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Press Checks

3K views 29 replies 19 participants last post by  TSiWRX 
#1 ·
:confused:If Americans do Press Checks to ensure their firearm is loaded I wonder, "Do Israelis do Press Checks to ensure their guns are empty?"
 
#11 ·
Perhaps it may be your definition of excessive, but as a police officer, I press-checked (or chamber checked as we called it) every day or night before hitting the streets, or left the range. I still check my chamber every time I take my pistol(s) out of the safe, even though I'm 99.9% sure no one else has had access. I do so less often with my Springfield XD, which has a loaded chamber indicator and cocked striker indicator, but I still visually and manually verify their condition.

It's like a pilot who performs a detailed pre-flight inspection in order to know the condition of his craft.
 
#10 ·
It would be a terrible thing to assume one's firearm is loaded, only to learn in a second of need that it is not. I have a very easy way of knowing my own firearms are either loaded, or unloaded. If a magazine goes into the magwell, a round gets chambered and the mag dropped and topped, then reinserted. Conversely, if the gun is being unloaded, the magazine is dropped, the chamber cleared, and visually inspected.
 
#9 ·
Yes, there is a difference between always treating your firearms as though it were loaded and confirming that it is. Sometimes people clean their firearms, etc, and forget to put one back into the chamber or, in the case of our family, there are multiple carriers in the home who may work with a firearm and so the true condition of the firearm needs to be confirmed when it is taken back into possession by another party, etc.

It's just SOP here that before the firearm goes out the door the condition of both the magazine and the chamber are confirmed. I.E... a press check.

As it pertains to this thread and as others have said, a press check is not necessarily to make sure there is one in the chamber but just to check the status of the chamber in general. For those who carry C3 this could be to confirm that it is still C3.
 
#13 ·
I have gotten into the habit of doing a press check at the range every time I chamber a round from a newly inserted mag.
Sure,at the range it doesn't really matter if the chamber is empty but now I am used to doing it after every reload.
 
#14 ·
Once I got good at failure drills (fail to fire not the other kind) I stopped trying to check the chamber. I had good instruction where I saw people on the line checking to see if they had actually chambered a round instead of reacting and firing. - This was without the stress of someone shooting back.
I feel that muscle memory is too powerful a thing to go and train it wrong. - That's just me, not saying it'll work for you.
 
#19 ·
During any self defense situation,I would not press check.
However,if you did it in the A.M. THAT day before holstering you would know that the pistol you draw is indeed loaded.
I do it at the range just to get used to doing it.
 
#25 ·
This thread reminded me of something that happened at my Armed Guard license range requal back in August. I loaded up for the first stage of fire and did a chamber check. The instructor came over and told me to never do that because I could set up a malfunction and to just use the loaded chamber indicator (I was using a borrowed XD 9mm.) Is this true?
 
#28 ·
The only time I press check my 1911 is immediately after I have cleaned it and then reloaded it. My Kimber stays in the holster on my side or in the night stand beside the bed, "cocked and locked". The only other times it is out of my "possession" is when I must lock it up in my truck in a gun safe because I am going someplace, such as the post office, where I can not carry. No one else handles or carries it. So, unless someone breaks into my house or truck, finds the gun, removes the magazine, extracts the chambered round, then reinserts the magazine, re-engages the safety, and puts it back where it was, all without leaving any signs that they broke into my house or truck--all of which is highly unlikely--I "KNOW" that a round is chambered and see no need for constantly "press checking" it everytime I pick it up!!!!:yup:
 
#30 ·
^ Exactly.

And that's why most instructors will say to be sure to "sling" the slide home - and, even better, give her a love-tap on the rear, to insure that the slide has seated fully. :smile:

Like many here have said, this is an "administrative level" task, to be done when you have, literally, all the time in the world, to insure, by whatever means necessary and prudent, that when you do pull that gun under-stress, in a dire situation, that the first trigger press results in a bang, instead of a "oh no!"
 
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