Learn to Reload Week comes to a close with one last Drill of the Week. Previous Drills this month were dry-fire practice, 1-Reload-2, and Surprise Reloads. We’ll finish the month by practicing these skills from standing, kneeling, and prone positions.
Whether you’re practicing to play or to fight, being able to reload from different positions is a skill you are guaranteed to need.
Set up three large targets (paper plate or 8.5×11 sheet of paper), one at each distance of 5 yards, 10 yards, and 15 yards. (if you can’t shoot at different ranges, just stack three targets on top of each other: a full 8.5×11 sheet of paper on top; 5×8 card or half sheet of paper in the middle; and a 3×5 card on the bottom)
You will need two spare magazines on your belt. Load the magazines depending on what kind(s) of reload you want to practice. For slidelock reloads, you’ll need five rounds per magazine. For in-battery speed reloads or retention/tactical reloads just fill the mag to capacity.
Because you will be moving while reloading, it’s important to review safety. Be sure you keep your finger outside the trigger guard while you’re moving and while you’re reloading. Perform the drill slowly the first few times to be absolutely certain your finger is off the trigger unless you are shooting at one of the targets. Also, it is critically important that you keep your pistol’s muzzle pointed downrange and absolutely not at yourself while moving and reloading.
Begin from a ready position with your pistol loaded. Use a shot timer to track your performance.
- On the buzzer, fire five rounds at the closest/largest target.
- Move to a kneeling position. You can go down to one knee or both. Remember to keep your finger off the trigger and the muzzle pointed downrange as you move.
- Once you are kneeling, perform your first reload.
- From the kneeling position, fire five rounds at the middle/medium target.
- Move to a prone position. Remember to keep your finger off the trigger and the muzzle pointed downrange as you move.
- From the prone position, fire five rounds at the far/small target.
- Keeping your finger off the trigger and keeping the muzzle pointed downrange, move slowly back to a kneeling position and then a prone position. If you wish, you can perform a visual scan at each step as you recover to a standing position.
Only shoot as fast as you can guarantee 100% hits. Perform your reloads as smoothly as you can, increasing speed as you get more comfortable with the drill and the techniques.
You can do the drill with any type of reload, even different types during the same run. However, we strongly recommend you practice the drill at least a few times performing tactical/retention reloads. Having to stow your partially expended magazine in a pocket can be a lot trickier when you’re kneeling, especially. Another good variant is to perform a tactical/retention reload when you take a knee, and then recover that magazine from your pocket for the second reload when you are prone … this will help you assess whether your chosen location is really functional when you’re not standing still.
Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.
I understand about the economies of motion and I understand about always obeying the rules of firearms safety mentioned in your posts.
The picture here and in a couple of your previous posts on reloads appear to show a violation of rule#2 (never point your gun at something you don’t intend to destroy or kill) and #4 (know your target, backstop, and beyond). The gun would appear to be pointed in a non-safe direction such that an errant shot would be loosed outside of the confines of the range where you are practicing.
As far as the economy of motion, you have swung your muzzle way out of position such that it isn’t pointed anywhere near the hypothetical downrange threat, unless in this case, your threat is just a few feet distant, or in the previous posts airborne or on the roof of some building.
What would be wrong with keeping the muzzle pointed toward the threat instead of the sky? This practice of pointing guns skyward and left generally isn’t in keeping with economy of motion especially if the EOM pertains threats. It isn’t safe in regard to muzzle discipline.
Two different issues.
Economy of motion: what you say makes sense if you’re only talking about the shooting hand. But a reload involves your other hand and a magazine moving towards the gun. The angle you’re seeing puts the magazine well in a direct line with the magazine coming up to the gun. Inserting the magazine into a gun that is help straight up and straight out at the target is much more awkward and slower. The most economical combined movement might not necessarily mean one hand should remain still.
Safety: you’re certainly correct that this particular method often points the gun up over the berm if the berms are short, and the gun isn’t pointed straight downrange, either. In neither case does this necessarily violate Rule 2. It’s also within the spirit of Rule 4, because you are aware. Rule 4 doesn’t say “never point your gun up.”
Ironically, as the gun starts to point too far to the side (getting close to breaking the 180-rule in competition) or too high, you start to rub up against the economy of motion problem and you can also put the gun at an angle that makes it harder for the magazine to fall free.