Todd's Review of Frontsight - Malfunction Drills


We learned about all of these during the Four Day Defensive Handgun training at Frontsight, and were tested against stop watches for the speed of clearance. I am only going to talk about auto-loading pistols and not revolvers.

Type 1 Malfunction - Failure to Fire the gun goes 'click' instead of bang. The gun appears to be functioning normally, but it just doesn't go bang. Maybe you forgot to rack the slide when you put the magazine in. Maybe the magazine wasn't properly seated when you racked the slide. Maybe you have a dud round. Clearance drill goes like this:

Some instructors (not at frontsight) call this a 'tap-rack-bang' drill. Frontsight emphasizes two key differences from 'tap-rack-bang'. First, by training to always finish with a 'bang', you are training to automatically take a shot after executing a type 1 malfunction clearance. Needless to say, this could be a bad thing in the real world. You need to 'Assess' the need for a shot. Second, Frontsight adds the 'flip' to the 'rack' step; so we referred to it in the shorthand 'tap-rack-flip'.

Setting up for a Type 1 Malfunction drill couldn't be simpler - unload the gun. With the slide forward, insert a fresh magazine. You are now ready to conduct a Type 1 malfunction drill.

Type 2 Malfunction - Failure to Eject the gun does not go 'click' or 'bang' when the trigger is pressed. Trigger probably feels like mush. Clearance drill goes like this:

Setting up for a Type 2 Malfunction drill is a tad trickier - unload the gun. With the slide locked to the rear, insert a spent shell (brass casing) in the ejection port with the empty side facing to the right. This might be easier if you tip the gun 90 degrees left, and stand the shell on the left side of the chamber. Let the slide ease forward to pinch the shell. Insert a fresh magazine. You are now ready to conduct a Type 2 malfunction drill.

Type 3 Malfunction - Feedway Stoppage the gun does not go 'click' or 'bang' when the trigger is pressed. Trigger probably feels like mush. Clearance drill goes like this:

The initial steps of the Type 2 and Type 3 Malfunctions are the same. They diverge based on what you see when you inspect the ejection port.

Setting up for a Type 3 Malfunction drill is trickier still - unload the gun. With the slide locked to the rear, insert a shell (brass casing) or live round in the chamber. Insert a fresh magazine. Let the slide ease forward. You might note the first round of the magazine is now in contact with the rear of the shell / round you have in the chamber. You are now ready to conduct a Type 3 malfunction drill.

Learning these under the cadence of the rangemaster, it was almost irresistable to treat it like dance moves:

"Tap, Rack, Flip, Shuffle - Step, 'Jazz-hands'!

Another webpage on malfunction clearance, with photos. - that page isn't bad, but some of their sequences are muddy / not the way I was taught.

...and a discussion of malfunction drills we were taught would not be complete without a recounting of one of our instructors. After we had all completed our basic malfunction clearance training / drills, he would invariably yell at any student who encountered one 'in the wild / on the range', FIX IT!! FIX IT!! AUGHHHH!!! as though *his* life depended on it! It sounds like he was abusive when I type it out, but it was just the opposite - we all knew he was joking, but it drove home that fixing a malfunction in a gunfight is not just an academic exercise.

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