Thursday evening, a student reminded me — inadvertently — that it’s important to check the status of your pistol before you put it in your holster.
The student met me outside the range for a debrief and critique of his performance. While we talked, I glanced at the 1911 in his holster and noticed the magazine wasn’t fully seated. I suggested he check to be sure there was a round in the chamber, and sure enough when he stepped off to the safe area, the gun was not loaded. He had an empty chamber and a magazine that wasn’t locked into the gun … a gun he thought was loaded actually wasn’t.
A status check should be a ritual, something you do every time you load the gun. My ritual goes like this:
- check the chamber by pulling the slide backward slightly to that I can see or if necessary feel the presence of a loaded cartridge in the barrel
- release the slide forward and tap the back of the slide to guarantee the gun is in battery
- tap the bottom of the magazine and then tug down on the floorplate to make sure it is seated properly
I check that there’s a round in the chamber, that the gun is in battery, and that the magazine is locked in place. Once you do it enough that it becomes a ritual, the entire process takes maybe five seconds. It’s easy, it’s quick, and it doesn’t cost a penny.
You do not have to do this at the end of every single drill. If you’re going to be shooting Bill Drills all afternoon, you do not want to status check your pistol 100 times in an hour. But when you are done with a particular exercise, or perhaps every time you reload, go through the check before holstering the gun. Make it a habit. Make it a ritual.
Obviously, any time you load the gun for duty, home defense, or as a CCW, you should perform your status check. Otherwise, you just might walk out the door with a paperweight on your hip instead of a pistol.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
(special thanks to Kevin B. of the Federal Air Marshal Service for first introducing me to the concept of the post-shooting ritual, and to my friend “Failure2Stop” — of M4Carbine.net fame — for pointing out during some time on the range last year that I’d stopped practicing what I was preaching)
Excellent point.
I was told, simply, that “Professionals Press Check” and it holds true. A buddy of mine was on the street for two days with an empty chamber. He would have gone the entire month up until we qualified but I had asked to see his pistol and we discovered it.
STRIKE Tactical has an excellent post-shooting sequence that is well thought out and is tactically sound and legally defensible. I’m sure other schools do as well, but I’ve never been trained on one as thoroughly as STRIKEs.
I’ve seen this happen before in a few IDPA match’s. I always rack the slide and look at my indicater then tap the bottom of my mag to make sure it is seated right.
My morning ritual is to retrieve my pistol from the nightstand, remove the magazine to confirm it’s charged, check the chamber, tap the slide to confirm it’s in battery, then replace the magazine with a gratuitous tap to comfirm it’s locked, and then holster for the day. I know it’s loaded, but I check anyway.
Good post.
I can’t count the number of police officers I’ve seen show up at the range to practice, or qualify, carrying, and not having a round in the chamber. My favorite was the one member who said “but it’s dangerous to carry it loaded”. hmmm
oh, and there are two Kevin B’s??????????
Rob E — I imagine there are more than two Kevin B’s. The one I mentioned in this post is not the same as KevinB from M4Carbine.net, though.
Good stuff, good stuff!! Got to have those post engagement actions.
Great post!
Damn, that sound’s so easy if you think about it.