Editor’s note: This article is part of Police1’s Firearms Week, which examines whether officers are equipped for the threats they may face today and tomorrow — from capacity and deployment speed to distance, accessibility and real-world firearm limitations. Thanks to our Firearms Week sponsor, KelTec.
It seems obvious that if you’re involved in a gunfight, you’re already having a bad day. But if you need to reload a pistol during a gunfight, your day downright sucks. To overcome the suck, you better be good at feeding your handgun to get back in the fight.
Most officers think they have good reloads, but the shot timer doesn’t lie. If it takes you longer than two seconds to reload your handgun from slide lock, it’s time to hit the range and practice this critical skill.
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Stress issues
Under stress, you’re not going to spontaneously develop amazing skills. More likely, you’re going to be mediocre at the skills you’re very good at on the square range. Clint Smith, the legendary firearm instructor and founder of Thunder Ranch, says, “You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it.” Perhaps how well you can reload your handgun in the middle of a gunfight could determine how long you live. Since we don’t know what our gunfight is going to look like, we need to be good at a bunch of skills — including reloads.
Aside from how stress degrades skills, there’s also the matter of how well we’ve transferred skills from our conscious mind to our subconscious mind. Reloading is one of the skills we want to develop at the subconscious level so we can free our conscious mind for other important tasks like decision-making, threat assessment, communication and other important stuff. If our handgun is hungry, our default program should be an instantaneous reload to feed it. Developing this response requires intentional, mindful and effortful practice.
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Keep it efficient and simple
Too many officers could measure their reloads using a sun dial or calendar instead of a shot timer. They don’t usually lack the skill needed to perform reloads. They are simply inefficient. Unnecessary movement is the leading cause of slow reloads. Dropping the pistol to waist level, moving the pistol too close to your face, canting the pistol to the side instead of letting gravity remove the empty magazine, and magazine pouches on an external vest carrier add movement that requires extra time.
If you want efficient reloads, keep these things in mind. First, movement equals time. The further you move the pistol, the longer it takes to reload. For example, if you need to physically strip the magazine from the pistol because you’re tilting the pistol to the side, this unnecessary movement takes time. Let gravity work for you.
Second, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If you need to circle the magazine around and under the pistol to reload, it increases the distance the magazine must travel. This is the problem with keeping spare magazines on an external vest carrier. It’s more comfortable, but reloads take significantly longer. Remember, movement equals time.
In the combative world of law enforcement training, quick and efficient reloads aren’t about bragging rights over your buddy. It gives you more time to shoot better. Until your pistol is loaded and back in the fight, you are nothing more than a witness or victim of the gunfight. Feed the pistol and get back to work.
When looking for specific skills to work on, instead of practicing your same old routine, think about the skills you’ve regularly avoided practicing. How frequently do you practice shooting strong hand only? How about support hand only? In this video, Todd Fletcher walks through key elements of a one-handed shooting drill.
Design impacts performance
Handgun design is also a factor. The most basic example of this is magazine capacity. It should be obvious that using larger magazines means fewer reloads. Instead of 10-, 15-, or 17-round magazines, consider using 22-round magazines in your duty pistol. It can be as simple as changing the baseplate and magazine spring.
The size and location of your magazine release and slide latch can also affect performance under pressure. There are a host of useful, dependable, and rugged aftermarket magazine releases and slide latches to fit your duty pistol. Not everyone has giant catcher’s mitt-sized hands or tiny elf-sized hands. Making adjustments to your handgun to make it fit is much easier than trying to fit your hands to a pistol that is too small or too large.
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Change it up and get to work
Once you improve your reloads, mix it up and add dynamic movement to cover or explosive movement to different shooting positions. Reloading on the move creates other problems — including access issues to spare magazine pouches, feeding a magazine into a moving pistol and awkward body angles. It requires more situational awareness regarding muzzle and trigger finger control. This is why we need to develop skills to the subconscious level.
Another area to work on is conducting reloads in confined spaces. On the street, this could happen due to the size of your cover or if your movement is limited. In defensive tactics and on the range, we practice fighting from the ground, so why shouldn’t we include practicing our reloads from a variety of ground positions? The ground naturally limits our ability to move, so getting to our gear and reloading our pistols is more challenging. Practice it on the range in a safe training environment before needing it on the street in the chaos of a gunfight.
So, get to the range. Do some dry fire work. However you choose to do it, improve your reload skills. Eliminate extra movement, think about gear placement and make sure your equipment is up to the challenge. Let’s be better for those we leave at home.
