Map Pouch Placement

[Mo Zee]

I know my drawing below sucks, but consider that the diagram below is your waist. Would it be easier to retrieve your mag from position X or position Y. Consider X to be dead center, inline with your belly button and Y to be 4 - 5 cm to the left of your belly button.

I have noticed that I constantly have smoother reloads when I grab from position Y. But if X would be quicker then I would change. Any comments?

           _Y__X____

          (               )

         (                 )    

          (_________)      

               

[mcoliver]

Hey Mo, there was a thread a while here that discussed production mag placements. IIRC, some offered their times between prod mag placement and the centerline location you're talking about.  I think you can be a tad faster when you put it in your centerline because you can angle the pouch to be inline with your wrist w/o too much strain in your shoulders/triceps. I pretty much started putting my mag pouch in my centerline and practiced from there. Until somebody told me it was not legal in Std. div. Personally, I felt a lot more comfortable drawing fom the front than from the sides. YMMV

(Edited by mcoliver at 11:50 pm on Jan. 8, 2003)

[Flexmoney]

Mo,

I set mine up at position Y.  I find that more natural too me...because that is how I have always practiced it.

Burkett teaches position Y.  Which makes more sense.  Economy of motion.

[Steve Anderson]

From your freestyle position, bring you weak hand down to your waist. That's where your mag should be.

Roughly paraphrased from the book.

My open first mag is in between those, a little left of center.

[diehli]

In reply to the thread title (sorry, can't resist):

I find that a set up similar to that used by NFL quarterbacks works best. Switching one's eyes from the sights to the wrist is much easier and quicker than, say, switching one's eyes from the sights to the thigh.

YMMV.

[Loves2Shoot]

It think it depends on your girth and arm length. If I put my 1st mag in positition Y my 3rd mag would be behind my hips, not a lot of girth here. The base of my 1st mag is one my centerline, so my mag pouch is even further right than your drawing.

I placed my first mag so if I pivot forearm at the elbow, the palm of my hand hits the base pad of my 1st mag, it is angled so it is in line with my forearm. That way when I reload my 2nd, 3rd, 4th mag I pivot my arm and move it back until I get to the next mag on my belt, the mag pouch angles changing to be the same angle of my forearm at each position.

I changed this after shooting standards that require multiple reloads and realized that only practicing reloads on the 1st mag can be a bad habit to get into. If you can change it in 1 sec, but it takes you 2 secs you change the 2nd and 3rd mags you lose out.

If you practice anything enough it will feel good, but don't forget that occationally you will have to reload 2 or 3 times, and sometimes mags do fall out when you are moving and you don't want to have to look for your mags, thus the pivot and move your arm back untill you hit the next mag technique seems to work ok.

Good luck in finding out what works best for you.

[mcoliver]

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Quote: from Loves2Shoot on 4:55 pm on Jan. 9, 2003

...I changed this after shooting standards that require multiple reloads and realized that only practicing reloads on the 1st mag can be a bad habit to get into. If you can change it in 1 sec, but it takes you 2 secs you change the 2nd and 3rd mags you lose out.

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VERY TRUE! Esp. in my case when I use my 1911 SS.

[diehli]

Good point, L2S. I use a Bladetech mag pouches and all fit right around the Y... my arm doesn't move much at all.

I guess the lesson is: Motion and time can be saved while reloading by increasing the size of one's belly prior to undertaking the reload.