clearing FTF

[Redhat]

Tap-Rack-Recover solves more than one type of stoppage:
• Failure to feed
• Failure to fire
• Failure to eject

There are three immediate actions to clear stoppages that are performed in sequence:
1. Tap-rack-recover;
2. If tap-rack-recover fails to get the gun running, then perform: combat reload;
3. If the magazine doesn’t jettison when the magazine release is pressed, then perform: lock – rip – rack, rack, rack – combat reload.

Performing non-diagnostic immediate actions is quicker. They shortcut your OODA Loop to “Observe – Act”.

Whereas a diagnostic approach requires you to progress through your OODA Loop in serial manner while you’re experiencing extreme stress:
• Observe (gun did not fire when you pressed the trigger)
• Orient (examine the gun to determine what the stoppage is)
• Decide (figure out which specific corrective action to perform to clear the stoppage)
• Act (perform the corrective action)

If your gun doesn’t fire when you press the trigger, then the best response is to immediately perform tap-rack-recover. Pressing the trigger again may or may not work, depending on the cause of the stoppage (high primer, dud primer, failure to feed, failure to eject). Therefore, pressing the trigger again wastes time and adds another decision to your OODA Loop, which requires mental effort and slows you down.

In the above what is your definition of a "Failure to Feed" ?

[CraigS]

I disagree w/ most of the above. With my Beretta 92 the first thing I do is pull the trigger again. I wasted time because that might not fix it? How much did I waste? One second? My hands are still gripping the gun normally. The gun is still aimed at the target. The few times I have had a problem the second pull fixed it. How long does a TRR take? 2-3 seconds? My hands need to move significantly. The gun is no longer on target. I see my choices as;
1- pull trigger again which is the fastest, generally fixes the problem(for me w/ my gun), and gun is still on target
2- TRR which is slower, requires lots of hand movement, moves gun off target
I am going w/ #1 first and accept the one second delay until I go to #2 if needed. Also which type of failure do I have here is important. If the slide is fully in battery I am pulling trigger again. If it is not in battery, then TRR and probably also removing the mag is a better choice.

[Shawn Dodson]

Tap-Rack-Recover can be performed in less than a second.

[Clusterfrack]

Tap-Rack-Recover can be performed in less than a second.

In competitive shooting, a light strike is much more common because so many people modify their guns with super-light hammer/striker springs. As well, failure-to-fire malfunctions happen because of high primers in reloaded ammo. Not surprisingly, it's pretty common to pull the trigger a 2nd time with TDA guns. I've done it numerous times at matches.

However, it is not the best procedure for people using handguns in a life safety context. The standard procedure for a FTF is Tap-Rack-Recover, and for good reasons as listed in this thread.

[Rocky Racoon]

What @Clusterfrack said. My tuned CZ (I told Stuart to make it as light as possible, and he did) will have light strikes 10% of the time with CCI/Blazer/Wolf ammo. I got the in the habit of a second trigger pull before I went through that ammo and switched to Federal primers on my reloads . It’s very close to 100% reliable with Federal primers.

But I would never make that my carry or nightstand pistol. My nightstand pistol would have a factory hammer spring. And that means if I hear a click instead of bang, it’s almost certainly due to a lack of live round in the chamber or something out of battery ie nothing that a second hammer strike will fix.

Yes, a second trigger pull (as remedial action) only takes a half a second, except when that second trigger pull doesn’t work, your brain will be flummoxed for a second or two trying to figure out why that remedial action didn’t work, and now your brain is in diagnostic mode. Since the second trigger pull is unlikely to work, better to go to the non-diagnostic TRB.

[cracker]

I will be clearing malfunctions as I always have, after the first click as it is already wired into the brain. I never even thought of pulling the trigger twice until shooting with a friend who asked me why I didn't pull the trigger again before clearing a malfunction. Of course with the striker fires I have been shooting this is not an option.
I appreciate the feedback

[Default.mp3]

Obligatory argument from Bill Blowers about the tap being a waste of time.

Like reloads, Bill argued that stoppages and malfunctions are very rare when shooting a quality gun with quality ammo, duty ammo invariably is. Bill has a somewhat unorthodox view in that he does not see the tap in tap-rack-bang as being strictly necessary, but rather, would prefer to simply just rack for most attempts to clear a simple stoppage. He argued that for most modern double-stack pistols, the magazine being unseated during a string of fire, while still being retained in the magwell, is extremely uncommon, unlike the 1911, where the metal single stack magazine with a minimalistic baseplate could be difficult to seat, and may not fall out of the magwell even when unseated. Thus, while a tap may be warranted and executed if the shooter has a stoppage very early after a magazine change, if one has already successfully fired several shots, the tap is almost certainly an extraneous action, as the magazine was clearly seated correctly in order to have fired multiple shots. On the other hand, if the magazine had somehow indeed somehow come unseated, it would almost certainly have totally fallen out, which again renders the tap useless. Bill notes that he came up with this idea after trying to teach a fresh recruit the tap-rack-bang, and the recruit kept clearing the induced stoppages with simply a rack; while Bill initially was extremely frustrated, after some pondering, he decided that the recruit had a point when she pointed out that the racking was indeed working just fine to clear these stoppages. Yet, due to all these years of training the tap-rack-bang, Bill will still occasionally catch himself doing a tap inadvertently. He also notes that if one is uncomfortable with abandoning the tap, it’s no skin off his back, and that he would not force folks to use it, but merely asked the students to give it a shot during class.

Still, Bill argues that if one gets a stoppage during an actual gunfight, getting the gun back into action will be paramount, as is the speed in which it can be brought back to bear, and for the vast majority of common stoppages, a simple rack will suffice. To illustrate the time difference, Bill tried both a tap-rack-bang, and a simple rack, and came away with a time of 1.33 seconds versus 0.64, which is between two to three extra shots, going off his typical splits.

From an unpublished AAR of mine.

[Sero Sed Serio]

Another trigger pull might solve one type of malfunction. A tap-rack-bang/tap-rack-assess whatever immediate action drill will solve several types of malfunctions, including (probably) the primer issue that a second strike might solve. IAD also works across striker or SAO guns where second-strike isn’t an option. Put me in the camp of default to immediate action drill that requires no thinking, then assessment and remedial action if the IAD doesn’t work.

[UNM1136]

Adult decisions...

What might work, what should work, none of it is guaranteed, and we gotta live or die by the outcomes of those decisions.

pat

[Utm]

Obligatory argument from Bill Blowers about the tap being a waste of time.

Like reloads, Bill argued that stoppages and malfunctions are very rare when shooting a quality gun with quality ammo, duty ammo invariably is. Bill has a somewhat unorthodox view in that he does not see the tap in tap-rack-bang as being strictly necessary, but rather, would prefer to simply just rack for most attempts to clear a simple stoppage. He argued that for most modern double-stack pistols, the magazine being unseated during a string of fire, while still being retained in the magwell, is extremely uncommon, unlike the 1911, where the metal single stack magazine with a minimalistic baseplate could be difficult to seat, and may not fall out of the magwell even when unseated. Thus, while a tap may be warranted and executed if the shooter has a stoppage very early after a magazine change, if one has already successfully fired several shots, the tap is almost certainly an extraneous action, as the magazine was clearly seated correctly in order to have fired multiple shots. On the other hand, if the magazine had somehow indeed somehow come unseated, it would almost certainly have totally fallen out, which again renders the tap useless. Bill notes that he came up with this idea after trying to teach a fresh recruit the tap-rack-bang, and the recruit kept clearing the induced stoppages with simply a rack; while Bill initially was extremely frustrated, after some pondering, he decided that the recruit had a point when she pointed out that the racking was indeed working just fine to clear these stoppages. Yet, due to all these years of training the tap-rack-bang, Bill will still occasionally catch himself doing a tap inadvertently. He also notes that if one is uncomfortable with abandoning the tap, it’s no skin off his back, and that he would not force folks to use it, but merely asked the students to give it a shot during class.

Still, Bill argues that if one gets a stoppage during an actual gunfight, getting the gun back into action will be paramount, as is the speed in which it can be brought back to bear, and for the vast majority of common stoppages, a simple rack will suffice. To illustrate the time difference, Bill tried both a tap-rack-bang, and a simple rack, and came away with a time of 1.33 seconds versus 0.64, which is between two to three extra shots, going off his typical splits.

From an unpublished AAR of mine.

I too have subscribed to this over the last year or so. Especially running extended baseplates. If the mag isn't seated it would more than likely fall out. I do the same thing with rifle. I don't tap, I just run the charging handle.