The AR15 is without a doubt the most popular rifle in America. With it’s easy of use, mild recoil, and modularity, it is America’s gun. As with any weapon though, training is key. If you want to be safe and effective you need to understand all of the individual skills required to be proficient. While many people focus on shooting, basic manipulations are often overlooked. This is especially true with reloads and malfunctions. With that in mind, let’s take a few minutes to go over getting these critical skills.
Emergency Reload
It is an unfortunate fact that our magazines will eventually run dry, and we will need to get a fresh mag in the gun. A gun with an empty mag and the bolt locked to the rear is considered an emergency reload. While this may not seem to be the case while training on the range, it is absolutely the case in self-defense situations. To perform an emergency reload, we follow these steps.
- Bring the gun close to your center. This is called your workspace.
- With your trigger finger, press the magazine release button letting the mag fall free.
- With your support side hand, get a fresh mag and insert it firmly into the mag well. Tug on it to make sure it seated.
- With the thumb of your left hand, press the bolt release and the bolt will jump forward chambering a round.
Tactical Reload
Another reload we see is a tactical reload. This is when you have a partially depleted magazine and you want to put a full one in. The steps to this reload are very similar with just a couple changes.
- Bring the gun into your workspace.
- With your trigger finger, press the magazine release button and grab the magazine. Put in a pocket or pouch.
- With your support side hand, get a fresh mag and insert it firmly into the mag well. Tug on it to make sure it seated. The gun is now reloaded with a fresh magazine.
Two Types of Malfunctions
The rifle is a mechanical device and will eventually experience a malfunction. While some may claim they have never had one, it is simply a matter of time. It is important to know how to clear these and get your gun back running as quickly as possible. While there are several types of malfunctions, we will look at the two most common. These are called type one and type two malfunctions. The type one is also called a failure to fire. This can occur for a variety of reasons, but we fix it using the following steps.
- Index your trigger finger on the side of the rifle above the trigger guard.
- With your support hand, slam your palm up against your magazine’s base then tug on it to ensure it is firmly seated.
- With your primary hand, roll your rifle sharply to the right, so the ejection port points downward.
- With you support hand, rack the charging handle to the rear and let it go.
- Resume your normal shooting grip and sight picture on target
The next type of malfunction we see most commonly is a failure to extract. It is also called a stove pipe. This is when the spent brass does not make it all the way out of the chamber and interferes with the bolt going forward. The nice thing about these two malfunctions is that the process we use to clear them are identical. If your gun stops running, look into the ejection port. If you see brass sticking out, just use the steps we laid out above.
The AR15 is a very enjoyable gun to shoot and with practice you can become very good with it. As a serious shooter though, it is important to not overlook the entire skillset needed to master this great gun. Take the time to get good at all aspects of this rifle and your overall experience will be enhanced.
