Pistol Malfunction Training

[BE Mike]

My wife's new pistol seems to run like a sewing machine. I know that I can either load or buy dummy rounds, to help train her in malfunction drills. That being said, does anyone have any other ideas for creating malfunctions and/ or clearing procedures?

 

[rvb]

buy some spare parts like extractors, extractor springs, and ejectors, and tweak them till they don't always work....
load some ammo that barely cycles the gun.
load some ammo too long that jams the gun up.
buy an extra mag spring and cut it too short so it doesnt feed well.
take an old mag and spread the feed lips apart.
-rvb

 

[VERT]

I probably wouldn't mess with a gun that works. We can do a lot of stuff with dummies and snap caps. Another bit of advice. Don't over complicate the drills or scare your poor wife. The idea here is to build confidence in the weapon and her abilities, not introduce doubt. The gun will work when she needs it. If it stops working she knows how to fix it.

 

[rvb]

at the very least, learn to simulate extraction failures (aka double feeds) and if you reload load some rounds long that really jam the gun up and make them hard to extract. I see these all the time at matches and people who've just practiced the old tap/rack end up staring at their gun like WTF do I do now?

although if she is new, I wouldn't worry too much about it. running good gun and ammo and knowing how to use it is more important than spending a lot of time training for the off chance it won't work, imo.

-rvb

 

[Slawburger]

You could buy her a Raven.

 

[BE Mike]

I probably wouldn't mess with a gun that works. We can do a lot of stuff with dummies and snap caps. Another bit of advice. Don't over complicate the drills or scare your poor wife. The idea here is to build confidence in the weapon and her abilities, not introduce doubt. The gun will work when she needs it. If it stops working she knows how to fix it.

This isn't the wife's first rodeo. She was introduced to pistol shooting decades ago. Although she doesn't train often, she has a good grounding in marksmanship fundamentals and safe gun handling. I was favorably impressed with her marksmanship, grip, stance and gun handling yesterday. Although experienced with semi-autos, she really hadn't done a lot with defensive work (mostly just target shooting). Also, she has been a revolver person for most of the past years. On the way home yesterday, I said maybe we should have introduced malfunction clearing drills. She said, "I was thinking that I could use some training in that area."

 

[VERT]

Got it! I'll help you out. Clear the gun the same way you load the gun. Just use dummies. Seat the mag, use a firm overhand grip, aggressively run the slide. If that doesn't work then unload the gun and reload it. Yeah there is a little more to it I admit but not really.

 

[BE Mike]

Got it! I'll help you out. Clear the gun the same way you load the gun. Just use dummies. Seat the mag, use a firm overhand grip, aggressively run the slide. If that doesn't work then unload the gun and reload it. Yeah there is a little more to it I admit but not really.

So you're saying, just load the magazine full of dummy rounds and hand cycle it? This pistol is supposed to be charged from the slide locked back position and the slide release engaged to load the first round. Do you think that after chambering the first dummy round and attempting to fire it, she should try racking the slide to get the next round chambered? If that doesn't work, then drop the mag, lock back the slide, reinsert mag and drop the slide release?

 

[BE Mike]

You could buy her a Raven.

A Raven? Nevermore!

 

[VERT]

So you're saying, just load the magazine full of dummy rounds and hand cycle it? This pistol is supposed to be charged from the slide locked back position and the slide release engaged to load the first round. Do you think that after chambering the first dummy round and attempting to fire it, she should try racking the slide to get the next round chambered? If that doesn't work, then drop the mag, lock back the slide, reinsert mag and drop the slide release?

Lot to take in and hard to type out a response on the phone. LOL

I am assuming a Kahr pistol? I think they recommend loading with the slide locked back.

I load all autos by gripping the slide in an overhand manner and pushing forward with my strong hand. I do not use the slide stop. Understand that this may not work for all people. For instance my wife recently suffered a traumatic hand injury.

To to clear a malfunction simply seat the mag (tap), run the slide with a firm overhand grip (rack). The gun will be back in action in most situations. This action clears bad ammo or if a mag is not seated. If your gun has a good extractor it will rip out and cure a failure to feed. If done aggressively it will clear a failure to eject. To practice use the dummy round ranfomly in the mag or use an empty case to setup a "stovepipe" or other stoppage.

A a double feed or three point stoppage is a bit different. Unload the gun by locking back the slide or ripping out the mag. Some guns like a 1911 you can't rip the mag out, some like a Glock you can. Then aggressively run the slide several times. Reload the gun by seating the mag and with an overhand grip running the slide. So in effect unload and reload the gun.

 

[BE Mike]

Lot to take in and hard to type out a response on the phone. LOL

I am assuming a Kahr pistol? I think they recommend loading with the slide locked back.

I load all autos by gripping the slide in an overhand manner and pushing forward with my strong hand. I do not use the slide stop. Understand that this may not work for all people. For instance my wife recently suffered a traumatic hand injury.

To to clear a malfunction simply seat the mag (tap), run the slide with a firm overhand grip (rack). The gun will be back in action in most situations. This action clears bad ammo or if a mag is not seated. If your gun has a good extractor it will rip out and cure a failure to feed. If done aggressively it will clear a failure to eject. To practice use the dummy round ranfomly in the mag or use an empty case to setup a "stovepipe" or other stoppage.

A a double feed or three point stoppage is a bit different. Unload the gun by locking back the slide or ripping out the mag. Some guns like a 1911 you can't rip the mag out, some like a Glock you can. Then aggressively run the slide several times. Reload the gun by seating the mag and with an overhand grip running the slide. So in effect unload and reload the gun.

Thanks. BTW the pistol I got her is a Taurus TCP 738. It's the first Taurus I have ever purchased (I haven't been a fan in years past). Having said that, this pistol is a good fit for her, with it's light weight, smooth and light trigger pull, ease of operation and it's pink! I think Taurus has made some very good moves in the recent past. My pistol is a Kahr CM-9. There again, I wasn't a fan in the past, but I'm on board now (at least with this pistol). As I don't reload for the .380 now, I'll probably buy some good dummy rounds.

 

[GunSense LLC]

I really like one of the exercises we did at a Gunsite class I took. Shooter would lay their unloaded gun on the grass facing downrange with a loaded mag, turn and walk up range about 10 yards. The instructor would then load the gun, introducing a malfunction. Upon signal, turn, retrieve the gun, and put 3 rounds on target as quickly as possible. Here are things they did:

I think these are the malfunctions they induced. We only did 2 or 3 of them.

Gun loaded, round not chambered.
Gun unloaded, no magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, no magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, empty magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, magazine not fully inserted.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, only one round in the magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber but slide not in battery.
Double Feed.
Stovepipe.
I can't recall if they put snap caps in or not, but that is a good drill as well.
I also don't know if they just loaded a gun. I think it is important to train for the happy path as well. If you know there is a failure, then the tendency is to fire a shot, stop and see if you can detect a failure, and then fire another shot, etc. With a properly loaded gun, this shows up as a slow time.

I know when I did this, I got the empty or missing magazine, and either not in battery or a double feed. Both times, I knew I had a failure before I had sights on target. In the first case, the gun was just too light, an the second one, the slide was visibly hanging out the back, so in both cases, I started the malfunction clearing before I even attempted to fire.

 

[BE Mike]

I really like one of the exercises we did at a Gunsite class I took. Shooter would lay their unloaded gun on the grass facing downrange with a loaded mag, turn and walk up range about 10 yards. The instructor would then load the gun, introducing a malfunction. Upon signal, turn, retrieve the gun, and put 3 rounds on target as quickly as possible. Here are things they did:

I think these are the malfunctions they induced. We only did 2 or 3 of them.

Gun loaded, round not chambered.
Gun unloaded, no magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, no magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, empty magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, magazine not fully inserted.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber, only one round in the magazine.
Gun loaded with a round in the chamber but slide not in battery.
Double Feed.
Stovepipe.
I can't recall if they put snap caps in or not, but that is a good drill as well.
I also don't know if they just loaded a gun. I think it is important to train for the happy path as well. If you know there is a failure, then the tendency is to fire a shot, stop and see if you can detect a failure, and then fire another shot, etc. With a properly loaded gun, this shows up as a slow time.

I know when I did this, I got the empty or missing magazine, and either not in battery or a double feed. Both times, I knew I had a failure before I had sights on target. In the first case, the gun was just too light, an the second one, the slide was visibly hanging out the back, so in both cases, I started the malfunction clearing before I even attempted to fire.

Thanks, those are valuable suggestions. I might add some of those scenarios the next range session with the wife.