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Thread: Stoppages & Malfunctions ... What?

  1. #1
    Site Supporter Erick Gelhaus's Avatar
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    Stoppages & Malfunctions ... What?

    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 can’t 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?

  2. #2
    Very Pro Dentist Chuck Haggard's Avatar
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    Down the road from Quantrill's big raid.
    I'm not at all shocked.

    In general, almost all of the studies I have seen on agency/organizational training shows that it degrades with time, and the less dedicated the person the quicker it does so.

    An example would be an Army experiment that involved donning the issued pro mask (aka; gas mask) where units didn't get sustainment training for 6 months, a year, a year and a half, etc.
    After a year about 85-90% of the troops could do this simple task to standard. After a year and a half the percentage dropped to just above 50%

  3. #3
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    I feel your pain. I did an "undercover" skills test on my old agency (~160 sworn) years ago and through the use of about five dry fire events proved that our competence level in terms of percentage of success was way under 40%. When that was written up (pre-email days) and sent up the line, it started an absolute shitstorm. It did get us a baby steps training program that was later killed (after my retirement).

    Chuck is right and his position about how recent your training is being most important. I think it's more valuable in real world terms to have training in small "bites" on a very frequent basis than it is to have a large "show" once or twice a year. I'd even proposed that there be three mandatory 15 minute dry practice session per WEEK over pistol manipulations, handcuffing and DT skills but you know how that fared. I still believe that if we simply did a well structured, recurring and variable skills maintenance program in those small bites, it would pay huge dividends in field performances.
    Regional Government Sales Manager for Aimpoint, Inc. USA
    Co-owner Hardwired Tactical Shooting (HiTS)

  4. #4
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    Arizona
    I have seen the same type of performance. What you tell officers to do has far less impact on how they perform than how they ACTUALLY practice. What I see most often is freezing and staring at the gun, followed by repeating techniques that don't fix the problem over and over.

    I am focusing more on trying to change training behaviors in the officers I work with, in addition to challenging them to meet higher standards.

  5. #5
    Member
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    I'm not surprised, we have the same problems.

    I think you're doing way too much way too fast. Many officers will think you are a showoff for putting on that block of instruction, and won't get much useful out of it. It's information and Ego overload. I get that, in terms of time and ammo, you have unrealistic expectations for the resources provided. If you have problems with basic "tap, back, bang/assess/roll/etc", there's no reason to have reloads and especially running as part of the drill. Sometimes you have to take baby steps. Most guys will be flustered by malfunction clearance procedures and if the goal is clearing stoppages and malfunctions, don't dilute the basic lesson with unnecessary outside stressors.

    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.
    That's a range procedure issue and a trained habit. That's one of the easier ones to fix when unloading just have the officers eject the round. If it's at the range, it can be picked up during police call and if it's a duty round they can get a new round from the range staff.

    Several would execute a speed reload upon getting the failure to fire, ejecting a magazine with live round(s)
    Let me guess, they shoot a Sig or have carried a Sig. Or their thumb ride the slide stop while shooting.
    Last edited by czech6; 01-02-2015 at 02:52 PM.
    <---Hates smart phones and kids on his lawn.

  6. #6
    Site Supporter Hambo's Avatar
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    I agree with czech6. You ran a drill and found out you've got some people that couldn't handle it. Next time back up and don't tell them you're timing if you're not. Run malfunction clearance only until they can do it. If they get it quick you can always add to the drill and pick up the pace.

    Do you run other malfunction drills with empty brass or just use dummy rounds?
    "Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA

  7. #7
    Site Supporter KevinB's Avatar
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    I've run Multi Agency In-service range training, where some officers run dry and look at the gun...
    Kevin S. Boland
    Director of R&D
    Law Tactical LLC
    www.lawtactical.com
    kevin@lawtactical.com
    407-451-4544




  8. #8
    Site Supporter psalms144.1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KevinB View Post
    I've run Multi Agency In-service range training, where some officers run dry and look at the gun...
    If I had a nickle for every time I had to "encourage" someone to reload when they were holding their pistol out at full extension with the slide locked to the rear on an empty magazine, NYistan would tax away 4.5 cents of the nickle, and I'd STILL be rich.

    Seriously, this is on a qualification in which EVERY string of fire is six rounds, and EVERY magazine is loaded with six rounds, so EVERY 6th round, you have to do a slide-lock reload. And folks still stand there with their empty pistol pointed at the target, CLUELESS as to their weapon state.

    I have seen experienced agents REHOLSTER their empty, slide-locked pistol, with no clue that there was a "problem" (TM pending)...

  9. #9
    This is a big deal guys, from an officer safety standpoint it's the 800lb gorilla in the room, pistol is the most perishable skill of any weapons system.
    It's also the primary tool of officer survival in a lethal encounter about 96% of the time.
    Bottom line we have to do better, that starts at the top, with a fresh administrative perspective on pistol training and qualification, and trickles all
    the way down to the officer who has to realize that they will need to invest their own time and their own dime to get better.
    Fact is, it is their responsibility to be better skilled with the pistol that's on their hip than the bad guys, we have to rethink the entire historically
    imbedded system of police sidearm proficiency, how we have failed and what we need to do to fix it.
    Hearing stories like the original post both infuriates me and breaks my heart, we have to collectively come together on this and change it from within.

  10. #10
    Site Supporter KevinB's Avatar
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    Sadly with all POST training I am aware of - its not going to happen at least on a national scale.

    It's to painful to bare when one of the idiots then gets annoyed he zero'd a drill on a re-cert as his weapon was dry.

    The other problem is on the majority of OIS's LE does well, and is further used to justify maintaining or reducing the already inadequate training.
    Kevin S. Boland
    Director of R&D
    Law Tactical LLC
    www.lawtactical.com
    kevin@lawtactical.com
    407-451-4544




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