tactical training question about Failure to Fire and rack tapping.

[Squid]

With guns like Glocks where you need to rack the slide a bit to reset trigger, they say if you get a FTFire you are supposed to tap the slide just enough to reset trigger to try to fire the bullet again.

Excuse me but if a bullet fails to fire, I'd rather camber a completely fresh round, because if a modern newer quality gun fails to fire, I'd think the odds are strongly on the bullet being the problem. Even with quality ammo, something may have happened from the factory to your mag that ruined the bullet.

My guess would be if quality gun isn't firing quality ammo, especially "in combat" there is good chance "some thing funny happened" like debris fell in and is messing with firing pin or....someone knew you were gonna really be needing your gun and swapped in blanks. LOL. After loading fresh bullet and not seeing anything obviously wrong my next move might be loading different clip...just so I'd have different bullets.

Is this "two trigger pulls required" ammo something that actually happens?

I'm thinking if the first hit didn't fire it, the odds of 2nd hit working are far less than another totally fresh and different round working right.



Anyways, what do you think of "replace cartridge"(full slide rack) instead of "retry firing same cartridge"(tap rack)?

[Mr.1904]

Tap rack.

I have never heard of half racking the slide to reset the trigger. Definitely not in a tactical situation. I would unlearn that little bit of info. If you have a failure. It's tap, rack. If gun still doesnt go bang than evaluate and fix the situation.

[SA227driver]

With guns like Glocks where you need to rack the slide a bit to reset trigger, they say if you get a FTFire you are supposed to tap the slide just enough to reset trigger to try to fire the bullet again.

Who are "they"? I've personally never heard of that method, but it doesn't seem logical.

Every failure to fire (in a defensive, tactical situation) should involve a tap , rack, bang!

[fullrearview]

Tap, rack, reassess.

[lordres]

Tap, rack refers to tapping the mag to make sure it is seated, then racking the slide. I'm not sure who taught you your tap rack method.

[SacTown]

Like others have said. Tap, rack, and bang. No half racking.

[G-forceJunkie]

Please tell us who "they" are so we all can avoid them. You are correct, each cartradge gets one shot at firing, If its a dud, get it the heck out of there and try again with a new one.

[JTROKS]

Tap, rack and BANG! Doing a partial pull of the slide to reset the trigger is very foolish in a defensive situation. What if you end up pulling the slide just a bit too far and create a double feed? What if you successfully reset the trigger and pull the trigger again only to hear a loud click? If you're running out of rounds and you must save that fail-to-fire round, take cover, get the gun low parallel to ground with ejection port down then tap-rack for this should keep that fail-to-fire round close to your area. Assess and get back in the fight if need be.

[Lugiahua]

who are "they"?
never heard any instructors teaching to re-fire the cartridge under combat situation.
it is always tap, rack (remove failed cartridge) and reassess situation;

if after two attempts the weapon still FTF, it is probably a mechanical failure.
Either transit to a secondary weapon or beat a tactical retreat.

[Squid]

I'll see if I can find the 1/2 rack procedure. It is actually kinda tricky because once the slide is in motion it wants to rack all the way. Or once your hand is in motion it is hard to stop at 1/4 rack.

Maybe it is a Mall Ninja type of move, showing you can manipulate the gun more precisely than your typical non-Ninja guy, and it is something you can do with striker fired guns you can't do with regular SAO or DA autos.

If I really try I can rack my Bersa 380 just enough to reset hammer for SA without chambering new round, but it is really tricky.

[Librarian]

Adds complication where it's really not needed. Why be concerned about what particular model of gun? Do them all the same, I say.

[Lugiahua]

I'll see if I can find the 1/2 rack procedure. It is actually kinda tricky because once the slide is in motion it wants to rack all the way. Or once your hand is in motion it is hard to stop at 1/4 rack.

Maybe it is a Mall Ninja type of move, showing you can manipulate the gun more precisely than your typical non-Ninja guy, and it is something you can do with striker fired guns you can't do with regular SAO or DA autos.

If I really try I can rack my Bersa 380 just enough to reset hammer for SA without chambering new round, but it is really tricky.

completely unnecessary skill and waste of time, would probably get you killed.
most gunfights last no more than 3~5 seconds.

if it turns out a real dud (as in most cases). By the time you rack it again.,the gunfight is probably already over .

pretty much as useful as shooting while hanging upside down with Akimbo style

[scootle]

if you can half-rack anything under stress... you are a super hero.

you are already in the middle of a malfunction, don't try to induce another one by getting cute with what has been proven to work countless times. tap, rack, bang... the reassess step comes after you send that round downrange that you were intending to send in the first place...

[odysseus]

OP, never heard of what you write in training. Failure drills are about moving on and fast, as simply as can hopefully be with positive physical feedback. A half of anything sounds like a very bad idea.

[CrippledPidgeon]

With guns like Glocks where you need to rack the slide a bit to reset trigger, they say if you get a FTFire you are supposed to tap the slide just enough to reset trigger to try to fire the bullet again.

That's virtually impossible if you're under stress. It's also why I don't care much for the notion that if you get a click on a double-action pistol, you should first pull the trigger again.

That's just silly. If you get in the habit of trying the trigger again, what if you're stuck using a gun that's single-action only?

It's best to just start running the malfunction clearance right away. If the round's bad, it's not necessarily going to go off on the second pull anyway. It had its chance, kick it out, and run a fresh round.