1911Tuner said:
Counting rounds can be done if you keep your wits about you.
Back when Cooper ran Gunsite, and the students entered the Funhouse...any shooter whose slide locked empty was judged "killed" regardless of how he'd done up to that point. Cooper was trying to drive a point home. That being that a gun shot dry is a stoppage...and stoppages aren't conducive to long life.
Don't mean to be sacrilegious, but while Cooper had a lot of good ideas, he wasn't infallible.
I understand that Cooper was making a point, but I'm not sure whether it's a good point or not. At Gunsite, it was his "game" and he could make the rules. If that "rule" was made clear before the game began, then the shooter shooting to slide lock
should have been penalized.
There is mental time and attention required of the shooter whether he's keeping track of the rounds fired to avoid a slide-lock reload or simply responding to a locked slide. The time spent grabbing the fresh mag and inserting it in the gun is probably the same. The main difference is the time spent getting ready for the change: knowing when it's time to change mags, based on an "internal" or noticing and responding to locked slide
and releasing it. The shooter can be ready to act whether he (or she) is counting or shooting to slide lock.
I would argue, however, that
a reload done with the slide closed is ALSO a stoppage,
as there is still a period of time when the shooter can't fire while the fresh mag is being inserted and when the gun and the shooter's eyes probably aren't being kept fully on target. Then, too, I've been told that it's critical to WATCH the mag go into the gun... Using the COUNT METHOD is quicker, to be sure, but if you have to fire before the mag is in place you still have to contend with the slide locking back; I suspect that the person doing the COUNT may NOT ready for THAT extra unexpected step. If you're reloading from cover - the preferred course of action, when possible - the extra time spent doing a slide-lock reload may or may not be meaningful. If you're reloading on the move, it's hard to assess just how critical those extra few seconds might be. I guess it's sometimes better to be a moving target -- but not always. (Your point above, about being lucky when HE pulls the trigger applies when you're on the move.)
There is, of course, the option of a SPEED RELOAD -- changing the mag in the gun before it's empty.- That's not allowed in IDPA (unless you retain the mags -- which makes it a TACTICAL RELOAD, and slows things down), but the Speed Reload can be used in some USPSA classes. For IDPA the tactical reload is time consuming, but may be appropriate for some strings of fire. To do that effectively you have to plan ahead and understand the course of fire -- not at all like a true real world encounter.
There's a link below to an interesting YOUTUBE video of a USPSA Production stage, from the Brian Enos site ...
the shooter shoots to lock on some parts of a stage, does speed reloads in others, and drops an empty mag with one round left in the chamber in others. You'll see as few as 6 rounds fired before a reload in some cases, and 11 fired in others. It's hard to tell the difference in the time taken with the various reload methods unless you count the rounds fired -- given that most of the reloads are done (under cover) as the shooter moves to the next target. Lots of mags left on the ground, to be sure. Is this real world? Hardly -- if for no other reason that, as noted in recent responses, most self-defense confrontations seldom involve more than 3 or 4 shots fired by a defender and few of us carry more than a single spare mag, if that. Going to slide lock may be more a nervous response than a necessary one.
https://r3---sn-p5qlsu7r.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id=o-AAKZyQnkER6YRXEXVlmIHCY0zTmJhgicr0ofFfzsJ42N&source=youtube&signature=34AAE0E0B169B0C6B3DB7F2CD298C89070D07C90.04590A31B7A361C6FA4BAB49D8CDB4AD352444A4&ipbits=0&requiressl=yes&key=cms1&sver=3&sparams=expire,id,initcwndbps,ip,ipbits,itag,mm,ms,mv,ratebypass,requiressl,source,upn&itag=43&ip=108.208.230.157&ratebypass=yes&expire=1411764602&upn=3O3Y7xIK5OM&fexp=914075%2C916615%2C927622%2C930510%2C930666%2C931983%2C932404%2C934030%2C937428%2C939936%2C939937%2C944907%2C946023%2C947209%2C952302%2C953724%2C953801&signature=undefined&redirect_counter=1&req_id=67fe7eebda5ea3ee&cms_redirect=yes&mm=26&ms=tsu&mt=1411743080&mv=u
Most of us aren't nearly as quick as the shooter in the video -- and he didn't have the fastest times in that match -- I think it shows him as 11th overall in the Production group. But, most of us can probably manage a slide-lock reload in 5-6 seconds without too much effort.