Pistol Malfunctions: Tap and Rack
Rob PincusWhat do you do if your pistol doesn’t go “Bang!” when you need it to in the middle of a string of fire? If you hear a “click” when you expect a “bang,” pull the gun in, tap the magazine to make sure it’s properly seated, rotate your hand up and over the top of the slide, making sure that you’re behind the ejection port, and rack the slide vigorously. Drive back out and engage the threat. “Tap and Rack” is your immediate response to pulling the trigger and not having it go bang. Take advantage of tap and rack when your pistol malfunctions.
Let's talk about what we're gonna do if our pistol doesn't go bang when we need it to in the middle of a string of fire. If I get a click, when I want the gun to go bang the next thing I'm gonna do is pull the gun in tap the magazine to make sure it's properly seated. Rotate my hand up and over the top of the slide, making sure that I'm behind the ejection port and rack vigorously. That tapping rack is our immediate response to pulling the trigger and not having it go bang when we want it to. We drive back out and we can engage our threat.
It's important when you're training malfunction responses of any kind that you remember you were about to fire the gun. It's incredibly likely that once you clear that malfunction you're probably still going to need to fire the gun. So you wouldn't wanna tap and rack and simply reholster. Drive that gun back out and actually simulate addressing your threat. The tap rack is an incredibly efficient response, that's gonna clear a lot of the problems you're gonna have, especially if they're caused by the ammunition.
A very noticeable training scare when conducting reloads and working malfunctions, you fail to keep the gun in the working area. Eyes, Muzzle, Threat. You drop the gun to waist level in all your videos, in a real encounter you will lose sight of your adversary when he moves. There are 3 main ways to rack a slide and coming over the top with a power stroke is by far the least productive and will induce malfunctions. The Power stroke method also forces the shooter to chase their grip to reestablish a good two handed thumbs forward grip. Proper techniques practiced correctly will save your life!
what happens to an ejected bullet that was slow to fire? am I now in danger of it firing and hitting me? or will it do the same as if it was placed in a fire and just explode with no projection?
For myself, I assumed the need for re-engagement was still there. Anyone who couldn't quickly discerned whether there's a need or not, has no business carrying a gun.
Cool tip. But I'm not sure I want to stick a loaded pistol down my pants pointed right at my private parts. That's what holsters are for, right?
Isn't it dangerous to include re-engagement into <b>any</b> clearance drill? By the time you've cleared the malfunction, any number of other variables could have changed. It seems just as likely to me that you should re-evaluate the situation before re-engaging.
As always straight and on point. Great videos, keep them comming. Great refresher.
do you condone or recommend using snap caps randomly placed in the mag to give a malfunction simulation?