Not in combat, though. I took a pistol course last summer, and the majority of it was spent on learning and practicing malfunction drills. Since then, I've kept practicing them, and now I'm glad of it!
I was shooting in a university bullseye pistol match this past weekend that consisted of 20 rounds slowfire, 20 rounds timed fire (5 shots in 20 seconds) amd 20 rounds rapid fire (5 shots in 10 seconds). My experience in past matches has convinced me that alibi rounds REALLY suck. So when I had a malfunction during a timed fire string, I made a snap decision to clear it and keep shooting, rather than take an alibi. A quick glance in the action revealed the problem to be a double feed. Lock the slide open, drop the mag (and grab it with the weak hand), rack the slide several times, reinsert the mag, tap, rack, aim, bang! I was able to get all of my shots off in time, and though I wasn't as accuracte as I could have been, it definitely beat shooting an alibi string.
Later, I had another malfunction during a rapid fire string. After firing, I saw the cartridge fall out of the chamber more slowly than normal, and with almost zero horizontal velocity. This is a fairly typical problem with the Aguila ammo our team is using ATM, and is usually followed by a failure to feed. Sure enough, I pulled the trigger and got a click! Tap, rack, and bang! - back in action. I was again able to get all my shots off under the clock.
Malf drills are a Good Thing! (And so is reliable ammo....
)
I was shooting in a university bullseye pistol match this past weekend that consisted of 20 rounds slowfire, 20 rounds timed fire (5 shots in 20 seconds) amd 20 rounds rapid fire (5 shots in 10 seconds). My experience in past matches has convinced me that alibi rounds REALLY suck. So when I had a malfunction during a timed fire string, I made a snap decision to clear it and keep shooting, rather than take an alibi. A quick glance in the action revealed the problem to be a double feed. Lock the slide open, drop the mag (and grab it with the weak hand), rack the slide several times, reinsert the mag, tap, rack, aim, bang! I was able to get all of my shots off in time, and though I wasn't as accuracte as I could have been, it definitely beat shooting an alibi string.
Later, I had another malfunction during a rapid fire string. After firing, I saw the cartridge fall out of the chamber more slowly than normal, and with almost zero horizontal velocity. This is a fairly typical problem with the Aguila ammo our team is using ATM, and is usually followed by a failure to feed. Sure enough, I pulled the trigger and got a click! Tap, rack, and bang! - back in action. I was again able to get all my shots off under the clock.
Malf drills are a Good Thing! (And so is reliable ammo....
)
