A Tactical Reload is when your firearm has a partially filled magazine, but you no longer see any immediate threats. We load our guns up to +1 Capacity because a gun stuffed-to-the-gills is has the most potential. Also since ammo is valuable in a gun fight why would you throw a magazine away that still has ammo in it? So if you’re going to put your gun away, you might as well get that gun full before you declare the position “Safe”. IDPA uses the tactical reload in stages, and this drill is defined by reloading your gun and retaining the partial magazine. To do this quickly (because unlike real-life there is ALWAYS more shooting after a tactical reload) you get maneuvers like this.
I won’t malign this technique, because the only drawback of it is its much more complicated than the standard reload, and often has several different steps from the slide-lock reload. I saw this video back in my Livejournal days and since lost track of it until I found it here.
LOVE this video. It shows a fast draw from concealment, a quick and efficient elimination of threat, and then his guard stays up. Being training this is where the role-playing comes in. So the cardboard target was the “Threat” that posed imminent threat. Those quick COM shots did the trick (have a look at the grouping, that’s pretty realistic), but what next. Was he alone? Does he have friends? Did somebody hear the shots? He keeps that gun out and looks around. He then declares the area “Safe” and quickly reloads the gun. I REALLY like this as he’s reloading the gun almost EXACTLY how one reloads from slide-lock, just he understands that there is a round in the chamber, so there is no need to do a motion to chamber that first round off he mag.
Then there’s more observation. Has anything changed? Nope, so he then collects the mag from the dirt. Again has anything changed? (This is not unrealistic, as he JUST SHOT SOMEBODY) Nope, OK well now you can put your gun away.
At any point during this drill if the fight “began again”, like the initial target began to fight again, or more hostiles arrived, he can continue the fight.
If he needs to seek cover at some point he can simply leave that mag behind. No huge deal, as his gun is filled to the max and he has more reloads.
Also the first video is a more slow and methodical approach, the second video is much faster and polished, the 2nd technique is slower on time, but IMHO that’s BETTER as if you’re doing a tactical reload the timer is “Stopped” because you should ONLY do this when there isn’t an immediate threat. It should be quicker than say how you load up and holster-up your gun first thing in the morning as you’re generally locked in your home which is inherently “Safe”, this is MORE dangerous, but considerably LESS dangerous than if you were taking hostile fire.
Great vid!
The second one is much, much better. Not being a fan of a tactical reload for the sake of it, I like Jim’s approach much better. Very fluid.
I am not an IDPA player, nor do I play one on youtube. But wouldn’t they argue that if Jim’s first scan had him move off the X, he’d be down that magazine for the duration? Back when I shot IPSC I thought all this was really stupid (walking the range with 4 loaded mags in carrier and two in each rear pocket). Then I got to thinking about how seldom I went to the grocery like that…
ooh, and I hate the LE Training technique of calling “gun!” to begin a stage. The presence of a gun may mean you need higher situational care but I, as a potential self defender, am a might uncomfortable with the idea that announcing the -presence- of a gun means draw and fire…
As a civilian who is already in a situation that has elevated me to Orange. The presumption that the person approaching is a threat. Displaying a weapon shows intent. Especially since the phrase “gun” is entirely how you play it in your mind. If you call gun and the gun is just on their hip and you shoot them, that is not going to end well for you. However if they already have the gun in their hand, they are a threat to be engaged as such.
The whole point of this exercise is to help train the body in to reacting each direction instead of just to pulling the firearm.
Great post Weerd.
Each technique is another tool to have available and be comfortable with if the situation warrants.
IDPA, as much as I love it and religiously shoot every local match, is not life or death. It is a game to practice and polish some skills. And those are not necessarily the skills needed to excel in a gunfight on the street.
If you are racing the clock, nothing is better than dropping a mag on the ground. It is better if that mag is empty so you never need to worry about leaving anything useful behind. The procedure on Higginbotham’s video is very clean and well executed, but the mag hit the ground. There are two big drawbacks to this. One being that if you are moving, or need to immediately move, you are going to be without whatever was in the mag. The other negative is that when the mag lands, bad things can happen. You probably wont bend a feedlip, but may give the baseplate a solid whack hard enough to free it, or drop the mag into mud ice or snow (or all three at once).
The first video you posted is slow and unpolished. He’s also a bit inefficient while performing the reload with the gun fully extended. And in the case of the tactical reload, IDPA rules are not exactly in line with what would be done on the street anyway.
But as I said, just another technique to have available if you should ever need it.
Great point about the potential of a mag being damaged from it hitting the ground, especially a partially charged mag, as it will be VERY top heavy with the center of mass closer to the front.
As for a tactical reload on the move, I think the two terms are mutually exclusive. If you’re moving, your moving SOMEWHERE for some reason. Generally in a gun fight from a less safe to a more safe position (such as away from an attacker, or to behind concealment or preferably cover) if you’re doing this you are NOT in a good condition to be swapping out mags, keep your gun gassed up and reload when it runs dry or you get to safety.
Of course either way we’re both going “Chairborne Ranger” as MOST self-defense interactions, no shots are fired, of the smaller number left the contents of a 5-shot J-frame will do the trick.
And most of us will never need to draw our guns in defense ever.
A fair point, but I rather like this technique better than the other….but both are great if executed properly.
I prefer the dropped mag method. If you want to preserve the mag, drop it into your hand, shove it into a free mag holder and then draw out your new mag. This means you’d need an empty mag pouch at the start. Or do the swap at your mag pouch instead of at the gun.
It’s fewer overall movements, you deposit the mag on the down stroke and you insert your new mag on the upstroke. That first method requires big hands, especially for double stack magazines, and requires more movements overall (two trips to your magazine pouches instead of one). The biggest down time is you have no mag in the weapon for that time, and if you have a magazine disconnect you’re doubly boned. But you shouldn’t have bought the gun with the disconnect to begin with.
In the Corps, they trained us with mag reloads and taught us that we put the spent (or partially spent) mag into our shirt to be held there by our belt. Just shove the sucker down your shirt. It’s a wide-open neck and you don’t have to think hard about it and later on, you’ve still got your magazine to reload or ammo to reuse.
I always practice the back pockets of my pants. I don’t carry things back there as a rule, and I can get to a mag quick from there.
Shirt is a good idea if you tuck. A listless hobo like myself it would just fall out my open shirt tails!
Speaking of ‘reloads on the move’, just remove the partial, stuff in pocket and grab full and insert. It’s unlikely you’re going to be shooting if you’re full-tilt running to cover. Of course, there is that option.
After the first video, there were others popping up, and the upper right corner was a 45 second class on reloading. His ideas were more correct to me than either James or the groping spastic scarecrow in #1. But James does this as a civilian, not a bodyguard or LEO.
Up next: reloading with only one limb since the other got punctured by some kind of flying object. 😉