IDPA Tactical Reloads ?

[Jeremae]

age-ranger

If you did a true Tac-Reload and the magazine was fully seated, you got hosed. You CAN move/leave cover at that point, you just can't FIRE a round until the old mag is stored.

I specifically asked about this at SO class taught by Gary Burris just two weeks ago.

HV

Yes on a Slide Lock reload, you must have gun back in battery and ready to fire before leaving cover, but of course there is no need to store the old mag as it is EMPTY.

One point to make, if you have fired all rounds but one (live round in chamber, slide in battery, mag empty) you MUST retain the empty mag.

[HighVelocity]

I know the mag has to be seated before moving but doesn't the slide have to be forward too? I got a procedural once for moving from behind cover before the slide was in battery. I didn't think it was a procedural but the SO stood his ground.
Gary

Do you mean out of battery, slidelocked back?

If it's a tac reload, the slide should be foreward. Other wise, it's a speed reload,gun ran dry, slide back.

You shouldn't leave cover with a gun that is not ready to enguage the BG, not a tactically sound principal, I side with the SO.

The slide was about a millimeter from being in battery when my foot came out from behind cover. The SO said, thanks to his new super tactical electronic muffs, even though it looked like the reload was over, he heard the "click" of the slide going fully into battery. I tried to tell him that the noise he heard was one of my joints popping but he didn't buy it.

[casselthief]

shoulda argued that light travels faster than sound, so therefore he COULD have seen it seated, before he heard it seat!

[jdMorgan]

Thanks for this thread. I have expanded the information you quoted above to include:

If you do a true IDPA-approved tactical reload (drawing the spare magazine, swapping it with the depleted magazine at the gun, and then stowing the depleted magazine), you may gain a significant time advantage in Stage 3 string 2. According to IDPA rules, you may move out from cover after seating the fresh magazine and dropping the slide, and not before. But you may stow the depleted magazine while running forward to the barrel. You are OK rule-wise as long as the fresh magazine is seated and the slide is down before you leave cover, and as long as the used magazine is stowed before you fire another shot. (Emphasis added)

Bear in mind that a tactical reload is a "semi-administrative" reload, and is not to be done in the heat of battle. It is used only when under no immediate threat and behind cover, and when the firearm is in an only-partially-loaded condition. Its advantage is that it leaves the gun in single-shot mode for the shortest possible period of time. Therefore, a lot of the reasons people give for not learning it -- it's too difficult, fumble-prone, etc.-- are not applicable. Like it or not, it is a useful technique, and all students of the pistol shooting arts should learn to do it and do it well, along with any other techniques that might someday save their hides.

As far as explaining/answering questions about "tactics-related" rules in IDPA, a single idea is often all it takes:

• The targets should be imagined to be shooting back.

Most of the procedural and cover rules follow from that idea, including:

• Do not leave cover without a gun ready to fire (preferably, fully-loaded) -- Often heard as, "Do not run with an empty gun."

I've seen several threads here recently about "practicing up before IDPA" and trying to find the "best gun for IDPA." The best tips I can offer are to spend your money on training, not on so-called "better guns," and to get in the game *now* and learn all the fine details as you go. As long as you have a decent-shooting reliable gun, then invest your money and time in improving your skills by training instead of thinking a better "magic gun" will do it for you. -- After all, you may not have that "magic gun" at hand when you most need a gun, but you'll always have your training.

And as long as you can handle your gun safely, there is no reason to put off shooting an IDPA match. Just shoot it for fun, and let the competition aspect come later.

J.D. Morgan
Collin County IDPA Club