Magpul Malfunction Drills Vs the Standard

In watching their Dynamic Handgun DVD they advocate tilting the barrel of the pistol up 10 degrees to diagnose the problem, then using the specific malfunction clearance for that specific malfunction.

Everywhere I have trained advocates a standard tap rack reassess response.

What are your thoughts in having a standard response or diagnosing and using the specific malfunction clearaince?

I'm from the same school of tap, rack, and reassess. Most malfunctions can be cleared quickly with this method and you don't need to take your eyes off the threat. They offer a bunch of good information to put in your tool kit but I'm going to stick to the old school method of malfunction clearing.

Different strokes for different folks.

I wouldn't use diagnostic malfunction clearances. Not for Immediate Action at least.

My thought as well. Tap-Rack-Bang is an immediate action drill, designed to get you back into the fight as quickly as possible. It should resolve most of the common malfunctions, other than a failure to extract (which would result in a double feed condition).

The whole "look at the gun/malfunction first before fixing the problem" is a problem in and of itself, as it costs you precious time. It also just reinforces our natural tendency to stop and look at things first before proceeding. While that may be an acceptable option for a lot of situations in life, it will get you killed in a gunfight. Also, finding cover is equally as important. If you experience a double feed, cover is essential.

The Magpul guys really do advocate creating thinking shooters.

There are situations where taking a look at what is going on can be advantageous.

Here is an example.

Vertical stovepipes can be cleared by sweeping the case. You have to ID the vertical stovepipe in order to clear it. There are situations where tap and racking can make the problem worse if the case is not cleared. It has happened to me, especially with dirty guns where the next round will not fully feed into the chamber resulting in a pseudo double feed.

I have also managed to brilliantly tap and rack the spent casing right back into my ejection port.

Is it necessary, no, but its another option for people that want to learn as many techniques as possible to keep their guns up and running.

There is also some thought that on a double feed instead of resorting to remedial action a split second glance will notify the shooter that you've got a double feed at which point you can immediately go into lock, rip, rack, reinsert, go. It is arguably faster but the benefit is negated at night when you cannot see anything.

Its A way, not THE way. Pick what works for you and run with it.

I think Paul Gomez lays out the benefits of immediate action pretty well here. It's worth a watch.

Stoppage Reductions By Gomez-Training.com

If you clear malfunctions the same way every time you don't have a decision loop to go through.

Combat is in the world of nano seconds not seconds and minutes. Stopping to look at the problem at least doubles your response time. Tap, rack.....

That is the main point to me. This means that I am training for diagnostic malfunction clearance during the day time and then nondiagnostic clearances during night/low light. The issue that goes hand in hand with that is the transitional period in between where you might spend even more time "trying" to see what is going on.

There is a reason why ingrained fundamentals are critical, we all lose cerebral capacity and fine motor skills during fight or flight. Operate on KISS and it's harder to screw up.

Tap and Rack is diagnostic. If the gun still doesn't go bang, then that is all the diagnosing I need for the next ingrained response to kick in.

Nothing against what other guys are teaching, but sometimes it is more marketing than tactics. I tend to look at "new" high speed stuff with suspicion.

So...everyone that has ever been in a fight falls over and dies due to a lack of thought process? No one has EVER made a decision in a fight? Fighting is 100% instinctual and we are pure animals? Do we smash our triggers with our fists when the adrenaline rolls?

The only part i agree with is that simplistic tasks are easier to perform under pressure. However, there is nothing simplistic about an armed confrontation.

I didn't say "becomes a blathering idiot", did I? I thought I said "lose cerebral capacity", kinda like going skydiving for the first time and trying to do your taxes. You can do both, but it isn't recommended at the same time.

I nearly wrote a long and extensive rebuttal, but reading your statement a second time made me realize you just demonize arguments by jumping to illogical conclusions without understanding the argument. Essentially you are "begging the question", that is taking your conclusion and presenting it as a rhetorical question (which your premise is implied as true) - even thought I said nothing concerning your premise. Your premise is that I said we lack all thinking ability and decision making, which is completely unsupported by anything I really said! Perhaps next time you could question/disagree politely and I will feel welcome to explain/debate. Until then, I have no interest in discourse with you.

Good luck with your endeavors, it really was tempting to follow your GD type of response with one of my own. I'll take the high road instead for the sake of the thread.

Tap rack doesn't solve all issues and create more

as for negating Night time how many of you have ever been in total darkness outside of combat and not using NOD's or some time of ambient light source other than square range
I have watched the films of officers and mil shooters who always seam to end up looking at the gun almost every time....its human nature and its a false sense often given on square range classes but its the only options we often have

Most have never cleared a malfunction that wasn't range set up for the most part and they are often simple to clear other than true hard malfunctions
I have seen many students clear specific malfs faster and cleaner using the diagnostic approach to each is own

I have seen hard malfs were they would not clear and guys vapor lock so your tap rack takes what approx 1.5 seconds from start fire if need be
but then if turns into a TRA to lock rip and strip to each is own i have seen guys faster at both its student skill level that makes that choice

And yes i have done them in low to now light both with and without Nods and other light sources and i can tell you this in some cases your best bet is to use your feet

to each is own

There is a difference between how quickly we can see something and how quickly we can process what we've seen. I've seen a lot of folks attempt diagnostic stoppage reductions and wind up further along in the process they are most proficient with before there mind catches up with what they saw.

Bingo.

I like the tap rack method for sure. It doesn't take more than a second or so to do a well rehearsed tap rack motion if it goes click after that I'm not going to stand there squared up and try to work through my problem I'm gonna find cover or close the distance and try something else.

While I can see the other side of the argument, I think it's important to know what's going on with your gun before you try to fix it.
A lot of shooters aren't intimately familiar with their guns, how many times have you seen someone pull the trigger on a pistol that's out of ammo with the slide locked back? That's pathetic. For a newbie who doesn't know what a stovepipe, ftf, or fte is, always go tap-rack-bang. At higher skill levels of shooting, you should know what specifically is going on with your gun, and be able to fix that specific problem.

"tap rack bang" is an absolutely horrible way to train. It drills into you firing that shot when no need may exist to do so.

There are different variations, but you are right. It's the same reason why we no longer give "gun" as the command to fire, yet it was widely used when I first got into my industry. It reinforces the idea that the presence of a gun is sufficient for deadly force, which is false.

We simply train tap - rack or tap - roll - rack then reassess.

I was raised on tap-rack-bang but now my whole state seems to have moved to tap-rack and cant, bang. Throwing the cant in there seems to work fairly well for most of my shooters, but there are those that cant seem to get used to it.

actually tap rack and reasess is more new school than diagnosing (maybe not the particular form that OP is talking about but its effectively the same) there are more advantages to tap, rack, reasess including it keeps your mind clear of too many options, which keeps, like you mentioned, your eyes and mind on the threat.

this

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.