Video Transcript
A lot of folks ask me how to speed reload a pistol. They see tack reloads and speed reloads and different things like that here on my page. So I just wanna run over it real fast for you guys. So I have a handgun, I got one in the chamber, my M17. Present the pistol, got my sight, my target, take my shot. I feel the slide is locked to the rear—this is very different than the gun fully cycling, cause you only have half the recoil coming back. So with shooting, you can determine, "I'm out of ammo. The slide's come back." It also feels very different than a malfunction. So I don't have to do any like, "Oh, am I empty? Oh, yes I am." I know immediately when I'm empty, because I can see that my slide's all the way in the rear, and I only got half of my recoil.
At this point, I dismount the gun and bring the gun back slightly. I don't bring it all the way back up here, like so. If I do this and I hit the mag release, the mag's not gonna fall out cause gravity's not going to assist it. So what I like to do is keep the gun straight up and down while I dump that magazine. So the magazine falls all the way out and I have gravity helping me. At this point, my left hand, my support hand, has already gone to my mag carriers—whether it's on my chest or on my belt—to get down there as fast as possible. As soon as that magazine has left the pistol, this is when I actually will angle my gun to be able to accept the new magazine.
Yes, I direct my eyes down to the magwell. Reason being, my eyes being up here is not going to do anything. I will not kill the threat with my gaze. That is not going to happen. I also still have my peripheral because my gun is still up. I'm not loading down here like a revolver, like ye olden days. I'm still keeping my gun up. If I'm behind cover, I'm not gonna see the threat anyway. I'm gonna direct my attention to the magazine well, because this is the most important thing right now, in order for me to get this gun back up and running.
My left hand at this point, hopefully, has already gone down to the magazine and I'm already grabbing it from my carrier. Magazine comes up. I reload with my index finger running along the front of the magazine—a pistol mag, specifically. Rifle, mags I'll beer can like so, and that works cuz I have a full grip on the magazine. But if I'm running a pistol mag, my finger's going to be indexed along the front like this. This will allow me to really index that magazine into the magwell of the pistol more effectively. If you have a beer can grip, you're gripping like this, you have a lot more wobble going on to really direct that magazine into the magazine well, the pistol. So you really wanna grip your magazine like this. Every… maybe I can't say every because only Siths deal in absolutes… But like 99% of pro shooters, competition shooters, and all shooters out there, are reloading a handgun like this. And for good reason.
Magazine comes up. I insert the magazine into the pistol. Here is where there's some debate whether you, you know, pull the slide back, slingshot it, or if you actually use the slide release or slide stop, slide lock, whatever you wanna call it. I like utilizing the slide release / slide lock because it is faster and more efficient. This is gonna come down to you and what you want to do. Either way works. At the end of the day, you're trying to rechamber that round.
So what I do—insert magazine. My thumb is resting on top of the slide release, like so. So as soon as that magazine gets driven home, that helps kind of propel my thumb down onto it. That way I don't hit the thumb release—or the slide stop—early, prematurely, send the slide home without a round in the chamber because the mag hasn't actually gone up all the way. But in this case I do have a round, so I can fire, and I'm good to go. So that's a 1-R-1, where I fire, get that bolt lock, drop the magazine, insert a new magazine, fire. And then to reset the drill, go down, retrieve my empty magazine, tack mag it into the pistol, into the mag carrier. Now I'm set to run it again.