Emptying your chamber--how do YOU do it?

[seawolfxix]

I always clear my carry guns in my bedroom so the ejected round falls onto the bed.

 

[groovatron]

Keep it cocked and locked or just cocked....if you have to remove the round, make sure you use a previously unchambered round next time you throw one in the pipe.

 

[groovatron]

I always clear my carry guns in my bedroom so the ejected round falls onto the bed.

I do the same.......soft landing for the round and a bed makes a decent backstop.

 

[eldirector]

Quick question for the XD (or similar) owners. After unloading and clearing the chamber, the XD is still cocked, and has no decocking mechanism. Do you leave it cocked, even though it is unloaded? Do you dry-fire it?

 

[rambone]

I rack the slide and catch the ejected round with my hand. That's how I roll.

 

[dbd870]

How many rounds do you carry in your pistol? If it is a semi-automatic, rack your slide that many times, then pick your bullets up off the floor.​

​

Hmm.....you get to exercise some arm/shoulder muscles that way too.

 

[bwframe]

I would suggest you concentrate on making sure you are developing SAFE habits that won't hurt you under your current or other circumstances.

-Do you holster, bag or safe your gun before bending over to pick up the magazine and round?
Muzzle, muzzle, muzzle.
-Do you catch your magazines?
I never catch my magazines. They go to the ground, table, bed whatever. If I'm reloading for real reasons, I can't afford even the slightest hesitation, thinking I have to grab that mag.

Any habits you develop that are not directly related to proper drawing, shooting, mag changes, malfunction clearances and re-holstering are counter productive. Possibly even flat out unsafe for yourself or others.

No offense to anyone that does the "cool guy" catch the round thing. However, this is something to experiment with and do AT THE RANGE, where there is actually a downrange. NOT in your bedroom or wherever else you may be unloading where there is not a downrange.

 

[Glock21]

Quick question for the XD (or similar) owners. After unloading and clearing the chamber, the XD is still cocked, and has no decocking mechanism. Do you leave it cocked, even though it is unloaded? Do you dry-fire it?

The short answer to your question is YES.

Since this has come up, I might as well start from the begining....

For semi-automatic pistol:

1- Remove all distraction from your life.
Turn off the TV, the ringer on your phone, and ask everyone around you to be quite and leave you alone.

2- Find a safe direction.
This means a place you can point your pistol which will contain a round when you touch one off - in other words, something you can afford to shoot when you make a mistake. (There is actually a product called 'Safe Direction' designed to allow for the manufacture of a safe direction any time one is needed - I never travel without one! Safe Direction Firearm Safety and Training Products It will not prevent your accident, but it will contain it.)

3- Draw your pistol.
Without pointing the pistol at any part of your body and finger off the trigger, point the muzzle in a safe direction or make direct muzzle contact with the target on the Safe Direction Brand product. (And I make nothing from promoting those, I just like 'em!)

4- Remove the magazine.
Maintaining your master grip with the strong hand, use the support hand to remove the magazine. Place it in a pocket or set it down, but get it out of your support hand.

5- Eject the live round.
Grasping the slide with your support hand BEHIND the ejection port, jerk the slide to the rear and let it go. This SHOULD - I repeat - SHOULD have ejected the chambered round. It may not have. Extractors break, ejectors fail - things happen. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CATCH THE LIVE ROUND, let it fall!

6- Jerk the slide twice more.
Once again, with the support hand, grasp the slide BEHIND the ejection port, jerk the slide and let it go TWO more times. This is to act as an indicator that YOU SCREWED UP and forgot to remove your magazine before you jerked the slide - which HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

7- Lock and Inspect.
At this point lock your slide to the rear (if you have no slide lock lever figure out a way to hold the slide all the way to the rear.) and with your support hand pinky, physically FEEL into the chamber, up against the bolt face and down into the magazine well. You should feel nothing but gun, and nothing resembling a round of ammunition.

8- Jerk your slide a final time.
Once your sure there is no live ammunition left in the pistol, grasp your slide one more time BEHIND the ejection port and jerk it to the rear, letting it slam forward.

9- Dry fire.
Finally, maintaining contact with the Safe Direction product, or pointed in a safe direction, PICK UP YOUR SIGHTS, AIM in at the safe direction and dry fire your gun.

At that point you can be pretty sure it is unloaded. However, we still follow all four rules of gun safety when handling the firearm any further.

 

[Speed Kills]

Damn! wel lsaid, friend.

 

[spartan933]

I rack the slide and catch the ejected round with my hand. That's how I roll.

You so fly!

 

[Jack Ryan]

You can all day at me if you like, but that does absolutely nothing to further this discussion. Nor is it helpful to anyone. I suppose the only thing it does is express your immaturity and lack of respect for others. If that's what you're trying to express, well, okay, but I would personally advise against telling others you are immature as it'll likely put a damper on your reputation.

I'll start worrying about my reputation when I own a weapon I carry for self defense and decide I need to solicit opinions from random posters on a messege board for advice on how to unload it. LOL

The need to carry a weapon you don't know how to handle, now that's immature in my humble opinion.

 

[BloodEclipse]

For all of you won't don't cover the ejection port, what do you do when you go to the gun show? Do you clear your gun in the car before you go in or do you let the bullets fall to the ground outside the entrance to the show?
I have never heard about the ejector causing a round to go off before during an unload.
I have always pointed my gun in safe direction while holding it with my strong hand, rotating it just past 90 degrees. Using my thumb and forefinger on my weak side hand racking the slide back slowly allowing my fingers to cover the ejection port and catching the round. I have been doing this forever and never had an incident. I must just be lucky.

 

[versuchstier147]

I'd like to nominate myself for "best reply to op"

YouTube - Copy of test2_mpeg4.mp4

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[SSGSAD]

eject round

1st I ALWAYS put the safety ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I place my left hand over the slide, then rack it back locking it
back, that allows the round to fall into my left hand, then I remove the mag.......
As long as you are familiar, and know what you are doing, and have
the safety ON, it really doesn't matter if you remove the mag first or last.....

 

[Wabatuckian]

1. I'm a lefty.

2. I drop the mag.

3. I grasp the slide where the forward cocking serrations would be, if I had them (next build might, they're ugly as homemade sin).

4. Rack the slide, catching the unspent cartridge in my right hand.

Josh

 

[Glock21]

1st I ALWAYS put the safety ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I place my left hand over the slide, then rack it back locking it
back, that allows the round to fall into my left hand, then I remove the mag.......
As long as you are familiar, and know what you are doing, and have
the safety ON, it really doesn't matter if you remove the mag first or last.....

That really makes no sense - it's obviously GUN SPECIFIC, as leaving the safety on with a 1911 renders the slide unmovable. As well as creating a serious problem when one is operating a PPK, AMT Back-up, Makarov, PA3-T. etc., as they have no slide lock lever. And when one is used to operating say a Glock, but then has to unload a Sig, this can case confusion. And The Glock, M&P (most), etc., have no manual safety.

We all need to get as many gun specific techniques out of our lives as we can! The idea that one will always have "their gun", or that the gun we own or carry will always be the gun we own and carry is a pipe dream.

The unloading technique I described in this thread will work with every semi-auto I know of. The technique described in this last post might work with some, but it is destined to cause an accident eventually with ALL.

ALL OF US HERE ARE TEACHERS! NEVER FORGET THAT! The one time you handle a gun infront of that friend or relative, or that stranger at the range or gunshop, might be the ONLY instruction that person EVER gets. You might not even be communicating with that person directly, but they will observe what you are doing and assume it's "the way" because you're the "gun guy."

Always ask yourself if what you are doing at this very minute is what you would teach others to do.

 

[bwframe]

ALL OF US HERE ARE TEACHERS! NEVER FORGET THAT! The one time you handle a gun infront of that friend or relative, or that stranger at the range or gunshop, might be the ONLY instruction that person EVER gets. You might not even be communicating with that person directly, but they will observe what you are doing and assume it's "the way" because you're the "gun guy."

Always ask yourself if what you are doing at this very minute is what you would teach others to do.

Absolutely correct!

 

[Mosin09]

I don't think trying to catch the round is a great idea, let it fall. Sometimes, though rare the extractor on some pistols can catch the primer causing an out of battery detonation. Won't kill ya but it can shred the heck out of your hand. military and LEO's are taught not to hold your hand over the ejection port when trying to empty the chamber. That's just my 2 cents.

 

[versuchstier147]

So, if the extractor strikes the firing pin - what does it matter if you attempt to catch it in the air or let it fall to the ground? If it's gonna go, it's gonna go - and you'll probably get hurt. This thread's the only place I've ever heard of any such (rumor of) occurrence.

 

[SirRealism]

So, if the extractor strikes the firing pin - what does it matter if you attempt to catch it in the air or let it fall to the ground? If it's gonna go, it's gonna go - and you'll probably get hurt. This thread's the only place I've ever heard of any such (rumor of) occurrence.

I think the chances of getting hurt seriously by a round going off as it falls to the ground are somewhat small... certainly much smaller than if it's in your hand as it goes off. That being said, if I'm not near my bed or the couch, I usually catch it in mid air.