Tactical Reload is it time to revisit the technique

[JHC]

Okay, so I haven't read all of this thread, but I have read most of the comments from the members whose information I value.

I slapped on my competition gear to see what the time difference vs the three reloads were. I used my Elite II and I set par times. For the reload drills I tried to have the mag back in the gun before the second beep.

Best speed reload: 0.9

Best tac reload: 1.4 (I spent only 5 minutes working speed on this by the way. I have never tried to push speed with this reload before, it's was always just an admin operation for me).

Best Proactive reload: N/A ***Note: I actually could not get my body to do this reload. No matter how hard I tried I just could not slow down and ended up stuttering through it. So I gave up and just did speed reloads. After practicing it, I just don't see the advantage over a speed reload. Just my opinion.

With a mag pouch under a polo I would ad at least 0.5 to those times. Maybe once competition season is over I will take a look at it.

Anyway, time difference is not as great as I would have thought.

Lol your tac reload is better than my speed reload!

[Clobbersaurus]

Lol your tac reload is better than my speed reload!

LOL, I was gaming tac reloads.

[lwt16]

I can't count the number of idiots I've seen wear their ASP directly behind their pistol, interfering with their grip. But hey, it's convenient....

Or mandated by SOP.......

Truthfully, we really have no need for the baton at my agency as any and all strikes or blocks have been de-authorized. At the last inservice, when we were issued the Taser and told that the baton was pretty much a relic of days gone by, many of us took them off our belts because, as you mentioned, it interfered with our grip. Not only that, but the 'new and improved" holders were almost impossible to draw from.

We were quickly told we were "out of policy" and to put them back on.

So don't assume the "idiot" is the end user.

Regards.

[LSP552]

Or mandated by SOP.......

Truthfully, we really have no need for the baton at my agency as any and all strikes or blocks have been de-authorized. At the last inservice, when we were issued the Taser and told that the baton was pretty much a relic of days gone by, many of us took them off our belts because, as you mentioned, it interfered with our grip. Not only that, but the 'new and improved" holders were almost impossible to draw from.

We were quickly told we were "out of policy" and to put them back on.

So don't assume the "idiot" is the end user.

Regards.

For sure! No doubt about idiots writing idiot policy in many agencies. Been there, lived some of that. Thanks for bringing that up!

[Soggy]

Here is the problem. Which reload and why? We have folks spending huge amounts of time on the out of battery speed reload that they basically plan on having. That is super fast and pretty reliable. What is not is when we get people in class who have poorly managed ammo and then get to do it for real, and it is often ugly. In battery reload, great technique and fairly easy, unless you fail to seat that stuffed to the gills magazine that doesn't do real well when not slammed into the gun. The Tac Load...well, you could just drop the magazine every single time on the ground and basically limit yourself. The Tac Load offers benefits when you are not taking in coming, and the only negative if you drop a mag is that you are back to the in-battery speed load. "The right time".....sorry, no magic blue pills on this. You could have near identical scenarios in totally different environments that would change this. Brutal reality is that his is a thinking game. You need to know how to play chess in case your force scenario doesn't turn out to be a checkers match. My thing is be practiced and solid on "have to, need to, and want to" and put some solid thought into the types of scenarios where each of those may need to be applied well before you need to.

I agree deciding when the 'right time' to top off your magazine is not magic and someone could make a poor choice on when to do it (regardless of what technique they plan to use to top off).

Suppose someone guessed wrong or used poor judgment on when to execute. Which type of reload would it be better to be in the middle of when the realization hits that the threat is active again - the simple one or the complicated one?

I also agree it is a thinking game. I have a finite capacity to think. If I use up enough brain power to decide I want to top off my gun I don't want to use extra capacity to A) figure out which type of top off I want to perform or B) do one that is any more complicated or slower than it must be. That is the most critical thing at that moment - getting back on the gun quickly in case I made a poor choice in deciding to top off. The shorter the window, the less risk you made a bad call for the immediate circumstance.

You raise another critical point that hasn't been discussed yet: The ability to seat a full magazine when the gun is in battery. But again - which reload technique gives you a higher chance of success? The simple one where your support hand does't have anything to do except jam the magazine home, or the complicated one where the support hand is trying to hang onto a spent mag of unknown value? What is most important at that moment? Successful reload, or retaining partially empty mag? I would say do everything you can to get a successful reload.

People have raised the point that dropping mags on the deck can damage the mag. I would like to submit that it doesn't matter. You can get another one. The whole point is that broken mag on the deck in all likelihood will not be needed again in the immediate future. Have a plentiful supply of spare mags and a spare gun. Everything used in the shooting is getting confiscated anyway, right? If it is training and your mag gets damaged - who cares? Get some training mags. There is no mag shortage anymore.

As always, thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge.

[Malamute]

People have raised the point that dropping mags on the deck can damage the mag. I would like to submit that it doesn't matter. You can get another one. The whole point is that broken mag on the deck in all likelihood will not be needed again in the immediate future. Have a plentiful supply of spare mags and a spare gun. Everything used in the shooting is getting confiscated anyway, right? If it is training and your mag gets damaged - who cares? Get some training mags. There is no mag shortage anymore.

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I may be out of my lane, but I dont think the idea is not to damage the mag so you cant use it in practice next week, but not damage it so it cant be used in the very short interval of time remaining in your life.

[Soggy]

I may be out of my lane, but I dont think the idea is not to damage the mag so you cant use it in practice next week, but not damage it so it cant be used in the very short interval of time remaining in your life.

Fair point! I was going off the assumption you wouldn't ever need that mag, which is how we kind of got in this whole sink whole. I will leave my statement for posterity, but do concede the point. Everyone else: Please don't beat me up for my last paragraph.