Week 309: Reload 5000
Results may be posted until March 22nd, 2019.
Now I bet when you saw the drill name, you thought it was going to be some insane thing like doing 5000 reloads. Not so – the name just makes the drill sound futuristic and cool. ;) We will reload far less than 5000 times in the course of this drill.
For this drill, you'll need your pistol, at least one magazine, and possibly at least one inert training cartridge (number of magazines and inert training cartridges needed depends on the exact drill format you choose), plus a safe direction. Concealment is optional.
At bare minimum, verify gun is unloaded, have no live ammo anywhere in the dry practice area, and keep muzzle in a safe direction. But there is more you can do to ensure safety in dry practice. Please also read Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure following the drill description.
Designed by: Gabe White
Target: Shooter's choice
Range: Shooter's choice
Rounds: 0
Following the Mag Retrieval 500 drill from a week ago, we are going to work on a more complete dry reloading drill. You'll have two options for how exactly to do the drill, depending on what you want to emphasize. Instead of doing a certain number of repetitions, we'll practice for a certain amount of time, however many repetitions that ends up being.
Shooter's choice on target and distance. You might use an easier target. You might use a harder target. You might use multiple targets and vary them.
Option A: In battery reloads – start with the slide in battery, no magazine in the gun, aimed at the target, with finger on the trigger. The drill itself will be to put your trigger finger in register, retrieve and insert a new magazine, get the gun back on target and press the trigger in accordance with the sight picture. The magazine you load with can be empty, full of inert training cartridges, or a dedicated weighted dummy magazine. The benefit of Option A is efficiency. You will be able to do more repetitions for a given amount of time spent, you will make less noise doing your practice, and you will be effectively practicing in-battery speed reloads rather than a more complete slidelock reload.
Option B: Slidelock reloads – start with the slide locked back, empty magazine in the gun, aimed at the target, with finger on the trigger. The drill itself will be to put your trigger finger in register, eject the empty magazine, retrieve and insert a new magazine, close the slide, get the gun back on target and press the trigger in accordance with the sight picture. The magazine you load with can be empty (won't work if you overhand the slide to close it), a dedicated weighted dummy magazine, a magazine full of inert training cartridges (a little more prep to set up for the next repetition), or can have one inert training cartridge (prep for the next repetition can consist of fully retracting the slide, which will eject the one dummy cartridge and lock the slide back with a now-empty magazine in the gun, setting you up for the next repetition.) The benefit of Option B is the completeness of ejecting the empty magazine and closing the slide. You will have that completeness at the cost of fewer repetitions for a given amount of time spent and your practice will make more noise.
For either option, focus on driving your support hand toward and cleanly clearing concealment (if used), obtaining a consistent grip on the new magazine, driving the magazine to the gun, clean insertion of the new magazine, proper support hand grip on the gun, and pressing the trigger well and in accordance with the sight picture. Those are the essential elements. You can choose how hard you want to drive your speed in the drill. You might explore the ragged edge, you might work purely on consistency of execution, or you might look for a balance or bounce back and forth between extremes. All of those are worthwhile manners of practice.
Please report: gun, magazine, magazine pouch, and concealment (if any) used, how you chose to set up the drill (option A or B, inert training cartridges/dummy magazine/etc.), how much time you spent doing the drill, and anything you noticed.
Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.
Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure (the closer you follow this, the fewer opportunities you will have to ND)
Principles:
Allow no distractions – focus exclusively on the task at hand
Keep muzzle in a safe direction
Use correct trigger finger discipline
Verify no live ammo in gun, on person, or in the dry practice area
Use dedicated dry practice targets that are put away until you consciously choose to begin dry practice, and taken down when you consciously end dry practice
Use dedicated dry practice magazines and dummy rounds/inert training cartridges that stay in the dry practice area (if you use any magazine or cartridges)
Procedure:
Unload gun in a location other than the dry practice area
Leave live ammo, and magazines with live ammo, completely outside the dry practice area
Enter the dry practice area
Verify gun is unloaded, that any magazines do not contain live ammo, and that any cartridges present are inert/dummy cartridges
Consciously choose to begin dry practice
Put up dry practice targets
Do your dry practice
Take down dry practice targets and put them away
Consciously choose to end dry practice
Exit the dry practice area and do something unrelated for a few minutes
Return gun to location and condition of your choosing
