Handgun selection is an important part of any equation, when it comes to personal protection with such a tool, and we might as well touch on it here. Advice, in the simplest form, could be to select the largest, most reliable handgun in the most powerful cartridge you can and will carry on a daily basis and that you can use to deliver fast and repetitive shots on target. If that handgun turns out to be Dirty Harry’s .44, more power to you. If it’s Bond’s little Walther, so be it.
You have to have your handgun on you in order for it to be of any value. If it is too big or too heavy, you’ll leave it in the car or at home. Give this serious consideration, when selecting a handgun you intend to carry. All over America, there’s a movement for concealed carry, and gun manufactures are learning it is the compact handguns that have the most appeal. This is because, for most folks, that’s all they can comfortably or will carry on a daily basis.
Nobody likes to dress like a perverted flasher. If we did, we could all carry shotguns. Experiment with different handguns and different holsters until you find something that works for you and ignore that tac-tard on television who’s telling you this or that gun or cartridge isn’t sufficient for self-defense. You cannot defend yourself or your loved ones with a handgun you do not have.
Of course, your handgun also has to be reliable. What constitutes acceptable reliability? Cooper suggested no more than one malfunction in 1,000 rounds. No matter your handgun, shoot it enough and it will malfunction either due to the ammo, the shooter, or because of its design. Maybe the gun gods have foretold that your pistol will function perfectly for 1,005 shots, but will jam on shot number 1,006 or 1,050. If you can run 50 rounds of defensive ammo through your handgun without a malfunction while conducting practical drills, then trust that handgun/ammo combination until you have reason not to.
As we’ve just explored, Cooper’s Combat Triad was made up of three elements, Marksmanship, Mindset, and Gun Handling. We have already touched on marksmanship and mindset. Both subjects will continue to be touched on throughout this book. Gun handling, beyond presentation, is a bit more complex subject, due to the fact that there are so many different kinds of handguns. But what we can do is identify a laundry list of activates that cover all the elements of weapon manipulation you should be able to perform.
Loading—Though the types of handguns suited to concealed carry/personal protection vary a great deal, they generally come in two forms, pistol or revolver. For the most part, all pistols are loaded in the same manner, as are all revolvers.
For a pistol, start with the gun unloaded and retrieve a magazine. It should be held in your support hand with the tip of the index finger touching the top cartridge, and the bottom of the magazine in the center of your palm. Insert the magazine into the magazine well and fully seat it with force. With the pistol pointed in a safe direction, reach across the top of the pistol with your support hand and grasp the slide. Your thumb should be pointed at your chest. Pull the slide fully to the rear and let it go. Do not ease the slide forward. Allow the recoil spring to exert its full force, thus returning the pistol into battery. Next, engage the safety if so equipped.
At this point your pistol is loaded, but your magazine is now one round shy of being full. Remove the magazine, holster your pistol, and top off the magazine with one cartridge. Now you can remove your pistol from the holster and insert the magazine again, producing a full combat load.
To load a revolver, place the revolver in your support hand so that your social and ring fingers are wrapped around the cylinder. Depress the cylinder release with your shooting hand thumb and push the cylinder out of the frame with the same two fingers. You should now be holding the revolver by the cylinder, between the thumb and those fingers of your support hand. Either by inserting individual cartridges or by using a speed strip or a speed loader, load every chamber in the cylinder, close the cylinder, and holster the revolver. If you are a left-handed shooter, load a revolver as if you were shooting right-handed.
Regardless which hand you shoot with, hold the revolver in your left hand when loading, pinching the cylinder between your thumb and the social and ring fingers of your support hand.
Unloading—With a pistol, you’ll point the gun in a safe direction, with the safety engaged if so equipped, and remove the magazine. If the pistol’s safety locks the slide in battery, it must be disengaged. Otherwise, leave the safety on, retract the slide in the same manner you used when loading the pistol, release it, and let it cycle back into battery. The cartridge that was in the chamber should have been ejected and fallen to the ground. Now, retract the slide and visually confirm that the chamber is empty. It’s also a good idea to lock the slide to the rear and, using the pinky finger of your support hand, feel inside the chamber to manually confirm the pistol is unloaded. This is a good procedure to follow, especially when it’s dark.
To unload a revolver, place the revolver in your support hand so that your social and ring fingers are wrapped around the cylinder. Depress the cylinder release with your shooting hand thumb and push the cylinder out of the frame with those same two fingers. You should now be holding the revolver by the cylinder, between the thumb and those same fingers on your support hand. Point the revolver up — vertically — and, using your right hand, slap the ejector rod at the front of the cylinder. This should cause the ejection of all fired and unfired cases from the cylinder. If you are a left-handed shooter, unload a revolver as if you were shooting right-handed.
Condition Check—A condition check is conducted to determine the status of a handgun, i.e., to see if it is loaded or unloaded.
With a pistol, retract the slide as done when loading, but only partially, just enough to determine if a cartridge is captive under the extractor. If no cartridge is seen or felt with your trigger finger, cycle the slide to load a cartridge from the magazine or conduct unloading procedures if required. If a cartridge is identified in the chamber and it is desirable that the pistol be loaded, release the slide, eject the magazine into your support hand and verify its condition. With practice, both the chamber check and magazine check can be conducted by feel so that the condition of a pistol can be confirmed in total darkness or while your attention is directed elsewhere.
In a way, it’s both easier and more difficult to check the condition of a revolver. Regardless, if you are trying to determine how many cartridges in the cylinder have not been fired, it is a visual exercise. Open the cylinder as when loading and visually determine if the cylinder chambers are loaded. If that is all you are trying to confirm you can do it by feel. If possible, visually determine if the cartridges in the chambers have been fired by looking at the primer for an indentation. Depending on your circumstance, you will have to decide on the condition the revolver should best be in, i.e., unloaded, partially loaded, or fully loaded. In darkness, or just to be double safe, use the thumb of your right hand to feel each chamber in the cylinder to confirm it is empty.