We’re Jammin’ – How To Fix Firearm Malfunctions

The Immediate Action Drill

At iconcealed.com, we will happily tell you straight up — it’s inevitable people. At some point, your concealed carry is bound to malfunction. No way around it.

Remember, a handgun is a machine. It needs maintenance. But even when you do everything right to keep it in perfect running condition, it can still misfire or malfunction. I know – bummer.

Hey, it’s a complicated piece of equipment. And the more complicated equipment becomes, the more likely it is that something will go wrong with its operation.

Whether it’s un-ignited powder, a stuck piece of brass that wasn’t extracted properly, or a round that just wasn’t fed in correctly – learning how to fix a malfunction can literally mean the difference between life and death.

The goal of these drills is to train you to use the same motor response for each malfunction.

As in… less thinking, more doing.

The goal, in fact, of any training program should be simplicity and efficiency because time is not on your side when it comes to getting a handgun back up and running after a malfunction.

Ergo, we are going to cut out the whole look-think-assess aspect of our training and just leap-frog directly to “react.”

In many cases, the solution to these malfunctions can be solved by the “Immediate Action Drill.” Also known as the “tap-rack-bang drill,” the actions involved in this maneuver include:

— tapping (more like smacking, actually) the bottom of the magazine to make sure it’s seated properly;

— yanking the slide back to eject bad ammo or brass (we call this racking, btw), and;

— firing if the threat still exists.

The basic tap-rack should become a reflexive response when your handgun doesn’t respond to a trigger press. If that doesn’t fix the problem, immediately go to rip-roll-rack-reload.

Remember, the goal is to skip over the process of look-think-assess and jump directly to react. And with non-diagnostic malfunction-clearance drills incorporated into your regular training routine, you’ll be able to do just that!