Press Checks Are Free

[Paladin132]

How many folks, when picking up their weapon before holstering it to carry for the day, press check to make sure that the weapon is in the condition that they carry in?

The reason I ask is because I know of many folks who, like me, have been taught if you walk away from a weapon and come back to it do not assume that it is still safe and unloaded. Check it. This goes for on the range, in the home, anywhere. I do it if that weapon has not been under my positive control.

At the same time, how many people come home and check their nightstand weapon if it is different from their carry weapon?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[XDs 4me]

I want to ALWAYS know what status the weapon is in if I have not been in control of it. Funny this topic comes up, because last night I checked the nightstand weapon, and it wasn't giving me the usual indications that it was "ready". Then I remembered I emptied the mag for the day to give the spring a stretch. This is why I always check, even though we try to be vigilant, I guess sometimes we can't remember everything all the time. So, yes, I check the status constantly.

Be Safe!

[Ivan4x4]

I always check my weapons before I holster and conceal

[ColoradoDave]

Interesting question. I check a weapon each time I pick it up, and am glad I do. After plinking with the .22s one day, I checked the lever action Marlin, and cased it and loaded it in the truck, I didn't have time to clean it that day, so as I uncased it I checked it before putting it in the safe, yup, out popped a live shell.

With kids around my "nightstand gun" is in a lockbox, don't check that one except when I take it out to clean or shoot.

Don't carry yet as my permit is still in process, but don't see changing my routine, I'll check each time I handle it.

[semperfi.45]

Anytime I am away from my handgun (lockbox at work or in the AM) and come back to it, I check it's status.

[Janq]

Press checks are a free way to shoot yourself in the hand. :(



No thank you.
That is bad form and handgun practice, though it's often featured on TV and in movies.

Many modern semi-automatic firearms have a chamber indicator so check that and call it 'ready'.

Or dump the magazine and stroke the slide as properly grasping it from the rear (not hand over the top shrouding the chamber either!).
Eject the readied round. Now you have in hand an inert firearm.
Recover the spent live round.
Reinsert magazine and release the slide hold if actuated or stroke the slide once more fully to the rear to load, while pointing the gun in a _safe_ direction.
Holster the now live weapon be it in hand and holstered or as holstered on body.

There after remove the magazine from the weapon while remaining holstered.
Top it off with the errant single round and reinsert the magazine in to the handgun as still holstered on body. This final step is referred to as an 'administrative reload'.

Safest and all semi-automatic pistol reliable.

More reading on the Administrative Reload method can be fond at either of the following;
* Police One - Officer Survival: Staying alive with rapid reload
* Officer.com - Mastering the magazine

- Janq

[cdjspider]

As bad as it sounds I haven't checked mine regularly. As of recently I haven't had a reason that I had to be away from it. I wake up and grab my gun off the nightstand and put it on. Bedtime I put it back. If I was to leave it locked in my truck for work then I would check it because you never know.

[Blackeagle]

Press checks are a free way to shoot yourself in the hand. :(



No thank you.

There are ways to do a press check that do not involve getting your hand anywhere near the muzzle.

[Janq]

There are ways to do a press check that do not involve getting your hand anywhere near the muzzle.

I know, I detailed such a method in this thread last year...

January 18th, 2008, 02:36 PM

Easiest that I know of:

1) Finger off the trigger;
2)Point weapon in a SAFE direction;
3) Grasp slide from the rear at the sides;
4) Pull slide back approx. 1/4 inch;
5)Look down in to chamber (do not tilt gun up to face/eyes)
6) If you see a casing (brass or aluminum) then weapon is charged. If you see empty space and below that the mag with the copper of a bullet then look forward into the throat of the barrel to be sure casing is not stuck as due to an failed ejection.
7) Release slide.

There are other methods which I practice but this is both safe and very easy.

- Janq

Source - http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulle...ess-check.html

But I didn't mention it here this time around choosing to detail what is the safest manner to inspect the condition and readiness of an SA handgun as detailed from the condition of having been stored.
I would follow my press check method if I were at a range or in some place where if by chance a discharge were to occur there would be zero injury potential and no possibility of cops being called.
Doing my method in ones home or apartment or car (!) or some other public place is not safest, as relative to the conditions of ones environment.

I'm all about being safe and firearm safety and as such I'd conditionally choose the safest option, which is why I posted what I did this time around.
When heading out for the day and am at my home I follow my own suggestion as indicated in my first post. It's what is safest for myself, my kids who might be downstairs playing, and my neighbors too who would not appreciate a bullet hole in their exterior wall.

- Janq

[Blackeagle]

Doing my method in ones home or apartment or car (!) or some other public place is not safest.

In a car, I can see what you're saying. At home, not so much. Frankly, anyone who carries a firearm ought to have a safe direction of some sort at home. It can be a concrete wall, or a gunsafe, or one of those nifty kevlar pads, but you ought to have some place where you can safely point a weapon during administrative manipulations. This doesn't have to be expensive; when I lived in an apartment I went low rent and bought a bag of sand from the hardware store.

[Janq]

Many people live in apartment buildings, duplexes, townhomes, condos, moms basement and elsewhere...amongst shared walls.
I live in a single family house with walls that definitely are not bullet proof or even bullet resistant.
A .22 would buzz right through any one of my walls and even a stud to become amongst the public. Now what?
Problems and personal liability.

Fire a gun at concrete, even at shallow angle, and guess what happens.
Ricochet. Flat trajectory ricochet...that won't stop until the round hit something semisolid to hold it or it penetrates enough material to lose all of it's energy and momentum.

Those kevlar safe pads requires coin and are not cheap.
My first method is free and requires nothing but restrant and five seconds of ones time.

- Janq

[Blackeagle]

My first method is free and requires nothing but restrant and five seconds of ones time.

The need for a safe direction goes well beyond press checks. You should be pointing a gun in a safe direction whenever you perform any administrative gunhandling outside of the holster. Even with your method, you ought to be pointing the pistol in a safe direction when unloading and reloading it.

[Janq]

Correct and agreed.
I believe I'd stated that to start in my first post.

- Janq

[bzdog]

Personally, I subscribe to the "don't fiddle with it" approach. My firearm is always in its holster attached to my belt, only off my person when I sleep.

About once a week I perform the unload / reload procedure Janq describes with the added step of blowing it out with the compressor while unloaded. I do this to keep the dust bunnies down, not specifically as a "check", but it has that side effect.

I think constant "checks" are more likely to cause issue than help.

As for the firearm being out of my direct control? Well, if someone slipped past the 200 lbs of dogs while we sleep and unload my firearm, well, I guess I'm hosed. At least till the next week.

And, if my wife wants to do me in, well, I'm hosed, so why worry about it. :-)

And the dogs, besides not having opposable thumbs, know where their meal ticket comes from. :-)

YMMV.

-john

[matdicdad]

My weapon is always holstered. Maybe every two weeks or so I will unload and reload then reholster my weapon. My accessable, loaded firearms are holstered 99.9% of the time. In my humble opinion as long as I am holstered I am safe. When my firearm is not holstered it is always treated as if it is loaded. For me that works the best.