I figured I’d start an info poll on reload techniques.
Run to slide lock, then emergency reload (empty hits ground).
Run to slide lock, then emergency reload with retention.
Tac Load: grab fresh mag, swap mags at gun, stow partial.
Tac Load: withdraw partial and stow, then insert fresh mag.
I am assuming a tac load is performed with a round in the chamber, and a reload with retention is from an empty gun. I allowed multiple choices in this poll.
Isn’t it situational? Seems like it should be two polls; one about slide-lock reloads and one about admin reloads.
I do both 1 and 4, depending on the situation.
If my little poll doesn’t measure up feel free to start your own.
When I’m at slide lock I no longer give a darn about the empty magazine. I dump it and move on.
During a tac load situation I usually bring the full mag to the weapon, do the switch, and then put the partially loaded mag in a pocket or something. (Or if I’m having a blonde moment drop the partial mag on the ground and forget about it until two other teams have gone through the shoothouse…)
Slide-lock: you are fighting and you have run dry. I prefer to not retain my mag as I am trying to kill someone and they are trying to kill me. Time is crucial.
Tac Load: I retain my mag and stow it, then grab a fresh one on the way back up and load.
It is situational, and you must have a technique for both circumstances.
Agree with above, it really depends on the situation. If it’s slidelock, you need bullets fast… forget the mag and get the weapon back into operation.
If I am going to tac-load, retain the mag, then put a mag in the gun going back.
Depending on time, I’ll redistribute bullets amongst magazines if possible (ie fill one mag from several partials).
Going back to the first part, if I do a slide-lock reload, and the situation may change to where I have some time, I’ll even go as far to retrieve an empty. If a resupply may be far, you might need that magazine later on.
To sum it up, it’s all about the options. The important thing is to make a decision and go with it, because even a bad decision is better than no decision.
I’m with Guru for a carbine…ish.
(God knows being around him gets me into trouble)
With a pistol, I do the “rope-a-dope.” It is easy to perform with a pistol. With my girl hands, it is sometimes a juggeling act with carbine mags.
slidelock reload: the empty magazine hits the deck and never comes back.
speed reload: when I want a fully loaded gun but my ESP is broken, I’ll drop the partially loaded magazine on the deck and insert a fresh one. I’ll pick up the downed mag if time permits but a mag that’s hit the ground is suspect and I wouldn’t want to rely on it without a chance to examine it first.
tac load: if my ESP is working, I tend to do the “at the gun” tac load simply because I’ve been practicing it forever. The fact that the other method is faster is meaningless because my ESP only gives me the green light to tac load when I feel as safe as I do right now at home typing on the internet. 
Equipment and circumstance both influence these things. For about a year when I was carrying a SIG P220 and 17 total rounds (9 in gun, 8 in spare mag) the idea of retaining a partially loaded magazine took on greater importance. This was especially true since the gun, after firing just a few rounds, was at half capacity and prudence dictated filling it back up. Cf. my current everyday gun, a S&W M&P9: if I drop my fully loaded mag on the deck before the fight even begins and reload from the belt, I still have more ammo (18rd) than I carried in toto with the P220.
In 15 years of studying this stuff, I’ve still never seen documentation of a single instance in which a civilian or domestic LEO affected the outcome of a fight because he retained a partially spent magazine. The fact, most folks carry far more ammo than they’re likely to need in a single incident and spare ammo, mags, etc. are waiting for them back at the house, station, patrol car, etc.
I’m also very skeptical of the whole “lull” thing, as you may have guessed from my “ESP” comments, above. We ran a test once at an IDPA match with about 50 shooters. Skill level ranged from Novice to Master. (You may scoff at IDPA being just a game, the fact is that a Master-ranked IDPA shooter probably practices tac loads a lot more than most cops and soldiers) Anyway, the scenario basically called for the shooter to perform a tac load behind cover at what he believed was the end of the course of fire. However, once the partial magazine was ejected from his pistol a surprise target popped up … in other words, he was interrupted during his supposed lull. Every single shooter finished completing the entire tac reload sequence, including stowing his partially loaded magazine, before firing on the target. I’ve had people argue that “in a real fight” someone would be switched on enough to react properly. Sorry, I’m a believer in “fight as you train.” When we practice a complicated multi-step action like tac loading, we don’t do it in little steps. Our brain says “tac load!” and the body goes through all the motions. If you’re not specifically practicing to change direction halfway through the technique, I don’t believe you’re likely to do so under stress. So you’ll be performing that administrative reload while someone is firing rounds at you.
I’ve also seen this in Sims/FOF training. When rounds may be coming your way at any moment without warning, there are no lulls. You know how much “lull” you just sat through, but you have no way of knowing whether that lull is going to last another three minutes or three seconds. But if you’ve already fired a bunch of rounds (“bunch” being relative to your mag size) you might want to have your gun at max capacity right frakking now. This is where the speed load comes in.
For CCW, my take on the tac load has always been, “carry another spare mag and don’t worry about it.” If you’re really that concerned about leaving half a mag’s worth of ammo behind, just carry another full mag with you.
For a LEO this might be more complicated, as duty belt real estate is at a premium today. Still, most LEOs carry at least two spare high-capacity magazines. Beyond Revenge of the Zombies it’s hard to imagine a realistic scenario in which both (a) you’d need more ammo than that and (b) you’ve got a chance of winning. Half a mag’s worth of ammo isn’t going to turn the tide if the Mongol hordes come over the wall.
In a .mil context, I absolutely appreciate the logic behind keeping partially depleted mags and perhaps even empty mags when you can do so. But there are some key factors in that context. First, you really may be far away (both in miles and days) from any chance of resupply. Second, you are probably much more likely to engage in multiple, possibly unrelated firefights between resupply. Third, you are much more likely to engage substantially numerically superior forces. Fourth, you are almost certainly operating in a team environment providing you with time and cover to perform a tac reload.
Equipment and circumstances … believe it or not, some of the TTPs of the world’s most elite CT teams may not be a 100% solution for a lone out-of-shape middle-aged CCW’er getting mugged by a couple of gang bangers in a bad neighborhood. Though I admit there have been times I’ve been in Baltimore and wished for CAS.
Highly situational. If we are talking pistols, I train to do an “at the gun tac load” after an engagement. If I run to slide to slide lock; the empties hit the floor (like the bodies) and I do a speed reload.
Now if we start moving into the realm of long guns things change a little bit. With an AK, I do a reload with retention since it is kind of problematic to do the conventional tac load with AK mags.
NC-
Good call. I was thinking the poll focused solely on carbines. I do speed reloads the same wheter pistol or carbine; tac reloads are done differently due to hand size / magazine size.
To focus on rifles/carbines and their employment in a purely military context-
If in the actual context of a firefight, it is pretty unusual that we will really know how many rounds we fired, and it will probably be more than we thought. Additionally, it becomes very difficult to really wrap your head around what a “lull in the action” really feels like. Performing most of the reloads requires you to unload your gun and/or shift your focus from the active threat. It takes a really cool customer to do that, and then resume the infliction of violence with much success. Dry/Bolt lock reloads are a fact of the fight.
Close that space to interior operations where a fight has just happened. Once the space is cleared, it would be foolish (IMHO) not to conduct a “Tactical” reload in one of it’s forms before entering the next door. Why enter the next room with ?(-) rounds when you can do it with a known 29/31 (depending on mag load preference)?
What you should/will do under fire and in the open is different than what will be the most beneficial technique in occasions when you can control the pace of the fight. Once again, we fight like we train, whether we like it or not. If you only practice dry reloads, you will not remember to do a tac reload it when it’s needed. If you only practice tac reloads, you will probably not hit the bolt release consistently under stress during dry reloads.
Dry reloads are done on the enemy’s time. Tac reloads are done on your time.
How long it takes one to perform the tac reload is almost irrelevant unless you are an IDPA/USPSA competitor. The most important facet of the tac reload is the ability of the shooter to successfully lock the magazine fully in place.
Just my perspective.
Good discussion, guys.
re: all the “it’s situational” comments; yes, of course it is. This isn’t a scientific poll or anything, it’s just meant to attempt to gather some info and share experiences on techniques and explanations as to why.
Carry on.
Indeed.
You can’t count rounds, but you can develop a general sense of “I fired a lot of ammo and I need to reload” which is in and of itself probably a good indicator that you have the time to do a “tac” load.
I’ll defer to the BTDT types on this, but it would seem to me that if there’s someone shooting at you then you will be kind of busy dealing with the threat. Probably too busy to ponder the status of the magazine that is in the weapon.
YMMV…
I perform a reload with retention for a dry gun. Tac reloads at the gun are simple using MagPuls:
draw fresh mag (beercan method)
hook magpul of partial mag with support hand pinky
actuate mag release with strong hand middle finger
yank partial and insert fresh with support hand
This leaves the partial dangling from your support pinky to be stowed.
Maybe a poll that distinguishes mag changes between CQB and street fighting would be in order.
I know some guys that shot in strings to determine round count. Three rounds or five round strings. Some guys can do it. I’d need some serious practice and discipline to be able to do that on a two way range when the adrenaline is up.
I assumed the poll was primarily regarding pistols, since the poll talks about “slidelock” and I’m unfamiliar with an M4 variant using a reciprocating slide.
The poll was regarding pistols but there’s no reason we can’t talk about carbines as well.
Right?
When doing tac reloads I’ve been using technique 4, which I’ve known as “Reload with Retention”, with both pistols and rifles since about 2001-2002.
I’ll second Rob about reloads being situational and, like him, I will use 1 or 4 depending on what is needed at the time.
Here’s another twist. When doing pistol reloads I’ve switched to using my support hand thumb to activate the mag release. I do this for both tac and speed reloads. I prefer to shoot ISO and use the thumbs forward grip, basically my support hand thumb will press the mag release after I break my two handed grip. When I do this my hand is also in the right postion for the mag to drop into my palm or to grip the mag base and rip the mag out. If I’m doing a speed reload my support hand lets the used mag drop and continues on to retreive a fresh mag.
This technique works very well for smaller handed folks who can’t reach the mag release without shifting the gun in their hand. Being able to maintain my firing grip allows me to get back on target and shooting sooner after the reload is completed. It’s just a way that works for *me and as usual YMMV…
I voted for all 4. Being situational.
Along the same lines, for me and my hand size, I find reversing the mag catch to eject the magazine with my trigger finger delivers the same benefit. I maintain my normal grip on the pistol. Also, I don’t have to rely on having both hands to perform the action.
This worked great on the Berettas, SIGs, and now M&P’s that I’ve been carrying for the past ten years. If you carry a Glock or 1911, not so much. Unless you’re left-handed.