Tips for quick draw/reload?

[Booshanky]

Hey guys,

I've been wanting to compete in some shooting comps soon as I discussed in this previous thread.

Well I finally got a mag holder and a belt and last night I practiced doing some quick draws/reloads at home and man it's tough! I know why those guys have flared magwells now. I keep getting the mag caught on the edge of the magwell of my USP.45F.

Anyone got tips on ways to quickly draw the pistol from a holster and get the sights on target quickly? And any tips on how to accurately get the mag into the magwell every time without getting it hung up at all?

How about mag holder placement? Is it better on the side of my body or located more at the 10/11 o'clock position on my belt?

Thanks guys!

[gose]

Pull the gun straight in, about halfway to your face and keep it at eye level.
Tilt the gun ~45 degrees, so you look into the edge of the mag well.
Grab the mag with your index finger extended.
"Point" the magazine into the magwell.

Don't try to go fast, you'll just mess it up. Do it slow and work up your muscle memory, once the muscle memory is there, speed will come by itself.

[What Just Happened?]

The 10 o' clock / 11 o' clock position is what you see all the Limited / Open divison USPSA guys do. They disallow you from putting the magazines that far forward in the production and single stack divisions. So there must be something to putting them that far forward.

On the draw, I do it; up towards the armpit, rotate out, and push out. While I'm 'pushing out', I'm also acquiring the front sight.

Like gose said, be able to see the magwell when you reload. Your index finger should be extended and along the front edge of the magazine, 'pointing' the magazine into the magwell. Once you finish your reload, push the gun out while keeping track of where the front sight is.

[Black Majik]

Youtube Robbie Leatham, Dave Sevigny, Todd Jarrett etc and watch their movements.

On a reload, bring the gun straight back, while releasing the magazine, tilt the gun so you can look into the magwell, index the magazine and slip the magazine into the magwell, push the gun back out while reacquiring the front sight.

The draw from a holster should be similiar. 4 motions to a draw. Gain master grip and draw, rotate gun forward, extend while meeting support hand, extend to target while watching for that front sight.

[BamBam-31]

Do yourself a favor and ping: http://graygunstraining.com/8.html

[NiteQwill]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Never have your eyes leave the weapon. For me, to aid in reloading when shooting steel is I use my index finger to point the magazine towards my weapon's well.

Remember, bring your weapon to your eyes not your eyes to your weapon.

[Gryff]

First, make sure you have a snap cap in the mag when practicing reloads. If you don't it, is easy to catch the mag opening on the magwell while practicing.

Draw...as someone else said, draw and rotate the gun towards the target immediately while simultaneously bringing it up to your chest. Then push the gun towards the target, meanwhile using this "push" time to start acquiring the sights. This will provide more-intuitive sight acquistion than swooping the gun up in a curve with extended arms.

Reloads...make sure you do them right in front of your face. Watch the pros and you'll see that the gun is up and in their face always. Not only does this make it easier to focus on the reload, but it also makes you more efficient since you are simply pulling the gun from the firing position into your face, and then pushing it back out. Most newer competitors drop their hands down to waist, which makes the reload occur farther away from your eyes, and also requires a complex motion.

A simple way to remember it is to pull your firing hand elbow directly down into your ribs. This makes it more-instinctive in keeping the gun up in your face.

An extension of this is that you should keep the gun up at face level while moving. Again, most new competitors drop their hands to waist level, requiring a complex motion to re-acquire their sights after getting where they are going.

As for grabbing your mags...position in mag holder in bullet-forward orientation. When grabbing a mag, extend your index finger along the front edge of the mag as you grip it, and then "point" the way into the magwell.

And, of course, practice, practice, practice. Start slow and smooth so that you are practicing doing it right. It actually doesn't require uber-fast hand motions to help you be competitive, just a) smoothness and no mistakes, and b) decisiveness. Most delays in reloading occur because the shooter doesn't realize they are out of ammo before starting their reload. That extra (and pointless) pull of the trigger causes a mental "Oh ****!" and that is actually what slows you down the most. Know when in the CoF that you will expect to reload, and then be ready for it when the time comes.

[railroader]

A lot of the matches I have shot you have to shoot from several different locations on each stage. I try to reload while I'm running from each location. Some people wait until they get to the new spot and discover they don't have enough rounds in their mag so they are standing there reloading burning up seconds on the clock. I like having a fresh mag in the gun when I stop running to shoot. That also gives me a little room for error when I miss shots. Keep in mind this doesn't work for all matches but is something I try to do. Mark

[M. Sage]

Good video on how to reload quickly. He covers it step by step.



Practice it slowly. Practice not having any snags in the process.

As far as drawing the handgun from a holster quickly, don't worry too much about quick, practice up the five point draw technique, again practice it slowly and get smooth and comfortable with it. Muscle memory is the name of the game. You want it to become automatic.

Find an index spot on your holster, mine is the front corner of my Serpa holster where my thumb rests. An index spot gives you a consistent and correct grip on your pistol when you draw it. Also, does your handgun have a safety on it? You need to take that into account on your draw motion if it does. My P220 is the single action version, so my index spot puts my thumb above the safety paddle. When I clear the holster and rotate the pistol up in my draw motion (step 3), the rotation pretty much automatically puts tension on my thumb and flips the safety off. FWIW, I leave my thumb on top of the safety paddle, so that recoil can't accidentally turn it back on again, so that I know the safety is off, because if I fail to turn it off, I can do so instantly, and because it gets my grip just a bit higher which helps with recoil management for follow-up shots.

Once you think you've got 'em smooth and you can do fast draws and reloads, have your wife get out a stopwatch and see your form go all to hell. The clock is the enemy, and it'll psych you out!!

Most delays in reloading occur because the shooter doesn't realize they are out of ammo before starting their reload. That extra (and pointless) pull of the trigger causes a mental "Oh ****!" and that is actually what slows you down the most. Know when in the CoF that you will expect to reload, and then be ready for it when the time comes.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've been caught off guard by my slide locking back and actually pulled the trigger. IMO, if you're focused on your front sight the way you should be, you'll notice that the slide isn't in the right position. Then again, a lot of people manage not to somehow... I always find the two or three exaggerated squeezes of the trigger (as if they're just not pulling hard enough!) on an empty gun pretty amusing.

[JTROKS]

Nowadays it's so easy getting the example on how to do certain things in IPSC or IDPA. You have lots of choices, my advice to you is to watch the top dogs and see the way they grip, shoot, draw, reload and move. You'll have to practice at a range where they permit these kind of drills. It's kind of tough to practice double taps when the range you intend to do it at only allows one round per second. You're not going to be a grandmaster in one week so take it easy and the secret to it is having fun and having an open mind. Be a sponge and soak it in. There will be some old heads out there at the IPSC range telling you this and that, and you may not like how they do it. Soooo... it's like one of those Shaolin Master Sunday movie, be courteous. If you have a buddy that's been shooting IPSC and IDPA for a while and would take you under his wing, it's a bonus. Don't forget to have fun, don't get gamey mad and start buying everything you think will make you faster. If you don't reload, you better save up for a progressive reloader. Goodluck and see you out there.

[rivviepop]

One of the top guys at RRGC showed me a little trick he does -- put a thin line of whiteout/etc. on the inside of the magwell edge that you look down towards during a reload.

[Timberland]

I had to train antisipation out of me. If you are wating for your gun to run empty youll be constantlly looking at the slide to see if its locked back. Learn how to react, and train that in you. I put a random amount of ammo in several mags, mix them up and shoot. When you get use to it, a reload will be instictive.

Another key is a good grip. Lots of info out there, and its the best way to aid in spees and aquisition. Thumbs foward cuts recoil way down and makes transitioning faster. Practice transitioning between targets, this is where most people slow down. Keep dryfiring, and practice reloads with loaded(dummy, snapcap, whatever) the weight makes a big diffrence, as does having a round to help guid the mag up and not snare on the side of the well.

[HCz]

Have you actullay taken a class to learn these skills? My suggestion is to take a class or two and then practice correctly. Infos give here are pretty much dead-on, but nothing beats actually learning under a careful eye.

[Mr. Joshua]

Anyone got tips on ways to quickly draw the pistol from a holster and get the sights on target quickly? And any tips on how to accurately get the mag into the magwell every time without getting it hung up at all?

Practice. The speed will not come to you overnight, it takes time. I still think my reloads are kind of slow. I saw a recent video of me doing a reload, and compared to a video of when I first started competing. Night and day difference.

Practice practice practice. Setting a good base of solid fundamentals will take you a long way. Good luck.

[Jicko]

Practice. Practice. And practice.


How?

> draw and on target
Tape a black dot on your wall, draw, and get your sight alignment, and then squeeze your trigger. Do that 100 times a day.

> reload
Open you slide, put your pistol in your holster, then draw from your holster, drop the magazine, put a new magazine in, and then drop your slide (either by slingshotting it or dropping your slide lock). Do that 100 times a day.



I used to have a software program that I wrote myself. When I run it on my PC and when I hit the spacebar to start it, it will give me a BEEP after a random time (3-5sec), and then I it will give me a second BEEP after a set among of time (say... 5sec). I use the first beep as my que to start "my training procedure", eg. I will start to draw, and to take my aim, and I will try to get a perfect sight picture, and then break the trigger (and of course, I would try to do it as steady as I can, and I would practice till when the trigger breaks, my sight picture is completely solid), BEFORE the 2nd beep... then I will run the set time shorter and shorter.... this way I can train myself to be able to draw and get on target and first my 1st shoot in a shorter and shorter time.