Reload Form

[JimmyZip]

I was practicing several weeks ago and a friend pointed out to me that he thought my reloads could be faster if I kept the gun farther out from my body. He noticed that I bring the gun in about halfway to full extension as I make the reload and then push the gun outward as I get my grip and acquire sight picture.

So in the days since I have been trying in dryfire to keep that pistol out there in reloads and it is just screwing me up bad! Thing is that if I bring the gun in, my hands seem to have an easier time of hitting the reload. I just don't know where to go here. I wish I had something to record me so I could put it up here to critique. I don't though and am left with just asking like this.

I'm "looking" the mag into the magwell, but if I hold the gun closer to 2/3 of the way out rather than 1/2, I start missing reloads and it gets ugly.

Am I trying to fix something that may not be broken?

So, when you are making a reload, how far out do you hold the pistol?

[AWLAZS]

I think you were doing it right. Watch some video of other people.

[Flyin40]

I think you were doing it right. Watch some video of other people.

From what you posted it sounds like you were doing it right. Without video its hard to say. Just holding my hand out a guessing the distance from my face to the gun/magwell is probably around 12in-15in.

Flyin

[DogmaDog]

I bring my elbow back until it almost touches my torso, and my arm is bent at about 90 degrees. It's about half way back from full extension, and looking at a couple of pics (I'd post them if I could figure out how), I bring my gun in lower than I should. The conventional wisdom says bring the gun in close, because you can make more precise movements in close to your body (think of threading a needle).

As for the speed thing...your weak hand has to come all the way back from full extension to your mag pouch, and go all the way back out to full extension, regardless of where the pistol is when the mag is inserted. You can bring the pistol back further and insert the magazine sooner, but then you have to push it back out further. Alternately, you can leave the pistol further out, in which case your weak hand takes a longer trip from mag pouch to mag well. I think it's probably a wash.

Would it be worth your time to practice it enough to get proficient, and then test which way is faster? I dunno.

DD

[boz1911]

I prefer to bring the gun back slightly, everything seems smoother and more stable. From your description, it sounds like your method is working fine and consistent. Don't forget to practice moving reloads and reloads turning away from the mag, the latter being a particular weakness for me.

[Jake Di Vita]

All personal preference.

The one thing you keep in mind, the further out you reload - the less fine motor control you have. Need to find that happen medium where you are quick but also consistent.

[zhunter]

Go back to what you were doing, half way back sounds about right to me

[jkrispies]

I recently went through precisely the same conversation while practicing with a buddy! I went home and put myself on a timer and did some reloads at a farther extension in a dryfire scenario. Here's what I figured out for me:

1. It is slightly faster if I keep the gun at a farther (not full) extension

2. I fumbled quite a few reloads, but I suspected that practice would cure that

3. With my arms out farther, it's harder to get the mag to seat fully (I practice with full mags of dummy rounds) and I ended up with quite a few unseated magazines

It's the third point that concerns me the most, because I'm not sure if practice can cure this: it's a leverage issue.

So, from my limited experimentation, does a farther extension result in faster reloads? I suspect so, but with the trade-off of less reliability. Personally, I'll probably stick with the closer reload and the greater reliability. As I see it, I might save a tenth at each reload at a farther extension (in a 6 stage match, shooting Single Stack, we'll say that will save me 2.5 seconds overall), but for each time the mag fails to seat and I fire one round, then no bang, tap the mag, rack the slide... that's 3 seconds times ?# of occurances. See where I'm going with this?

Now, if I were shooting a hi-cap mag with only one reload per stage, and I could leave one round out of the magazine to make it seat easier... well, that'll just have to be for somebody else to firgure out!

[rvb]

To find where I hold the gun during RL, I gripped a new mag as if I was about to insert it and gripped the gun as if I had just hit the release and was in the process of looking at the opening to insert the mag. I adjusted my how far out and how far up I held the gun until the mag was naturally in-line with the mag well for a smooth insertion. That became my baseline. Worked out [for me] that both elbows are approx 90* with well opening slightly below chin in elevation. May vary depending on body type, shoulder width, how you grip the gun while hitting the release, etc....

can try to post pic this evening.

-rvb

Edited July 10, 2009 by rvb

[Duane Thomas]

There are two basic theories on the fastest way to speedload an auto pistol. One is to hold the gun as immobile as possible and bring the magazine to where the gun is. The other is to bring the gun to where the magazine naturally wants to go. I tried the former for years. My reloads only started getting really fast, and more importantly the fumbles went away almost totally, when I decided to go for the latter.

When speedloadind, we know we want to keep the gun at eye level so we can look the magazine in. So, if you want to know where you should put the gun, and at what angle you should hold it, simply close your eyes and, with your eyes still closed, draw the mag and put it naturally in front of your face. Then open your eyes, look at where the magazine is. Then draw the gun, align it right above the top of the magazine with the support hand index finger touching the front of the mag well, and the mag well perfectly aligned with the magazine - all without moving the magazine at all. This is the position, and the angle, you should instantly move the gun to during a speedload. During the first part of the load, instantly move the gun to that position at that angle, and you'll find that when you draw the magazine and put it where it just naturally wants to go, it goes right into the well.

[Singlestack]

I reload at the same place my hands meet during the draw. Thats also the place where I start looking for my front sight.

(I practice that way anyway )

[Dan Burwell]

Summer Blast 2008

Check out these pictures I took last year at summer blast. I was "working" a stage that had a manditory reload so I was able to get alot of good pictures of some very good shooter doing their reloads. You can see in the pictures that most of the have the gun fairly close and alot of them drop it more than they will admit to, but check out Chris Keen(sorry Chris don't mean to pick) in pic 25/30 that particular reload was the fastest of the match and it is low and inside compared to what most people say it should look like. It obviously works for him.

So I guess what I am saying is do what the timer says works best for you.