Random Customer: "What kind of gun is that you were shooting out there?"
Shooting Buddy: "A Les Baer TRS."
Random Customer: "I was just asking, 'cause it seemed to be jamming a lot."
Shooting Buddy: "I was doing malfunction drills."
Random Customer: *blank stare*
Shooting Buddy: "I was setting those up. Drills, right?"
Random Customer: *blank stare*
I guess when you carry a gun that never malfunctions, you don't have to practice those. I need to find me one of those guns.
EDIT: Bonus! Magic swords!
If I thought you could be fooled into believing in perfect firearms that could never, ever - not fire when needed I would sell you one of my specials. But I am sure you are smarter than I and Murphy, so will leave that weapon on the shelf in the back of my mind where only children play with it.
ReplyDeleteYou can tell how serious a shooter is by the demands they make on themselves in preparation and practice, and the smiles they have in their success when it counts.
So how do you set up a malfunction like a stovepipe? Load a sub minimum powder charge?
ReplyDeleteIf he needs his gun and it malfunctions he will then understand the importance of malfunction drills.
ReplyDeleteI hope he learns the importance before that time however.
Take a few practice rounds (no gunpowder/firing caps), then pull the bullet out or push it in a bit. Then have someone else load your magazines with mixture of live/dud rounds.
ReplyDeleteFor Glock owners, it also helps to keep mags that aren't drop-free on hand for getting good at pulling those suckers out...
ReplyDeleteTom the Impaler,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the only way I know of to set up a Failure To Eject/stovepipe, is manually, by trapping a spent piece of brass between the breechface and barrel hood, then running through the clearance drill...
I need to find me one of those guns.
ReplyDeleteThey're right over there, in that aisle next to the bags of pixie dust and unicorn feed.
I beg to differ on the stovepipe drill. I discovered a certain combination with my 45 that was full-power, yet hopelessly unreliable. YMMV, but the combination involves oversize plated bullets, soft brass and dirty ball powder. However, it never occurred to me to call it a "drill" instead of "crappy reloaded ammo".
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of malf drills does one do with a revolver? The only malf I experienced with my 686 in fourteen years needed a dowel and mallet to fix. Also due to crappy reloaded ammo.
There are things that even revolvers need. I just got a SP-101 and I'm doing something wrong firing in single-action: I think I'm cocking it after each shot, yet it's not firing. Practicing will let me learn whether I'm doing something wrong or if there's some sort of problem with the gun itself.
ReplyDeleteI'd also guess that FTE problems can happen with revolvers; maybe you could tie a rubber band around the end of your ejector rod so it can't go out all the way. That way you can practice ripping the individual rounds out if necessary.
Tam,
ReplyDeleteBut, I keep getting told that Glocks NEVER, EVER malfunction ... do you mean I can't trust what I read on teh intarwebs????
//sarcasm off//
As far as revolver malf drills, I always thought those entailed dropping the revolver and drawing your backup. OTOH, the only wheelgun I have is cap and ball which a) makes a handy club and b) is not really suitable for CCW.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the cap and ball not being suitable for CCW. The sparks would be pretty spectacular at night, I would think!!
wv: Myograf
Couldn't you load a snap cap in the magazine to simulate a FTF? That's what I've been doing...
ReplyDeleteAnother way to set up a malfunction drill: Simply have your shooting buddy load an empty case into the mag beneath one or more live ones.
ReplyDeleteAn abundance of caution: stripe the case with a broad tip Marks-a-Lot. This way, when you look, you'll know it IS a drill, rather than a squib that has left a bullet in the barrel.
WV: Japanese for malfunction clearence??
JPG
Sorry - -
ReplyDeletethe WV was unbroc.
Tom: If you want malf-drill ammo, I still have 980 rounds of India .308 sitting in a can.
ReplyDeleteMake me an offer.
"But, I keep getting told that Glocks NEVER, EVER malfunction"
ReplyDeleteWhile personal experience never actually qualifies as data, I'm well over 10,000 rounds on my Glock 26, and my gun has never had a malfunction.
However, I have had an ammo malfunction that completely buggered it up, or at least enough that no malfunction drill would have allowed you to continue using it in a self-defense situation. The primer fired, but the powder didn't ignite. I didn't try to disassemble the round to figure out exactly what happened in there. But the result of the primer firing was that the primer forced itself out of the pocket in the brass, and wedged the round into the gun so firmly that the only way we were able to eject the round was to push on the front of the cartridge with a cleaning rod. Even then, it took two of us to do it.
This post was a good reminder that I need to practice malfunction drills more often, especially since I have a 1911 now. ;)
I just want to clarify that I wasn't making a reliability comparison. Yet I was offered helpful suggestions. I've had the extractor slip by the rims on wheelguns, just not the 686.
ReplyDeleteI see that the solution for the bullet-in-bore condition is the New York Reload.
Two is one and one is none. :)
ReplyDelete