The internet is apparently moments away from collapsing into a black hole due to the changes to reloading behind cover from the latest rulebook.
To catch folks up quickly:
- Old rule: you were free to perform a Reload with Retention or Tactical Reload while moving along a piece of cover if you weren't exposed to any targets.
- New rule: if we're reading it right, basically you cannot be moving while performing a reload from behind cover.
First, let me say that I don't care one way or the other.
But I'm just amazed at how many people are losing their minds over this and trying to justify it as some kind of critical tactical sheepdog ninja technique without which one will certainly die a fiery lead-filled death. The argument, as best I understand it, is that standing still to do the reload will Get Ya Killed!
Now it's been a few years since I last shot an IDPA match but as I recall there were essentially two types of cover you'd be moving behind or past. The first was a car. The second was a wall. In both cases, you were moving from a point where you'd just eliminated a bunch of threats to a place where you were about to go head to head with more threats.
So on the one hand you have people saying that it is Bad Tactics[TM] to remain where you were because the bad guys know where you are. So you need to skeedaddle ASAP.
On the other hand, you could look at it as your current location has just been made safe or at least relatively more safe than the next shooting position where you know there are more bad guys who haven't been shot yet. Charging toward them before your gun is topped off might not be so bright. Heck, it could Get Ya Killed!
What I find most amusing is that the people upset about the rule seem all too happy to imagine a situation in which the guys they just shot might overrun their current position, but they feign ignorance of the possibility that the guys they're running towards might be just as mobile and come 'round that corner while the good guy is juggling mags for a reload.
Me? I'd probably either do a speed reload (leaving bullets behind, which is against IDPA rules) or I'd move straight to the next place I needed to be without reloading. It's easy to say "behind cover" against pieces of cardboard nailed to the earth but if you knew those threats could come around the corner at any moment would you really start a magazine swap? That's especially true when the cover is something as small and bullet-permeable as a car. You've got bad guys at the front and rear of the car. You shoot the guys in front and then reload your gun on your way to the rear... seriously?
Here's the real situation: forcing people to do flat footed reloads means they'll be slower and the guys who've spent time and effort mastering IDPA-legal reloads on the move will no longer have an advantage over the guys who haven't. Period. All the Get Ya Killed nonsense is just an excuse for people who are upset about a rule change that steals a perceived advantage from them.
Now for all I know, IDPA is going to come out and say the rule was written wrong or is being interpreted too harshly and that they never intended to prevent people from reloading while moving along a covered position. If so, that's fine, too. Because at certain times under certain circumstances, either method might be the smartest thing to do.
If the rule stands as it's written and being interpreted right now, though, know what you'll start to see? A whole lot fewer tactical reloads on the clock and a whole lot more shooting the gun empty in a fight... which I think the community has pretty much come to understand is the norm in Real Fights[TM].
/rant
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Originally Posted by caleb
