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Posted

I've been seeing that a lot of guys are wanting to leave their gun hand extended out pretty far from the body on the reload videos that are being posted. Travis does and so does Jake...maybe that is why we are seeing so much of it.

And, that may be just fine for Travis, Jake and many here that are putting in the reps.

The reload is one area that we have the opportunity to get some input from our senses that isn't purely visual. There can be, for many, an aspect of "feel" in the reload.

Pulling the reload back to the body a bit allows the strong side bicep to contact the side of the chest/pec area, giving a tactile index point. Bringing it back also is more stable and controlled. (And, if we were more into self-defense, there is more retention.)

Throw in some movement to the reload, and we see a lot of top shooters bringing the gun in closer than they practice in static dry-fire, I believe.

I just noticed this and thought I'd throw it out there for discussion. I'm not judging right or wrong on it in any way.

Posted (edited)
I've been seeing that a lot of guys are wanting to leave their gun hand extended out pretty far from the body on the reload videos that are being posted. Travis does and so does Jake...maybe that is why we are seeing so much of it.

There can be, for many, an aspect of "feel" in the reload.

I noticed this too and it bothered me at first because I bring the gun closer than Jake and TT. Reloads were a weakness for me last year so I have been working hard on them and I would have hated to have been doing them "wrong" all winter.

I think "feel" is a good word. I also like "rhythm". My best reloads occur when I don't worry about how close or far from my body I do them, but when I just let my arms find that natural place where everything just lines up and the mag slips in like butter.

Edited by davidball
Posted

At least one of the top guys teaches something like "arms-length is fastest, but elbow-to-chest is more reliable, especially on the move"

Posted

That is the danger of "over focusing" on static reloads IMO.

I think that people should use the reload that works for the situation and the body type, not just the one that is smokin' when standing flat footed in front of the camera.

Feedback, visual and feel both are good to have combined, I even take the strong hand wrist to an angle that is a positive point. It helps me, but your experience may vary.

Posted

Since my reloads are awful, I've been watching Travis & Jake's video's so I might improve. They look like they will be much faster shot to shot with the strong hand extended.

I would like to see how their styles adapt to the around the barricade reloads used often in classifiers.

Thanks to Travis and Jake for putting thier stuff out there for us to learn...

FY8825

Posted

I have had three indoor range sessions in which I only work on my one shot draws, and then I start with the gun up on target and shoot one/reload/shoot one. I have consistently found that "trying" to keep the gun up at eye level doesnt work for me as well/consistently as bringing the gun back slightly and down after the mag is inserted. This is true with my singlestack, but moreso with my XD. Last night wih the XD I could not keep the gun up at eye level and and hit a smooth reload to save my ass. When I just focused on the target and calling the shot, I nailed the reload everytime, bringing my reload-front sight shoot time from 1.90 -2.00 down to 1.48-1.50 everytime. I did notice that I wasn't keeping the gun up in my vision line, but bringing it down with my wrist broken so the mag would slide right in. I was upset with my times thinking it was slow. It dawned on me half way home that I was waiting to see the front sight to call the second shot. I was shooting indoors with poor lighting :) It will be better outdoors.....DougC

Posted
That is the danger of "over focusing" on static reloads IMO.

I think that people should use the reload that works for the situation and the body type, not just the one that is smokin' when standing flat footed in front of the camera.

Amen. Since I shoot IPSC (as opposed to USPSA), I've dramatically reduced the number of static dry reloads in my dryfire routine, simply because I've noticed that they aren't very commonly found in actual courses of fire. In IPSC (at least here in Scandinavia) we have very few Standard Excercises, and since in IPSC we don't have a Lim-10 -class, static reloads are VERY uncommon (I've seen maybe 5 in the 4 years I've been going to big matches).

Of course I've done a "blazing" static reload and captured it on video so I can watch and admire it and show it to friends :D. But nowadays when I dryfire, I do a few statics as a warm-up, and then start to do them while moving short distances (2-5 steps) in all directions. And I HAVE noticed I do bring the gun closer in when I do a moving reload.

Here's an idea: start posting moving reload videos as opposed (or in addition) to static ones. We might learn even more.

Posted

I just experienced the following last evening, while practicing dryfire static reloads.

I usually try to reload with the gun in front of my face, at slightly less than arm's lenght.

Every now ant then I badly fumble a reload: either the mag tip clashes with the front portion of the magwell and falls on the ground, or I skyrocket it missing completely the magwell.

Last night, I had one of my revelations: I deliberately kept my strong arm far away from my body, i.e. not bringing the elbow anywhere near the chest; I didn't deliberately straighten my arm, but it felt like that. All of a sudden, the reloads started to work like a charm.

I have even been able to perform some 10/15 consecutive blind reloads at almost full speed.

It looks like, for me, bringing the gun closer to my body, was not helping reliability of reload: the weak hand was still bringing the mag a little bit too forward, even if I was looking straight to the magwell-grip join line (and the red mark I had painted on it).

I'm going to experiment with this a bit more, just to be sure this isn't one of those "trick of the day".

The following is what my moving dry reload looks like (.avi, DiVX coded).

Dry_Reload.zip

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