Administrative Reload: Reloading Techniques
Rob PincusDescription
In this video, Rob Pincus demonstrates the Administrative Reload. If you use a handgun primarily as a defensive tool, the Administrative Reload should be so intuitive you don’t need to practice it or even give it much thought. If you’re on the range and have an unloaded gun, insert a magazine firmly into the magazine well, rotate your hand up and over, pull back and release. The gun is loaded. There’s little reason to have different reloading techniques because when you’re actually shooting, you’ll use the reloading technique that works best for you.
I want to talk about the administrative reload and the concept of the administrative reload as it pertains to defensive firearms training. If I'm primarily concerned with using this device as a defensive tool the administrative reload is irrelevant. I don't need to practice it. I don't need to have a technique. I don't need to have any awareness of it at all. In fact, I'd probably be better if it wasn't even in my lexicon, if I didn't think about it as a term. When I get out on the range, if I do have an unloaded gun I'm simply going to take my magazine, insert it firmly into my magazine well, just like I would during a slide lock reload, rotate my hand up and over pull back and release, at this point, the guns loaded. If I make sure that magazine was seated. If I want to check that fine, I can check that also. If I really want to worry about it, I can look down and know, well, I had one round in there now I have zero rounds, that guns loaded. If the gun is not loaded I don't understand the physics of it. The magazine was seated. There was around in there. I pulled back, released. It's gotta be in the chamber. And certainly there are other external ways that some firearms let you check to make sure something's in the chamber. But at the end of the day I think common sense is probably a good guide here. If I loaded the gun, I loaded the gun. If I want to do anything else, then I simply would take another loaded magazine and put it into the firearm. And now if this magazine were loaded fully I would know that I'm now at maximum capacity. So again, knowing that the magazine is loaded with a certain number of rounds, inserting it racking the slide, checking the magazine to be sure that it has one less round. Even if I want to empty them out on the table and check, that's fine. There's no reason to have a different technique for reloading the gun than the one that's going to save you in the most efficient way. When you're actually shooting you actually reached slide lock and you need to get the gun reloaded and back into the fight. That's the reload. That's the way you should practice reloading your gun. If you're really concerned about personal defense or the defense of others.
Guys, An Admin reload as I have always understood it is simply a complete inspection of the weapon before going into training or combat. Like checking your scope, sling, optics, mags loaded and so on. Then you have tactical reload which is different from the above. I use both. God Bless, Gunner
What you demonstrate is not what I know of as an administrative reload, Rob. Neither do I practice the admin reload. It's not something that needs practicing, it's not something that you need to learn some 'technique' for. The process is simple and range-only. You seem to think we're thinking more about it than that. Do you no longer believe chamber checks are necessary?
I cannot concieve of a real life situation (the most likely, in my particular circumstances, being a forceful intrusion at night) where my one, fully loaded magazine of .45 ACP would not resolve the situation - one way or another. 1) Either me or my assailants would be inoperative. 2) I missed them all - but they ran away anyway (unlikely as I teach and practice). So the idea of having to re-load is irrelevant to me - and I suspect (again in a real world scenario) to 99% of the population as well. In fact my defensive (nightstand) weapon of choice is my Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum which of course only holds 6 rounds. However, I sleep much easier with this gun than any automatic. Having said all that I still think your videos are brilliant in both content and production - William
in the context of this video, is an "Administrative Reload" where you change magazines with the gun holstered, or a "speed reload" (changing magazines with a round in the chamber, so no racking the slide)? When I've heard the term "Administrative Reload" used in classes, it refers to the "holstered gun" reload, as a technique used to allow students to change magazines off the firing line without drawing their pistol. It's 'Administrative' because it's used as a time saver, allowing everyone to eject any partially spent magazines, reload them, and return to the firing line with all mags and their pistol fully loaded for the next set of drills.
This lesson is a good example of why, in a lesson, jargon should not be assumed to be understood by everyone. I hear some people saying that a administrative reload is a matter of topping off one's supply of rounds during a lull or protected moment in a firefight - that makes totally good sense if you can do it. In contrast, one fellow describes it as a complex, extra safe procedure that an inspector might use while checking other people's firearms. In this video, I still have no certainty of what he is talking about.
It's not often that I disagree with Rob, but in this case I at least partially disagree. Forty + years as military and police, so I'm not a novice. During my police training the administrative reload was taught only, and I emphasize ONLY, after firing multiple rounds AND IF there is a lull in the action. On the range it is easy to keep track of the number of rounds fired. In a gunfight, not so easy. IF there is a lull, and you do not know how many rounds have been fired, that would be the time to recharge your firearm. As with any other tool in the toolbox, use it when appropriate.
I also like Rob's advice, and would add the following. There are beginning gun handling folks and information like this does allow them to understand that there are alternative ways to reload, and not just the way you learned on your own.
I like Rob's advice, but I would really like to know something. How many people, other than police officers, ever get into a reloading scenario in a real gunfight. In the military most firefights, including close quarter combat, take place with long guns. I suspect that anyone who is in a multi-magazine pistol fight will be hiding behind a tree or car and not thinking too much about an adminitrative reload.