Spare pistol mag: Bullets to the front? Or to the rear?

[Double T]

I was going to go through taking pictures tonight, but I don't carry a spare mag whilst going to work.

I did find a semi helpful halfway picture of a bullet forward reload...I think we all know how to get to this point from a bullet forward approach.

Which you simply lower your loading elbow down and to your side while raising the hand to the magwell for this:

This way give you a good grip on the mag from hold tp magwell, and allows you to not stare at the gun and keep your eyes on target. It really is the most beneficial way with the least amount of movement. The shortest distance between mag and magwell is a straight line...or arc in this case :-)

what I am trying to say, is the wrist naturally turns as you lower your elbow into the natural orientation for the load. Take your hand and point it up palm towards you. Thenhen rotate it down to where the mag would be. Your wrist shouldn't move, that's all at the elbow :-)

 

[HICKMAN]

Here is what the bullets forward crowd does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GsmUzSBaUQ


I'll be looking forward to seeing what the bullets rear comes up with

 

[HICKMAN]

oops, looks like I posted the same vid Burl did

so nice, you get to see it twice.

 

[David Rose]

Still looking forward to the bullets backward video.

 

[redpitbull44]

Still looking forward to the bullets backward video.

I would do one, but I honestly don't feel comfortable with "being in the spotlight" yet. Call me a tinfoil wearing hermit if you want.

 

[Roadie]

I do the facing rearward thing, only because that felt most comfortable to me. I didnt find a video, but I did find a document with somebody explaining the technique pretty darn close to what I taught myself..

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...&sig=AHIEtbQrPk3MJBFTsAeOIpOL56O_TtKF8g&pli=1

EDIT: Found a video..
http://video.answers.com/how-to-reload-a-pistol-in-critical-incidents-302208464

Around the 1:10 mark he starts talking about it..

 

[Barry in IN]

Forward.

The one I don't get is the guys who have a double mag pouch with one going each way. I see a lot of that, and sometimes from people who know a thing or two (Bill Jeans for one). Some of the older mag pouches were made that way, but I always assumed it was because it was easier to make or because nobody had much if a preference back then. Now I see people doing it by choice.

Oh yeah- Garand: Bullets down.

 

[HICKMAN]

Around the 1:10 mark he starts talking about it..

still hard to make out what he's doing.

Is he indexing the side of the mag, then the side of the gun as brings it to the magwell?

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Understood, more thinking about the fact that I can tuck my gun pretty well in my IWB holster, but these may be a bit more interesting to deal with from a concealment standpoint.

Raven Concealment makes mag pouches which use their "tuckable" attachments. That might work well for your purposes.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I carry my spare mags bullet-front forward/up because that's the way IPD/MCSD was teaching it when I was taught. It only took a couple of years of tactical reloading during qualifications to become second-nature and I don't see any reason to change what my body has already learned and assimilated.

 

[Roadie]

still hard to make out what he's doing.

Is he indexing the side of the mag, then the side of the gun as brings it to the magwell?

Looks like his index finer is kind of along the front corner of the mag at a bit of an angle, but fingertip on the front of the round, touching fingertip to the front of the magwell..

 

[HICKMAN]

Looks like his index finer is kind of along the front corner of the mag at a bit of an angle, but fingertip on the front of the round, touching fingertip to the front of the magwell..

right, but he would have to have rolled the mag in his hand to get it there.

 

[Roadie]

right, but he would have to have rolled the mag in his hand to get it there.

Nope, watch the vid again. He has to roll it to get it in when he does it with mag facing forward, but not when the mag is facing back.

Arms goes back, palm of hand toward body, thumb down..
Grasp mag, thumb in front(back of mag), Index finger to the rear(front of mag)
pull up, point finger along mag edge
Pull mag rest of the way up and out, move hand til index finger is forward, straight shot up into magwell

Almost same exact movements as pulling your handgun from the holster..

 

[Roadie]

 

[HICKMAN]

oh no you're not, I had a response all typed up, but my machine went down.

I'll get it retyped shortly

 

[esrice]

Ok so I had some time to actually sit down and try the "rearward" method.

I was looking for breakdowns in the technique.

As GBuck/Rob Pincus/Roadie and others have pointed out, it certainly works, and it is able to be done without chicken-winging so much. With some practice I'm sure I could get better/faster with it.

That being said, I had some issues when it came to "tactical" reloads ie removing and retaining a partial magazine and inserting a full one. I don't know if you "bullets rearward" guys have a preferred technique, but I wasn't getting it.

To break it down further, I snapped a few pics.

Here is how I would normally remove a magazine from a pouch (bullets forward).

Here is how GBuck does it (bullets rearward).

With bullets forward, I index off of two points-- the bullet tip/index finger, and baseplate/palm.

And it looks like this.

Even with bullets rearward, GBuck indexes off the same two points. The difference is in how the magazine is oriented in the hand.

Now when I perform a tactical reload, I move my index finger over to the side of the magazine, so I can pinch the partial mag as it falls from the gun. I then insert the full mag and slam it home with my palm.

Like this.

Now if I attempt to tac-load using the bullets rearward technique, it looks like this.

You'll note that the full magazine is oriented 90 degrees off, which means I have to split my fingers further apart, which isn't as easy or comfortable.

The other (and more important) problem is that the partial mag would hinder insertion of the full magazine, hitting me in the forearm. This is due to the 90 degree turn of the full magazine.

The quick "fix" for this was to simply rotate the magazine in my hand as I went from pouch to gun, thereby putting it in the same orientation as it would've been if I had removed it from a bullets forward position in the first place.

To the bullets rearward guys-- how to you perform a tactical reload? Am I missing something?

 

[Rob377]

Bullets backward guys- the time to beat is 1.40, shot to shot at 7yds. Make with the videos! Prove yourselves! (I kid, I kid. Just a little friendly competition )

(i'm but a lowly B class shooter, I'm sure guys like RVB and Coach would smoke that time)


took this yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3VQ6Uf5qEI&feature=g-upl&context=G2e95eadAUAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Roadie]

Evan,

I have to admit, tactical reloads are something I dont practice near enough, so I really dont have any input on that. i will try it and see what I find.. However, you might have hit upon why I was struggling with tac reloads at the MDFI Handgun I class..

Hmm, more to ponder..

Thanks for the pics btw..

 

[Davis0023]

on duty of course down.. to the front.. but to each their own...

 

[esrice]

(I kid, I kid. Just a little friendly competition )

Thanks for the video Rob! Those were some pretty slick reloads.

Off-topic question-- what was that ending procedure you were performing there at the rear of the slide?