The proper way to clear a jam?

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SecuritySixShooter

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Ok so im new to the semi-auto pistol world. I have an XD9 that i intend to use as my carry pistol. I have had jamming issues with this pistol and have had it sent back to SA. Since its return it has been absolutely reliable (except for two FTF due to what i think was bad ammunition). Just in case i was wondering what the proper way to clear a jam in a rush. Ive seen tap,rack,bang in other threads but im unsure what this is. Could someone please educate me.

Thanks,
Josh
 
Tap, Rack, Bang.
Many now use the term: Tap, Rack, Access.

Tap means that you ensure the magazine is fully seated and locked into the gun.
Rack means that you run the slide of the gun. You pull the slide back and let it go. If there was a dud round in the chamber, it should be ejected. If the magazine wasn't seated, you seated it and now chambered a round. If the magazine and chamber are empty, the slide should lock back.
Bang means you now attempt to fire. The reason that many have gotten way from that and now say access is that while you were clearing the malfuction, the situation may have changed. The person may now have his hands up and his weapon thrown down. He may now have a hostage. He may have run away. He may be down........................ Practicing Tap/Rack/Bang over and over and over engrains the idea that you ALWAYS shoot following the clearing of a malfuction when you really need to reaccess the situation and see of shooting is the best course of action. This doesn't mean that you spend 10 minutes with your accessment. It only means that you think before you act and that you don't practice firing all the time in your practice.
While you are performing the malfuction clearence drill, you keep the gun high: just below your line of sight. You want to be able to see the target, but you want to have the sights back on the target ASAP after clearing the malfunction.
 
If you want to be completely correct, the term jam means a malfunction that can't be cleared with common methods: your gun is out of service. The correct term for a failure to fire, a failure to extract, or a feedway stoppage is a malfunction.
 
Just one more type: On the Smokestack where an empty case is upright in the ejection port, just sweep back across the slide with the front edge of hand, hitting the empty and snapping the slide back, thus clearing the shell and chambering a fresh round...This is taught in most training courses and it works extremely well...
 
There are different ways to clear depending on the type of malfunction. 444 covered the general failure-to-fire malfunction (trigger goes click, gun no boom).

SecuritySixShooter talks about the 'stovepipe' malfunction where an empty casing doesn't quite get ejected. This one is pretty obvious as you'll see brass sticking out of the chamber and the slide won't be in battery. While I've seen it taught with the sweeping of the support side, I've also been taught to 'tap, rack-flip'... it's almost exactly like the failure-to-fire clearance except the gun is flipped to the right as the slide is racked to toss the empty case out of the chamber. Sweeping with the support-side hand runs the risk of cutting your hand on sharp brass.

The third type of malfunction which hopefully will never happen to you is the "double feed". This can be caused by a faulty magazine, or an extractor failing to pull the previous spend case out of the chamber. Situation is your chamber has a round/unejected case in it, but another round has been stripped from the magazine and is attempting to force it's way into the chamber. The gun will be out-of battery. The procedure to clear this one is to lock the slide back, STRIP the magazine out, rack the slide 3 times, insert a new magazine, and rack the slide to chamber a fresh round. Easy way to remember is "Lock Strip Rack-Rack-Rack Insert Rack" Note that the magazine is stripped and tossed on the ground because the malfunction could have been caused by that magazine, and re-using it again might cause another double-feed and you're back to square one. However, if that's your LAST magazine and you have no other ammo.. you might as well retain the mag after stripping it and hope it'll work again.
 
SecuritySixShooter talks about the 'stovepipe' malfunction where an empty casing doesn't quite get ejected. This one is pretty obvious as you'll see brass sticking out of the chamber and the slide won't be in battery. While I've seen it taught with the sweeping of the support side, I've also been taught to 'tap, rack-flip'... it's almost exactly like the failure-to-fire clearance except the gun is flipped to the right as the slide is racked to toss the empty case out of the chamber. Sweeping with the support-side hand runs the risk of cutting your hand on sharp brass.
Click to expand...
I prefer the tilted Tap-Rack-Bang for both types of malfuncion too. It's a lot quicker and easier to train for one method of clearing than trying to figure out what type of malfuntion you just had and what is the proper technique to clear it, in the middle of an extremely tense and hazardous situation.

The third type of malfunction which hopefully will never happen to you is the "double feed". This can be caused by a faulty magazine, or an extractor failing to pull the previous spend case out of the chamber. Situation is your chamber has a round/unejected case in it, but another round has been stripped from the magazine and is attempting to force it's way into the chamber. The gun will be out-of battery. The procedure to clear this one is to lock the slide back, STRIP the magazine out, rack the slide 3 times, insert a new magazine, and rack the slide to chamber a fresh round.
Click to expand...
That one might make you wish you were packing that j-frame BUG you left at home.
 
444 said:
Tap, Rack, Bang.
Many now use the term: Tap, Rack, Access.

Tap means that you ensure the magazine is fully seated and locked into the gun.
Rack means that you run the slide of the gun. You pull the slide back and let it go. If there was a dud round in the chamber, it should be ejected. If the magazine wasn't seated, you seated it and now chambered a round. If the magazine and chamber are empty, the slide should lock back.
Bang means you now attempt to fire. The reason that many have gotten way from that and now say access is that while you were clearing the malfuction, the situation may have changed. The person may now have his hands up and his weapon thrown down. He may now have a hostage. He may have run away. He may be down........................ Practicing Tap/Rack/Bang over and over and over engrains the idea that you ALWAYS shoot following the clearing of a malfuction when you really need to reaccess the situation and see of shooting is the best course of action. This doesn't mean that you spend 10 minutes with your accessment. It only means that you think before you act and that you don't practice firing all the time in your practice.
While you are performing the malfuction clearence drill, you keep the gun high: just below your line of sight. You want to be able to see the target, but you want to have the sights back on the target ASAP after clearing the malfunction.
Click to expand...

And, of course, don't forget the Magic Word that needs to be shouted or muttered while clearing the jam, usually one of four letters. :D
 
In a gunfight also consider your distance to the attacker when the malfunction occurs. If you are within 10 feet or so, you will probably be way better off closing the distance and engaging with your hands or with the gun as impact device than trying to clear a malfunction. You can close and go HtoH a lot faster than you can clear the malfunction. If you don't close the distance, then the 1st step to clearing it needs to be move to cover.

I practice closing and attacking close targets upon a malfunction on occasion. Makes things interesting.
 
When discussing guns and malfunctions/jams I always remember what my USAF jump master said when teaching about the three most common 'chute malfuncions -- "Take your time, analize the situation, get it right the fist time as you've got the rest of your life to solve the problem".

--wally.
 
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