This past Monday we were running a range for the office last short of the quarter and the year. One portion included the following drill:
Each shooter had three magazines loaded with three rounds of frangible and one dummy round in in either the second or third spot;
The procedure to clear failures to fire and eject were verbally reviewed and demonstrated before we started.
On the start signal, draw and fire three rounds in the upper A zone on the torso. When the shooter encounters a failure to fire, induced by the dummy round, deal with the stoppage via Tap, Rack & Roll before finishing off those three rounds. As the slide will then be locked back, do a speed reload and assess before holstering. Then jog up range and back before repeating the cycle two more times.
Total: 9 rounds plus 3 failures to fire induced by dummy rounds.
There was no minimum time, although we told them it was being timed - other than that, no external stressors were added in any way, shape or form. Nothing had been done to elevate heart rates.
Note: While we issue Glock pistols, .40S&W transitioning into 9mm, we allow a number of other pistols / calibers to be carried. As a result, certain model centric techniques are not generally taught.
What we saw
When he had his first failure to fire, a left-handed shooter transferred the pistol to his right hand and then cleared the stoppage via Tap, Rack& Roll. No, he has never been a right-handed shooter;
Several would execute a speed reload upon getting the failure to fire, ejecting a magazine with live round(s);
Racking after bypassing the tapping;
Ceasing to shoot after the stoppage clearance;
Grabbing forward on the slide and cupping the ejection port so that they end up having to throw the dummy round to the ground because they caught it.
I videoed the last three shooters to be able to show the shooters, and other instructors at the office, what was happening. I cant share them given that the videos would ID the organization policy prevents us from doing that. I wish I had used video all day.
Because of planned re-modeling and upgrades on our range, we lost one quarter of live fire training during the past year; though actual training involving Sims and blue guns was done during that quarter. The last time the whole organization had a block on stoppages, malfunctions was fall of 2013.
Throwing this out for discussion thoughts?