The so-called “Israeli” Draw is a technique advocated by some for presenting a pistol from the holster. The gun is carried with an loaded magazine but no round in the chamber. As the gun is drawn from the holster, the shooter racks the slide to load the gun.
The question is not whether it’s humanly possible to draw an unloaded gun and get off a shot. The question is whether for a given amount of time, effort, and money you’ll be better doing it one way, or the other.
- Racking the slide takes time. Anyone who disputes that is intellectually dishonest.
- Racking the slide quickly takes two hands; drawing a loaded gun is no slower when I have to work with just my strong hand if a round is chambered already.
- Racking the slide quickly and properly makes noise. There may be times when you want the gun in your hand but don’t want to draw attention to yourself. So now you have to practice multiple things: rack as you draw, rack one-handed as you draw, draw then rack as you present the gun later, draw then rack one-handed as you present the gun later …
- Racking the slide is just another opportunity to induce some kind of stoppage in your gun, especially under stress.
A simple system for vetting new ideas, techniques, and gear from Dale McClellan, former Navy SEAL and instructor for Special Tactical Services:
- Does it work?
- Is it necessary?
- Can you do it under stress?
I try to apply that thought process to everything I do and everything I teach. Carrying in Condition 3 definitely fails the second criteria, and is questionable for the third.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Todd
The most obvious item in your original post list seems missing (although indirectly implied in the last item): Racking the slide is something you might forget to do! (And be left with a paper weight.)
This is one of the chief knocks against the cocked and locked SA guns such as the 1911. Dont most of the complaints with the condition 3 also apply to guns with a manual external safety?
To adapt Todds OP: * Disengaging the external safety takes time. Anyone who disputes that is intellectually dishonest.
* On some guns disengaging quickly for many shooters takes two hands or is slow with one hand gripping the gun and the thumb trying to flip it up high on the slide; drawing a non external safety gun is no slower when I have to work with just my strong hand if there is no manual external safety.
* Disengaging the safety quickly and properly makes noise on many guns. There may be times when you want the gun in your hand but don’t want to draw attention to yourself. So now you have to practice multiple things if you carry other types of guns
* Disengaging the safety is just another opportunity to induce some kind of stoppage (or distraction) in your gun, especially under stress. ” (ie I forgot to disengage and/or I looked at the gun [and took my eyes off the threat] to remember which gun it was to then take off the safety–gun stare.)
If so do you discourage manual safety guns?
[Now I realize that the safety disengagement is similar in type impact/delay but not nearly as great in the magnitude of delay as cond 3–except for forgetting to disengage it.]
I am by no means an expert on self defence shooting but I have a few thoughts that I’d like to share.
Most of the people who advocate C3 carry assert that you are less likely to have a negligent discharge than with C1 or C2. I don’t know what the statistics are but most of the NDs I’ve heard of seem to be the result of someone not checking that a weapon’s chamber was empty before attempting to dry fire.
While it is perfectly true that if a chamber is empty a discharge cannot occur, it occurs to me that someone who always stores and carries their guns in C3 may be more likely to assume that a weapon is safe to dry fire without making sure than someone who uses C1 or C2. I once heard of a a CCW permit holder who had served in the military and was an experienced shooter who carried a Glock 23 in C3. One day he took out his G23, removed the magazine and, without checking chamber because he “knew” that it was in C3, dry fired into a wall. It was then that he found that his wife had handled it earlier and left a round in the chamber. Fortunately noone was hurt.
I’m not saying that those who use C3 are incompetent but it is a fact that the safer a person feels the more likely they are to behave carelessly and take risks. An analogy for this would be to compare how aggressively someone would drive in a top of the line SUV with 5 point safety harness, airbags e.t.c. vs how they would drive in a beaten up Ford Pinto with 4 bad tyres.
IMO the best handgun for an inexperienced shooter is a DA revolver.
Here is a video just put up on Youtube I found. It shows that a con-3 pull can be a fast as a con-1 pull. The video also makes it very clear that con-3 carry is only a option in a very limited number of specialist situations and the con-1 is best 90% of the time.
At about half way in the video – he draws (con 3), from concealment and fires 3 rounds in 1.75 seconds… not too bad.
By looking at the guy, he looks SpecOps of some kind so who knows the strange areas and circumstances he works in (or teaches people to work in).
Enjoy.
my quick observations from the video. No target to show hits. On the MID (C3) draws, very often his support hand is barely doing anything when the shot breaks. Resulting in a poor followup position. Sure he might get his first shot off half decently, but not the next few. Granted they admit to only working on this for a few hours, but their video really still only shows that it’s a carry condition that is slower and harder to achieve properly than conventional carry methods.
sirs:
why not ask the Israelis how come they have such israeli draw. They should not have been using it if it will not work in actual fight. I practice it as a drill. To me that is the fastest way to employ a handgun in condition 3. If I pick my fire arm in condition 3 in a drawer or where i keep my firearm and have to use it fast the israeli draw technique is my best way to employ my weapon. Re external safety like what the 1911 thumb safety, if this device have been considered a cause for delay of employment of the firearm in a gunfight it must have been taken out long before the 1911 reach a hundred years age.
Here is why the Israeli draw is a big FAIL.
In almost all hand to hand encounters the attacker is on you in seconds and usually inside of 7 feet. if an attacker comes up on you and you have to shoot from position 2 (position 1 is pull out of holster, 2) is a cant to the right over holster and firing 3) inside ready firing 4) punch out firing) you are dead!
Even in a 21 pace drill an attacker will be on you in less than 2 seconds and most of the time you will have to shoot from position 3, the inside ready. In the Israeli carry technique if you never get to punch out you haven’t gotten to rack the slide,,,,,your dead.
This is a technique trained to an entire country because they have difficulties training every man woman and child proper gun safety, it’s keep someone who hasn’t learned to index their finger from shooting their own foot. I also seriously doubt that the average Israeli infantryman is using this method.