Hi this is Maani with Phoenix Tactical Solutions – today we’re going to talk about tactical reloads and reloads with retention. I’m not going to get into the nuts and bolts of how to do a tac reload or a reload with retention – I’m going to talk about two issues that pertain to these types of reloads.
1 – You’re in the middle of a gunfight – there’s a lull in the fight – you have time and opportunity and you want to top off your gun just to make sure you have a fully loaded magazine in the gun
2 – In the alternative you’ve gotten from point A to point B you’re behind cover maybe, there’s a lull in fight – there is time and opportunity so I’m going to top off that magazine because I have to go from point B to Point C and I want to make sure that I do so with a fully loaded magazine in the gun.
So let’s talk about it…
0:50 Maani demonstrates
– I get behind cover or if there’s a lull in the fight I do a tac reload and I put the partially loaded magazine back in the pouch.
– If I have a dual compartment mag pouch, let’s say an outside the waistband mag pouch, I take the rearmost magazine because I like to keep that front one for an emergency reload.
– I’ve done my tac reload
These are the two things that I wanted to discuss:
1 – The first thing is I just want to tug on the magazine just to make sure that it’s fully seated. Those of you who have spare magazines that are loaded to capacity, just be aware that when I’m doing a tac reload, there’s a lot of tension on the system and around in the chamber and it’s going to be tough to seat it so my spare magazines if I’m running a 15 round magazine let’s say, I load it to 14 ten-rounders – I load to 9 when it comes to my spare magazines. So I tug on it just to make sure that it’s fully seated.
2 – Some of you may have an issue when you run the gun – the slide never locks back. You may have gripped the gun in a fashion that your thumb is sitting on the slide stop so it never locks back. So you get behind cover, there’s a lull in the fight, you don’t actually know if there’s a round in the chamber or not – and don’t tell me that you count rounds – no you won’t! In an adrenaline situation, you’re not going to be able to do that – most people will not be able to do that. After I do my tac reload, I tug on the magazine and I do a press check just to make sure that there is in fact a round in the chamber.
Now the guys that never have that issue – for whom the slide always locks back – you may have had a compromised grip, you never know. Maybe in the heat of the moment – the adrenaline – your thumb was riding the slide stop and it didn’t lock back. Why not do a press check as well, just to make sure. When I do a press check by the way, I always tap it home just to make sure it’s in battery.
Some advocate doing a tap rack. I don’t like losing a round so I prefer doing a fresh check to make sure that I do in fact have a round in the chamber.
So that’s basically the consideration for doing tactical reloads. Again, I grabbed the magazine- and again, however you do it is up to you I don’t care – I tug on the magazine to make sure I do a push check, tap it home and now I’m ready to rock and roll.
Thanks for watching – look forward to your comments and thoughts.
Thanks again – take care.
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