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Jo's Survival Tip of the Day: Clearing a Malfunction in a Semi Auto Handgun:
So, someone is breaking into your home - you awaken, grab your weapon from the nightstand and come out of the bedroom and there he is heading into your kid's room - you pull the trigger - click. Fuck.
There are three basic types of malfunction in a semi auto handgun:
Failure to Feed (FTF); Where the weapon fails to fully chamber a round from the magazine.
Failure to Fire (Dud or FTFR); Where the round itself is defective for some reason and either only the primer ignites (not expending enough energy to cycle the action) or it just doesn't fire at all.
Failure to Eject (FTE); Where the weapon fails to properly eject a spent cartridge and then tries to feed another into the (occupied) chamber.
Step One: Check the safety is off. Duh.
Step Two: Check the magazine and chambered round are properly seated. To do this, tap once, forcefully, on the bottom of the magazine in the weapon in an upward manner - and then rack the slide. The ensures that a) the magazine is properly in the weapon (therefore allowing the weapon to chamber a round properly and also disengaging the magazine safety if you have one. - and b) that the slide is fully forward and has chambered a round.
Now shoot - this step will solve most issues, If it goes bang, sweet - if not, move to step three.
Step Three: Remove the magazine - at this stage you may have to really yank on it because you probably have a double feed, don't be scared you're not gonna hurt it. Once the magazine is out, rack the slide and then replace the magazine, rack the slide again and shoot. Personally I always carry more than one magazine not just for the sake of capacity but also because some feeding issues are issues with the magazine itself - in this case, just drop the first magazine, rack the slide and load up a new one.
Now this seems like a lot of shit to have to do in a home or personal defense situation - but it really isn't. Practice your drills and you'll surprise yourself by how quickly you can clear the weapon once it's in your muscle memory.
So, someone is breaking into your home - you awaken, grab your weapon from the nightstand and come out of the bedroom and there he is heading into your kid's room - you pull the trigger - click. Fuck.
There are three basic types of malfunction in a semi auto handgun:
Failure to Feed (FTF); Where the weapon fails to fully chamber a round from the magazine.
Failure to Fire (Dud or FTFR); Where the round itself is defective for some reason and either only the primer ignites (not expending enough energy to cycle the action) or it just doesn't fire at all.
Failure to Eject (FTE); Where the weapon fails to properly eject a spent cartridge and then tries to feed another into the (occupied) chamber.
Step One: Check the safety is off. Duh.
Step Two: Check the magazine and chambered round are properly seated. To do this, tap once, forcefully, on the bottom of the magazine in the weapon in an upward manner - and then rack the slide. The ensures that a) the magazine is properly in the weapon (therefore allowing the weapon to chamber a round properly and also disengaging the magazine safety if you have one. - and b) that the slide is fully forward and has chambered a round.
Now shoot - this step will solve most issues, If it goes bang, sweet - if not, move to step three.
Step Three: Remove the magazine - at this stage you may have to really yank on it because you probably have a double feed, don't be scared you're not gonna hurt it. Once the magazine is out, rack the slide and then replace the magazine, rack the slide again and shoot. Personally I always carry more than one magazine not just for the sake of capacity but also because some feeding issues are issues with the magazine itself - in this case, just drop the first magazine, rack the slide and load up a new one.
Now this seems like a lot of shit to have to do in a home or personal defense situation - but it really isn't. Practice your drills and you'll surprise yourself by how quickly you can clear the weapon once it's in your muscle memory.