Reload Bolt Lock M4
Personal Defense Network EditorsDescription
Rob Pincus looks at two different reload positions with an M4 carbine. One position is efficient, safe, and gets you back in the fight quickly. The other is less efficient and even dangerous. Rob demonstrates reloads in both positions and explains why he believes keeping the carbine in three points of contact with the body while reloading is preferable.
Here comes another important tip from the Personal Defense Network. Let's take a quick look at, reload position with this M4 Carbine. You'll see some people that will stay in their basic three points of contact ready position when they do their reload, and you'll see some people pull the stock off their body and tip the gun up and bring the gun up here for a reload which I think is much, much, much less efficient. You think about a fighting situation. We're gonna be here. We're gonna get the bolt lock and we're not gonna be expecting it. Obviously we're in the middle of a fight. Right now I've clearly got that staged for training purposes. I come up, I get to bolt lock. I feel it, it's very different from what the recoil of the gun normally feels like. At this point, immediately my support hand comes off. I drop that empty magazine. I'm gonna take a full magazine, find that magazine well, jam it in, bring my hand up along the side of the gun, rack the bolt. Now I can get back into the fight, or I can continue in the ready position, obviously moving while all that's going on. I'm gonna set this up again, and let's take a look at how that would look if I were going to go into a muzzle up position during the reload. Again, I'm gonna be firing some unknown number of shots. I'm gonna get to bolt lock. Soon as that happens, I come off my body, drop that magazine, and now the gun is up here. Now, yes, the gun is very stable. Yes, this is a more relaxing position in a training environment. I know that target isn't gonna go anywhere, it's just a piece of paper or maybe a piece of steel in a training environment. So I could even look down at my gun, if I wanted to here. I find that magazine well, jam it in. At this point, regardless of whether I'm gonna hit the bolt catch or again run the charging handle, at some point, I've got to physically take the gun off my body. Quite frankly, I'm not even comfortable with a loaded gun pointed out over the berm. That's not even a safe direction in this training environment or in the real environment. If this gun were to go off right now, someone miles away might be in lethal danger. I'm gonna pull the gun out, come back in, and now, I've got to bring the gun up anyway, right? To get that final fourth point of contact from this position up to this position, I've still got at some point to break the gun down and then back up to my cheek. Or at the very least, in, and then bring my head down to the gun. So either way, when we think about a worst-case scenario, oh, I got to get this gun up and fire and shoot. That should be our primary training model or the ready position with a long gun up and shoot. I'm now doing something completely different in this scenario where I've loaded the gun with the muzzle up, come off my body and back on. Definitely not the most efficient way to reload a defensive Carbine. I'm gonna stick with that three points of ready position as much as we can, even when it's only two points during the reload, so we can get back shooting at the target as quickly as possible in our defensive situation. Be sure to check out the Personal Defense Network for more important tips, just like that one.
Dear, Rob. I did understand what you're saying in the short clip. But shouldn't the down wards and up watds position for reloading be vary according to the terrain of operation?
The rifle is brought up, so that the magwell is between your eyes and the threat, and you can then look the magazine into the magwell without losing sight of the threat for very long. Unlike cardboard and steel targets, people move, especially when they're getting shot at. I don't want one disappearing on me, and then flanking me. Why look the magazine into the magwell? Although it's not hard to do a no-look reload in slow motion in a no-stress situation, it's much harder to do when adrenaline is involved and hands are shaking. Do some rapid push ups and suicide sprints and try it. Is the risk of launching a bullet in an unsafe direction, and it finding someone a mile and a half away, with your finger off the trigger, greater than the risk fumbling a reload or losing visual contact with the threat? I'm not sure that it is, but you'll have to make that call yourself. I don't usually disagree with Mr. Pincus, but this time I think I have to.
Why would you rack the bolt after you reload by reaching for the charging handle when you can hit the bolt release to reload the chamber? Wouldn't it be more efficient to hit the bolt release and then bring your support hand back to the forearm grip?
Excellent as always Rob Pincus!
The rifle is brought up, so that the magwell is between your eyes and the threat, and you can then look the magazine into the magwell without losing sight of the threat for very long. Unlike cardboard and steel targets, people move, especially when they're getting shot at. I don't want one disappearing on me, and then flanking me. Why look the magazine into the magwell? Although it's not hard to do a no-look reload in slow motion in a no-stress situation, it's much harder to do when adrenaline is involved and hands are shaking. Do some rapid push ups and suicide sprints and try it. Is the risk of launching a bullet in an unsafe direction, and it finding someone a mile and a half away, with your finger off the trigger, greater than the risk fumbling a reload or losing visual contact with the threat? I'm not sure that it is, but you'll have to make that call yourself. I don't usually disagree with Mr. Pincus, but this time I think I have to.
Why would you rack the bolt after you reload by reaching for the charging handle when you can hit the bolt release to reload the chamber? Wouldn't it be more efficient to hit the bolt release and then bring your support hand back to the forearm grip?
Excellent as always Rob Pincus!