, the first step is to acquire the new magazine. Failure to acquire a new magazine means you don't unload your gun.
With the reload with retention, you have already unloaded your gun, and stored your partial mag before you go searching for your replacement magazine.
No, thank you, I'll stick to techniques that require me to confirm that I have a reload before I unload.
 
What Tim Said:D

He was much clearer than I

If you are stressed don't pick from column B or C

Both techniques are for those rare cases where you are NOT in a hurry

But either way...you do not want an empty gun
 
+1 to Tim for pointing out that you need to grab the new mag first.

Reloading (+retention) is neither inherently slower nor completely administrative. It's all in the way you practice. Practiced inefficiently, then reloading with retention indeed leaves the weapon ineffective for the longest window of time.

However, if reloading with retention is something that you're interested in trying, there are a few things to consider:

Define "retention". Common-sense dictates that 'retention' simply mean a modicum of control. You don't HAVE to place the empty mag in your hip pocket. Practice placing it in your back pocket, practice dropping it into the collar of your shirt. For me, in a civilian encounter, 'retention' would simply mean knowing where the dropped magazine is so I can come back and get it later.

Don't drop the spent magazine until you have the fresh one in hand. Notice how your magazine is oriented in your weak hand after you pull it from the pouch; if you can easily rotate it so that it will slide right into the weapon, then good. If you have to rotate the mag all the way around before it will fit, consider putting the mag into the pouch oriented in the opposite direction...where the front of the mag faces up rather than down.

With practice (as with all things) you can execute a magazine change with retention just as quickly as one without. With the new mag in hand (and oriented in the right direction), drop the spent mag into the same hand that's holding the new mag, rotate that hand 90 degrees and then insert the new mag.

So there it is. If reloading with retention is important to you, give it a try. This is the same drill I had my guys use with their M16's and it worked out well enough.
That said, I don't truly see any real benefit to this skill for a civilian. As a civilian, your 'encounters' are going to statistically be few and far between - and that's if they EVER happen. Compared with a combat situation (where you're going through several magazines on a regular basis) you're not really going to need this kind of a skill. If the two or three magazines that most of us carry with us aren't enough to get you through a situation - then might I suggest that you should have been using those rounds to fight your way back to your car where your carbine should have been.
 
"Givens told us that no one has ever found a civilian incident of a tac reload."

Not picking on you Glenn...or Mr. Armstrong who regularly repeats that same mantra.

But the question is....do you want to be the first to need it...and not have it?

Statistics are great....but rely on them too much and you will start carrying a rubber gun since so many altercations do not require a shot to be fired

Considering how poor the detail is in some of the records are for law enforcement and you really have to wonder who decides the truth is NOT out there?

And many people (especially those carrying hi caps) carry only one additional magazine. In fact it seems odd to say that civillians are unlikely to need a lot of rounds but are likely to carry 3 mags:confused:

Dumping mag number one ties your fate directly to mag #2

Mr Murphy loves that stuff;)
 
Obiwan, no one wants to be the first. But there are various skills to practice. I think the point is that some of the complex skills of tactical reloads may not be worth the time as compared to the time one should spend on actually shooting well with the first mag. The debate is the hypothetical vs. what happens and the allocation of training resources.

My takeaway point was that one should always have a loaded gun except at the time of the actual mag drop. Thus, the focus on making sure you have one. Tom specifically said that retaining the mag was important in military paradigms with prolonged firefights and being way from supplies. For the civilian, the mag retention seems not to be a significant part of our ecology.

If it never happens, then the KISS of the speed reload may be probabilistic better and easier to execute. It's the dreaded evaluation of risk.

Anyway, I was just repeating what Tom said and I think I don't want to talk about this today. Nor do I want to talk about movement. Nor caliber. I think I'm going to go over to the Cheese forum and debate why I like extra-aged Appenzeller the best.

Tom also said that J frames were obsolete. The small semis like the Kahrs should take their place.

CPII with Tom and John (www.rangemaster.com) was an awesome course. Very intense and certainly Tom and John gave my insights into some of my myriad flaws that I hadn't gotten from others.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top