Second gun

[Tom Givens]

We always advise students coming to our classes to bring a second gun just like the one they plan to use, so if the first gun breaks they can still use the same holster, magazines and ammunition to finish the class. We base this advice on the fact that in just about every class we see a gun break—not malfunction, but suffer a broken part that deadlines the gun until it can be repaired.

Last weekend we were in Oklahoma teaching our annual EDP course with Southnarc and William Aprill. We did not have a gun break in this class (unless you count a front sight that flew off mid-drill), but we did have a malfunction that had the same result as a breakage, at least temporarily. During a shooting drill, a fired case wound up backwards in the chamber of a Glock. This kept the slide from going into battery, so the student immediately did a TRB, per doctrine. No luck. He then tried a double-feed clearance. Still no love. At that point I stopped him, fearing there might be a bullet stuck in the chamber from a squib load. Only then did we see the backward empty case in the chamber! I broke a ball point pen inserted from the muzzle without dislodging the case. The student had to take the gun off the range and find a brass cleaning rod and beat the case out of the barrel.

This is a good reason to bring that second gun to class. It’s also a strong reminder of the wisdom of wearing a back-up gun (BUG) when out and about. If this malfunction occurs in a fight, you won’t get it fixed in your lifetime.

[GJM]

Interested in your recommendation of what second gun and how do you carry it?

[Tom Givens]

In my case at present a Kahr P9 in DeSantis ankle holster. Colt Cobra in Alessi ankle rig if feeling nostalgic.

[Malamute]

Thanks for the post and follow-up comments.

[YVK]

. During a shooting drill, a fired case wound up backwards in the chamber of a Glock.

How the hell...?

Thanks for the insight.

[Tom Givens]

No idea how this happens, but it is not the first time I've seen it and have heard of several more.

[Lomshek]

How the hell...?

Thanks for the insight.

Happened to me once during a match. Ended up the ejector had snapped off so that the case was "ejected" by the impact of the slide stopping at it's rearward travel end. That little bit of ejection was just enough to flip the case 180 degrees around so it dropped back into the ejection port and was fed into an open and willing chamber with the nose of the next round right behind it in some kind of crime against man and God's laws mis-feed.

[Kennydale]

My G17 did that at a training session with instructor. We got the round out ( MY first G17 Malfunction ever after having firearm for two years incident free) Decided to use my spare G19 to finish my qualification for advancement! And yes I carry a LCP as a BUG for real life mishaps !

[Surf]

In a period of 1 year I trained a couple thousand people with the G17. Two, 2 day classes per week with 20 students per class. The training was a transition from the 5906 to the Glock. As a standard slide manipulation on the S&W for a right hander was ejection port up and a sling shot method.

We saw this stoppage occur about once or twice per class of 20 students. This mainly occurred during malfunction clearance drills using dummy rounds. We saw this primarily occur under 2 primary circumstances. First was due to students attempting to do a malfunction clearance (tap, rack) going ejection port up with a slingshot with the Glock and short stroking the slide. This would cause the case to dribble out and sometimes go in backwards. This occurrence was less prevalent than the second described below.

The second occurrence was often seen during one handed malfunction clearances where the student would run the slide off of their gear etc and the ejection port may have been obstructed by gear, clothing etc and the casing would not clear the ejection port, roll 180* and end up backwards in the chamber. This was mostly on the left handed side where most shooters are right handers and often want to baby the slide during clearance, due to lack of proficiency. Of course doctrine often dictates that the student continue to attempt to clear the malfunction however racking the slide more just makes this stoppage even worse.

Of course we attempt to adjust technique in students to avoid these failures. I also show how to clear this stoppage one handed, but indeed issued plastic pens will not work. I demo'd it with a steel pen and it worked, but mostly demo'd it with a section of USGI cleaning rod, imitating a steel pen so I wouldn't keep ruining pens. Locking slide to the rear one handed, retrieving steel pen, inserting it into the barrel, how to hold the pistol and striking it on a hard surface to drive out the case. One thing to consider if the round was a light primer strike or hard primer. So be wary if you are hammering on the primer and your hand position on the pistol when striking. We have a complete training block on this that is included in the one handed clearance instruction. If someone has never seen or tried this in training, they will never fix this if it happens for real. Then they are really f***ed.

Oddly enough the Glock 21 chamber does not have this issue. The casing does not get stuck backwards. Haven't tried it yet with a .40 cal glock.

[Tom Givens]

Surf,

I agree with everything you said.

In this particular instance, however, the shooter was in the middle of a multi-shot string, standing in the open, with both hands on the gun, a Glock 23. No compromised position or poor grip, etc.