One would think a pistol malfunction - usually a stoppage - in the middle of a fight was bad enough. What could be worse? The shooter's response to the unanticipated failure when bullets are flying.

A recent internet discussion of failures to fix failures brought back bad memories of in-service and basic classes I failed to properly teach in the past. I could tell I was a bad teacher - when we'd induce stoppages for shooters and put them on a timer or against someone else, the range of responses were ugly.

http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2164026.jpg> A bit of tape as a training aid, the wrapping of tape causes the magazine to bind in the magazine well. It can be driven into the gun, but it requires that you seat the magazine before you can continue the exercise.

As pointed out by a world class trainer who'd recently had the chance to see nonsworn citizens get nonfiring cartridges loaded into their magazines by an RO during a competition, the range of disasters went from freezing to ineffective countermeasures after a period of staring at the inert pistol.

I'd seen it before. In transitions from revolver to pistol, you'd see a hand go up on the firing line when the damn gun didn't work. After explaining immediate action, I'd see people try to restore function by dropping the magazine or by racking on the slide or by slapping the side of the pistol (I kid you not) and various combinations thereof.

Had I given some of the old timers pocket revolvers, I feel somewhat more confident that some would have put the nonfunctioning pistol aside, drawn the pocket gun and gone to work - but only somewhat more confident. I'm also aware of a shooter who forgot he had a second gun in the thick of a fight because he never trained for that eventuality.

While I've tried to come up with ways to make immediate action an immediate response, it's been others who've shown me the best ways to teach it. We all know - or should know - that an attempt to fire a second shot that results in a "click" - a failure to fire - or a dead trigger could be caused by a magazine that's not fully seated. This can happen when the magazine button is accidentally pressed while the gun's in the holster. A failure to fire at the outset can mean the same thing - and that you didn't check the chamber after loading and likely failed to replace the "down-1" magazine with a full one.

Immediate action is TAP - smacking the floorplate of the magazine to ensure it's seated - RACK - meaning to aggressively rack the slide to chamber a fresh round - and then to "assess" the "threat," shoot as needed, etc.

http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2164028.jpg> The taped magazine will protrude slightly from the magazine well. This ensures that you're not passing up the "TAP" element of immediate action to solve the problem.

A good way to get in practice with that technique on the GLOCK pistol was shown to me and others by Phil Goldsmith, a GLOCK, Inc. trainer at a class in 2005. He'd simply tape the magazine - we used a bit of masking tape - about half the way up. Wrap around twice or so to make the magazine just a bit thicker. To use it, make ready for live fire. Remove the untaped magazine and put the taped mag in the magazine well without seating it. Set your timer to remote start and have a target posted - say an NRA B-8 center - and aim in after you pressed "start." At the tone, put two hits into the black part of the B-8 center.

You get a "bang," then a click - pay attention to where the sights went on that failure to fire. Then TAP the magazine floorplate, driving the taped magazine into the well, RACK the slide vigorously, and make your second hit into the black circles. If both hits are inside the bull's eye, check your time.

It doesn't matter what it is, you're setting a baseline of your own. As Dave Spaulding has pointed out, you have about two seconds to do whatever it is you're going to do before you're taking lots of incoming fire.

Simply release (and tug) the taped magazine back down and set up the drill again. Do this about five times per range outing, just to keep your hand in. Put the target far enough away that it's a bit of a challenge, but not far enough away for it to become a time problem - five yards or so is fine.

This works for failures to fire and for failures to eject ("stovepipe"). What do we do for feedway stoppages?

Check this space next week.

To read the blog that started this train of thought, see http://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/gunhandling/>Tactical Professor on Gunhandling.

--Rich Grassi