Dropped handgun drill.

[Guest Killbot]

If the mags full thats loaded to me. It is comforting to know its there should the need truly arise.

[Guest friesepferd]

I work with very... VERY heavy (yet not necessarily big) objects at work. I taught myself a long time ago to never grab for anything that is falling.

It can get get you in a lot of trouble. Anywhere from smashing your hand with a heavy object, to straining a muscle, to shooting yourself in the leg, to even having a simple pair of scissors go through your hand. For this reason I always practive not catching items I drop.

I have tried to catch light, fragile items that I don't think could hurt me. But thats about it. Generally if I am carrying an item I know whether or not it is an item i would try and catch again if dropped. The large majority of them are not.

So my suggestion is to practice not trying to catch your pens when you drop them.

I doubt perposfully letting a plastic gun drop and not catching it will do you any good. You need to get out of the habit of catching things when you accidently drop them. There is a big difference mentally.

[Guest bkelm18]

If the mags full thats loaded to me. It is comforting to know its there should the need truly arise.

True but if the chamber is empty, it's a paperweight. There are hundreds if not thousands of scenarios where one of your arms could become incapacitated or you simply do not have time to rack the slide. If you're comfortable taking that enormous risk, more power to ya. All the hand to hand combat in the world wont mean squat when you get shot to death while struggling to chamber a round. But, like I said, that's your choice.

[Mike]

If the mags full thats loaded to me. It is comforting to know its there should the need truly arise.

I'm not trying to be rude, but... you didn't answer my question.

Mike

[Guest friesepferd]

Alright. I'll go ahead and contribute to the 'one in the chamber' discussion.

First, I just see no reason not to. Its a completely unnecessary step for you to have to do. Racking the slide DOES take time. If someone is coming at me with a knife, I already have VERY little time to draw and fire. I can think of TONS of situations where I wouldnt have the time to rack the slide. Not to mention its especially hard to do while you are moving away, etc.

The 2nd, and most important reason in my opinion, is the gun jamming. Guns are WAAAAY more likely to jam when you are swapping mags, or chambering the first round. It would just be too easy for the gun to incorrectly chamber the first round for me to want to do that while my life was in danger. I need to know that my gun is correctly chambered and ready to go. You can argue all you want about how reliable your gun is or how amazingly good at racking the slide you are in any situation... I still wouldn't risk my life on it. If you want to, thats fine. I just wouldn't dare.

If I am quickly backing away from someone and drawing my gun, if one of my hands is full, and I stumble over something behind me, none of that is going to prevent me from pulling the trigger, or flipping off a safety and pulling a trigger. That most likely WILL prevent me from racking the slide (or at least racking it correctly to insure a good feed).

But I guess still what I really can never get is simply.. why not? Why not carry one in the chamber? Are you afraid of your gun going off? Do you think guns just go bang because there is one in the chamber? If you are iffy about not having any safety other than the one between your ears, then get a gun with an external safety. Keep it in your holster, keep your finger off the trigger, etc. If you aren't comfortable with a loaded gun, then dont have one at all.

[Guest BungieCord]

I can't count the number of times I've seen people forget to chamber a round or forget to flick off the safety on both short guns and long guns, at the range and in the field. I've even done it myself. Under pressure, when the body alarm response kicks in and the pucker factor is up to about 30 pounds, you're 1000x more likely to leave out that intermediate step and go straight to "squeeze the trigger." That's why it's all the more important to eliminate all those intermediate steps.

[Guest rt_steve]

I got home today after about 6 diet cokes at Which wich. I made a mad dash for the restroom and undid my belt in record time. As I continued to undo my jeans and my Galco sto and go and glock 19 I had been carrying at 1 o'clock position slipped off my belt and headed for the floor. My first instinct was to not to grab it but turn away from it as if it would go off on impact. Fortunately the pistol never left the holster and I relieved myself and left the restroom with a lesson undoing my belt while carrying.