Emergency Reload with Support Hand

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Okay I've set the gun up again. We're gonna practice doing this with the support hand only, the other hand. The technique is gonna be pretty much identical, barring a few things. And those are things I need to identify right now. This hand is gonna be a tougher hand to do your emergency reload with. So, when you're practicing this hand, spend the most time with this particular hand. Your strong hand emergency reload, I mean, typically you do that when you're on the range over, over, and over again. Granted, you use the other hand to grab the magazine, but you really know how to operate the handgun primarily with your strong hand, so I would recommend training about 60 or 70 percent of your time with your support hand only stuff. It's, by far, gonna be the toughest technique for you to do when you're under stress. So, obviously we wanna work on whatever is gonna be the toughest, or weakest area, before we work on our strengths. And then we'll work on our strengths later. So, for the support hand only emergency reload. Obviously, I'm in the middle of a fight. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Slide locks to the rear. So, my first consideration is how do I get the magazine out of the gun with my support hand. Once again, typically, if you are a right handed shooter and your gun is set up with that magazine release on this side of the gun, on the left side of the gun, I'm simply gonna reach around with my index finger, and I'm gonna hit that magazine release. If you can't reach it with your index finger, you're in some trouble there, because you have to figure out how to initiate that magazine release. I've seen some folks that do it with their middle finger. The problem with doing it with your middle finger is, if you notice the grip of the gun itself is only at two fingers now. So, my dexterity is going down, down down, farther, farther, farther. So, the stress is up, the adrenaline is pumping through my system, and the last thing I wanna do is hold the hand gun in a live fight, possibly while I'm moving to position to cover, with two fingers themself. So, I'm simply gonna tell you to figure out how to do it with your index finger. If you need to shift your hand on the gun a little bit, once again, we've talked about with the strong hand, practicing that gun shift in your hand. Grow that dexterity a little bit while you're watching TV. I'm gonna simply release the magazine with my index finger, keeping the gun straight up and down. If you get in the bad habit of canting the gun during this technique, you're gonna find that those of you that are shooters that maybe carry Glocks or other guns where the magazines don't drop out quite as freely, they may hang up. So, the reason they hang up is because when you cant the gun, gravity is working against the friction of the mag well itself. So, make sure to keep the gun upright when you hit that magazine release. Press it aggressively and let the magazine fall to the ground. The rest of the reload is primarily the same. I'm simply gonna secure it with whatever method, and notice, if I'm doing a support hand only reload technique and I'm carrying a holster on my strong side, it may be very difficult for me to secure the gun in that holster. However, if I can secure it in the holster, and I have a holster that's, once again, non-collapsible, I would simply secure the handgun in the holster and perform my reload. Because I've trained with this holster, I know that if I let go of the handgun, I've got about a one in five chance that it's gonna fall out in the ground. I'm not gonna utilize that method today. So, I'm gonna default to my belt, a different securing location, or between my knees. And I've found that more consistency is the key. And if I do a technique between my knees, I'm normally faster and more consistent. And I know I can utilize my knees any time I need to. So, I'm simply gonna secure the handgun between my knees, making sure it's nice and secure. Once again, if you'll notice, this muzzle is horizontal with my knees, and that's really a critical point. So, you're really securing the handgun, and I'm actually pressing my knees together. Grab the new magazine out of my mag pouch, just like I normally would during a normal reload. Insert it aggressively. Tug, make sure it's in there, because, once again, we don't wanna end up in a circumstance where the magazine is not inside the gun. Now, if I'm already between my knees, I'm probably gonna default to the knee method of the slide release. However, if I wanted to and I can reach it, I can also initiate the slide release with my index finger. Now, those of you that have firearms with a slide release lever that's a little bit flat, or maybe a little bit more difficult to utilize, that's gonna be a tough method for you. So, what I'd recommend for you is when using the knee method, simply while you are there, you've inserted the magazine inside of the gun, you've checked and made sure it was secure, Simply press down and away, and use your knee method to release that slide and get back in the fight. All of the other techniques remain the same. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.