Always test your gear

[tet4]

Hey all, just a reminder to always check your self defense tools rigorously. A couple weeks ago I shot an idpa match with my sp101 and I had just put a different grip on it. First thing I noticed was that speed loaders didn't work as well as before. At home, they worked fine but under pressure, there wasn't enough wiggle room. However I quickly learned that the grip also caused casings to get pushed under the extractor rod when reloading. I never had that happen before and it pretty much takes the gun out of commission until you can get the casing out somehow, so I learned my lesson the hard way.

So test, test, test, under stressful situations.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[jimmr]

Good suggestion. I recall taking a revolver, carried on duty, to a shooting class and the instructor/armorer discovering a problem with the lock up I had not noticed. Saved me and the firearm from possible injury. Now I try to remember to test everything every time before using.

[wjh2657]

I do the S&W "function check" (LTI) every morning on my carry revolver. I had a handgun fail twice on me in combat (real, not match!) and accept that they are machines, prone to mechanical problems.

[BugDude]

I put a set of really nice stag grips on my S&W 649 and carried it for a week until I figured out that a speed loader would not work at all with them. They immediately came off the gun. Function over form.

[mnmbrewing]

A co-worker and I were talking guns and he asked me what is the first thing you should do after cleaning your gun? I thought for a minute but couldn't really come up with a good answer other than clean up the mess I just made. His answer was shoot the gun. Seemed sort of strange until he says how do you know you put the gun back together correctly unless you fire it? While that isn't real practical in my case since I don't have a range in my back yard it did get me to thinking about at least dry fire after cleaning. May not tell me if I got everything back right it will tell me I got the majority of it right. A SD situation is not the time to find out you missed a spring in the post cleaning rebuild.

[BugDude]

A co-worker and I were talking guns and he asked me what is the first thing you should do after cleaning your gun? I thought for a minute but couldn't really come up with a good answer other than clean up the mess I just made. His answer was shoot the gun. Seemed sort of strange until he says how do you know you put the gun back together correctly unless you fire it? While that isn't real practical in my case since I don't have a range in my back yard it did get me to thinking about at least dry fire after cleaning. May not tell me if I got everything back right it will tell me I got the majority of it right. A SD situation is not the time to find out you missed a spring in the post cleaning rebuild.

You can always triple check to make sure it is unloaded and while holding it straight up drop a pencil eraser side down into the barrel and then pull the trigger. This will tell you if the firing pin is making contact with the eraser (most guns the pencil will jump out of the barrel).