Single Handed Malfunction Clearances

[David Williams]

I spend a lot of my time wonderng "what if" - and creating scenarios in my head so that I am able to think my way through them at my leisure. One of my favorite "what if" scenarios is Single Handed Malfunction Clearances. WHAT IF our pistol goes down and we only have one good hand/arm?

I would like to hear everyone else's thoughts and experiences with this type of drill - or, lacking experience, what you have come up with as a clearance drill for a specific type of malfunction.

In another thread on Malfunction Clearances, the 4 types of malfunction were defined as follows:

Type 1: Failure to Fire
Type 2: Failure to Eject (i.e. Stovepipe)
Type 3: Failure to Feed (i.e. double-feed)
Type 4: Out of ammunition

Here are the conditions:
1. Give the type of malfunction that you are clearing
2. Identify the types of weapons the technique works on
3. Idenfity the types of weapons it WON'T work on,
4. Describe the technique.

Remember, the only caveat is that one hand/arm is non-ambulatory.

I'll go first--

[David Williams]

Clears: Type 3 Malfunctions

This is a technique I learned from Paul Castle, and it works like a charm! I have yet to find a semi-auto that this does not work on, although the technique needs to be tweaked depending on strength of the recoil spring and whether or not a grip safety exists.

As soon as a Type 3 malfunction is identified, rotate the weapon hand palm-up and press the magazine release. In one smooth motion, raise your knee and slam the back of your hand into the slightly meaty part of your leg just above the knee; this will dislodge the magazine. The magazine will bring the partially fed round with it if you're dealing with a double-feed, and the slide will return to battery.
Rotate your hand inward and slam the magazine plate against your leg to reseat the mag.

There is still a spent casing in the chamber, so rotate the weapon around in your hand so that you are holding the slide. Place the butt of the weapon against your chest and rack the slide, ejecting the spent casing and chambering a new round. Rotate the weapon back so that you are in a 'ready' position.

If you've got a weapon with a grip safety - like my XD, or a 1911, you have to tweak the second part a bit...because you can't cycle the slide unless the grip safety is disengaged. From here I do one of two things: either kneel and place the grip safety against the back of my ankle, or try to position my dead arm against the inside of my knee as I kneel and use it as a rest for the grip.

[DocH]

That sounds like a good workable system in a bad situation.In my case,with a 1911(no FLG) after re seating the magazine I would probably try to eject the empty in the chamber by placing the recoil spring plug against a flat surface,if one was available,or a boot heel,and force rack the slide.This would also take care of the grip safety issue as the firing hand would be around the grip.
I've never cleared a malfunction in this way,but have chambered a round using this,and it worked for me.
This is a good topic for discussion. With a Glock,your method shoild be great.

[Rob Pincus]

As a firearms fundamentalist, I try to teach stuff that works "all the time" and not have a series of things to worry about choosing from in the middle of a dynamic critical incident.

We get into a lot of one handed reloading and malfunction clearing during ECQCA courses, and this is what we recommend for any Failure to Fire. (gun is always in a firing grip when not in holster)

Slide Not in battery (locked open or not): Drop magazine, gun goes back to holster, find another mag, jam it into gun, remove from holster, rack the slide on holster.
If mag doesn't come out of gun normally, try to strip it with belt/holster/etc and then rack slide. If it goes into battery, put it in holster, find a mag, insert mag, remove from holster, rack slide on holster/boot/armor/whatever.
If mag doesn't strip from gun, use holster/etc to push slide back, lock open with slide lock lever and then return to the top of this paragraph. (* will not be an option with a gun without slide lock lever (PPK, etc) so you're stuck with "trying harder" to strip the mag).

Slide in battery: Tap the bottom of the mag in the gun hard against a hard surface on your body (holster, boot, body armor), rack the slide on holster and re-engage if necessary. If the slide does not go back into battery when racked or doesn't go "bang" when in battery and you're trying to re-engage, follow the steps above.

[RAM]

Type 1
Click:
Tap mag on thigh or a solid object to ensure it is seated then rack slide.

Type 2:
Dead trigger, look while running to cover, see stove pipe, fix like type one.

Type 3:
Dead trigger, look while running to cover, see jumble of brass down low :eek: .
Go to your BUG if you have one or if not- Push up on slide lock while racking slide to lock back, push mag release while banging wrist on raised knee to dislodge mag, if mag won’t come out try hooking on edge of holster/mag pouch or corner of brick or edge of cover while pushing on release. When you get mag out rack slide 2 - 3 times to clear the chamber, place gun in holster or upside down between knees and insert fresh mag if you have one or re-acquire the old one, flick off the top round and insert, rack slide and reengage. This is a tough one, best to bug out if possible.

4-empty gun:
Dead trigger, look while going to cover, crap it’s empty! (slide should be locked back) Mag release/drop mag. Place in holster insert fresh mag, slide release or rack, reengage.

Note:

One hand racking the slide can be accomplished by placing the flat front edge if the rear sight on the edge of your holster, mag pouch or any semi hard object like shoe sole table edge corner of wall, etc. If your rear sight is beveled you can try the front of the slide next to the muzzle or the ejection port edge.


Depending on your physical shape and location/type of holster and which arm is out of the fight you may not be able to use the holster to reload or it may be possible to place the gun backwards in the holster, or you might need to hold between the knees with the mag well up.

These malfunctions need to be practiced both left and right handed with your individual carry set up and gun to determine what will work in your situation.

[David Williams]

One thing to keep in mind is that if your gun goes down you need it back up again in a bad way.
Remember that time is of the essence, and as Rob mentioned - it helps to have a technique that works all of the time without having to think about a sequence of choices at the worst possible moment.

Let's allow speed and efficiency define the framework for the clearance drills in this discussion.

I'll start the bidding at 10 seconds - can a particular drill get the weapon back up and ready to fire in 10 seconds or less? This includes working through the entire decision tree for worst-case scenario, since I notice that some of the drills include multiple branches of decide/act.

Any takers?

[RAM]

Dave I agree with keeping it simple, especially under the stress of being in a gun fight and being shot on top of it (assuming that is why an arm/hand is down for the count).

That is why I clear failure to fire and failure to eject the same way... it works with both, no need to differentiate.

Type 3-feedway stoppage, is caused by an obstruction in the feed way most often by a failure to extract and eject. If you simply change the mag and rack the slide it may work but if you have not cleared the stoppage you will still not have a functioning weapon. On the range you set this up with clean ammo by dropping a round into the chamber then inserting a mag and lowering the slide causing the slide to attempt to load a round into the chamber that is occupied by the manually inserted round. When clearing it, the manually inserted round usually will just fall out by tipping the muzzle up after locking the slide back and removing the mag. so you would not really have to rack the slide to extract an offending round from the chamber. BUT, often with an actual type 3 malf the obstruction in the tube is a fired case and it did not extract for a reason and it probably isn't going to just fall out by gravity alone, requiring racking the slide often several times. This is a bad malfunction and is most quickly fixed by a BUG if you have one! If not then you need to do those things that give you the best chance of clearing the weapon the first time even if it takes a second or two longer than a short cut.

If you treat all malfunctions the same by clearing for the worst case scenario you would be wasting valuable time if only clearing a type 1, 2 or reloading.

I am not saying any other procedure is wrong and I can’t judge them until I have actually tried them, so PLEASE don’t anyone take offense.

Rob’s procedure looks simple on the surface but there are still decisions to make based on what the weapon does or doesn’t do in response to something you have tried to do with it.

IE:”
Slide Not in battery (locked open or not): Drop magazine, gun goes back to holster, find another mag, jam it into gun, remove from holster, rack the slide on holster.
If mag doesn't come out of gun normally, try to strip it with belt/holster/etc and then rack slide. If it goes into battery, put it in holster, find a mag, insert mag, remove from holster, rack slide on holster/boot/armor/whatever.
If mag doesn't strip from gun, use holster/etc to push slide back, lock open with slide lock lever and then return to the top of this paragraph.”

Lots of back tracking if the simpler attempt does not work, if it does, great you are back in business, but if not it’s time lost.

My method works with all weapons that allow you to lock the slide back. If I don’t first lock the slide on my 1911 I can’t strip the mag two handed let alone with one. The Glock mag does strip two handed. I choose to keep it simple by doing a procedure that works with all of my guns without having to think about which I happen to be carrying.

In the dark when you can not differentiate between a type 2 or 3 visually it may be best to treat it as a worst case. Or carry a BUG!

Time trials: I can usually go to the bug in 1-3 seconds depending on where it's being carried. Perhaps 3-4 one handed.

This brings up another point: Make sure you can access your equipment one handed, with either hand (Primary, Bug, Backup mag, Knife, etc.)

Again, I’m not saying your method is wrong, I am relating how I clear malf’s for the equipment I use and if/when I find a better way I will adopt it as long as it works universally with all my equipment. :)

[David Williams]

Again, I’m not saying your method is wrong, I am relating how I clear malf’s for the equipment I use and if/when I find a better way I will adopt it as long as it works universally with all my equipment. :)

Spot on! And that's really the point of the thread - to get us all thinking, and to get some different techniques out there so we can all try them and see what works.

[Rob Pincus]

RAM:

Agreed.....I go for: 98% of the time for 98% of the people.

DW,

As for the "10 second challenge", I'm sure that there are people on theis thread who could use any viable technique in the thread to clear in less than 10 seconds.... I'm interested in the students. I've seen really good square range weapons handlers fight stripping a mag from a double feed for over 10 seconds because they allowed themselves to get frustrated and weren't thinking about the physics of the problem when they only had 1 hand.

The other problem with such times tests is the set-up.... Put a piece of empty brass in the chamber, put me in a shooting position and say "Go!" now, I'm just playing a game, not really having to react to a malf in the middle of Dynamic Critical Incident. Its not much better if you bury the empty brass in my mag somewhere... I'm still in a game.

So, I'm not saying that it doesn't make sense to have an efficient system, I just don't like estiblishing arbitrary times for square range drills (more on that after the Europe trip..I'll share my untimed LE qualification course and the experiences we've had with it).

I've had half-paralyzed, slow-witted, clumsy, confused, scared and blind (yes, no-seeing-at-all type blind, and I wouldn't recommend trying to force your way through her bedroom door....) students. Some of them could barely pull off a two handed standard reload in 10 seconds, but they may be doing the best that THEY can, which is as good as we can ask for. Our responsibility is to give them the most efficient techniques and advice on how to achieve a given goal with their individual skill levels.

[David Williams]

Rob - I see your point.

My intent here is to conduct this "test" in phases; the first being to establish a baseline of efficiency. Once we have a series of viable techniques then the next phase would be to begin validating them by adding specific conditions and external variables. The end result is to create a pool of single-handed recovery drills that work quickly, consistently, and efficiently under extreme stress. Or, at the very least, generate real thought and effort around what it means to have a technique that works for 98% of the people 98% of the time.

As with any test, we have to start somewhere, and it makes little sense to jump right into a full-speed (production) test without first identifying the framework (constraints), the minimum criteria (requirements), or the primary objectives (critical path). Without establishing a baseline for initial performance (or proof-of-concept), we run the risk of performing final testing on techniques that are obviously too complex or time-consuming within the framework of our test.

I think that in this case speed is the great equalizer. I'm using the "10-second" challenge as a starting point, with the expectation that a time limit will act as Occam's Razor. At the end of the day, you are correct - it doesn't matter if any of us on this board can conduct a clearance drill in 10 seconds or 4 if we can't teach effectively the technique to our students. Even then, it may be folly to expect everyone to perform at the same level once a technique has been validated. However, a system must be established by which we are able to effectively determine which techniques are more viable than others.

My intent is to establish a pool of techniques that will fit the 80/20 rule - 80% of the work for 20% of the effort - that we can then test amongst ourselves in order to determine if there are indeed better ways to do some things. Since any true objective test requires a control group, I suggest that we use zero external or internal stress factors (i.e. "square-range") and provide a minimum performance standard (time). This time requirement should in no way be an indicator of how efficiently, quickly, or consistently a technique can be expected to perform once we begin introducing additional stressors, but at least it gives us a place to begin... a single point of commonality, if you will.

A test of this nature should provide us with two distinct observations:
1. The expected degradation in performance levels between a no-stress and high-stress environment for a given event (i.e. recovery drills).
2. An expectation that if a technique can be performed quickly, consistently, and effectively under high-stress by those participating, then theoretically those techniques may be what we choose to teach our students according to your "98% of the people 98% of the time" rule.

At the end of the day, I don't wish to establish arbitrary time limits on performance for the students, simply upon the initial proof-of-concept for the techniques to be tested. We can liken this to a laboratory environment.

Hope that clears up my intent. Also, I'm moving this to the Testing forum, as I think it is more appropriate.

[Rob Pincus]

Cool.

I won't be in a position to run timed test with subjects for a few weeks, but I'd love to hear feedback from experiments with what I teach.

I probably have some video that I can get online and maybe link here of students doing the recommended stuff....

[David Williams]

I have to get my video camera repaired before I can tape the time trials from my perspective. But - in the meantime - I have a question to those who support racking the slide on the holster for one-handed drills. How reasonable is it to expect to be able to accomplish this consistently and effectively at the exact moment you need a malfunction clearance drill?
I ask this because I just tried the rack-slide-on-holster bit and found that as I added more factors (stress, movement, focus on something across the room) that I was missing.

I feel this tendency will only worsen as the "situation" becomes more intense.

[Rob Pincus]

I do still teach that method as primary... with the caveat that if you're not using a substantial holster, the thigh or belt buckle can be about as reliable. I also teach a technique using the heel that does not compromise movement and is pretty gross-motor.

We see a lot of need to use this skill under massvie stress in the ECQCA scenarios, in which we often see the sim guns chock (some have even accused us of doing this on purpose ;)