[oregonshooter]

After reading and watching Flexmoney's great video instruction at TPI, I got to wondering how to smooth out my reloads.

Tonight I started to practice some at home and wondered what would happen if I rocked my mags in from the front instead of the rear like I always have?

I made a quick video (read: crappy lighting) of 4 reloads each using both methods to compare and was shocked at how much smoother the front rock reloads went.

Is there any reason why this would not be a good way to practice them? I mean, why does everyone seem to rock from the back of the mag?

I'm not hitting the bullets on the front of the mag well, and at first glance I can't see why I shouldn't train this way, but I'm sure I'm missing something. That's why I'm asking here.

The video is of (4) rock from back reloads, then (4) rock from front.

These were done after previously trying each about 6 times before rolling tape. Tonight is the first time I have done the front rock reload, and it looks and felt better than what I'm use to.

I'm interested in what you guys think? Viable?

reloads_fwd-rev_rock.mov - 394KB

reloads_fwd-rev_rock.avi - 3.5MB

 

[P95Carry]

Well OS - I must say the difference is easily seen for me which does suggest rock from front has some benefit, for you.

To be honest - ''old stick-in-mud'' that I am, had not even thought to investigate this - now I think will have to.

Only thing I notice on initial trial - just one or two as I sit here - my forefinger indexing on front of magwell seems to naturally aid the back rock, the mag rear abutting the rear as I do so - then the ''shove''.

The front rock as yet seems less easy to index but heck - gotta give this some more attempts - I did find I was tending to have mag less well aligned. It will always be what works but wonder too about breaking a lifetime's habit - is it safe to do? - well for me at this late stage! :wink:

Good vid - thx for that.

 

[oregonshooter]

Something I found with front rock was I actually index with my fingernail on the front of the magwell. Now if I could just get teh video so people could see it!! You are on a Mac also right?

 

[P95Carry]

Now if I could just get teh video so people could see it!! You are on a Mac also right?

No actually PC but - I have VLC media player with latest Quicktime codec.

I haven't tried but - could be one of my software app's (digital media converter) could do a conversion to WMV.

I'll try if you like and if it works, email you the other version.

I'll see what happens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dang - no dice. While VLC has the latest codec, seems the converter cannot see it and tho it looked for what it needed on Quicktime site, no good!

Most frustrating!

 

[oregonshooter]

I'm Mac only, no PC.

I found a converter program "Flip4Mac" but it's like $50.00 for teh educational version and I ain't got the dough right now.

Will buy it latter though. Got a bunch of vids I want to do when the weather is nicer.

 

[P95Carry]

If you can work those MOV's to WMV or MPEG it would certainly expand their usefulness.

If camera had a save option as AVI then that would convert well but - probably be crazy monster files!

 

[QKShooter]

Are you using a flared mag well like the Smith & Alexander?
I can't tell looking at the VID since (for some reason) my View Full Screen option is not working on your video.
I have always extensively practiced rocking the mag in from the back w/ my C. Commander but, with the S&A flared well but, no matter what exact location I hit the funnel...the mag will go in...so exactly hitting rear to rock in seems far less critical these days.
I admit that I've gotten slightly spoiled by the wide open mag well & (for me) it really makes things easier and much faster.

 

[oregonshooter]

P95,
I added AVI to the orig post, it's 10times larger!!!

QK,
No, it's a stock G17

 

[QKShooter]

I'll need to look at your VID again on my laptop.
As P95Carry will confirm SOMETHING has been wrong with the way this particular monitor of mine displays PICS, COLORS IN GENERAL, and VIDS ~ For quite some time it has been useless.
Not your fault (for sure) but, I am seeing that VID as being so dark that I cannot even tell what firearm you're using.
You look like a ghostly figure (doing night time reloads) in a dark room to me right now. :aargh4:
I KNOW that others are seeing it differently.
Looks like I'll hafta fork out a few more dollars for a new monitor.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Tangle]

oregonshooter,

Just some thoughts. The forward rock/tilt works great with the G17 perhaps because it's got the cut-out at the bottom of the front strap. The G-19 doesn't have that cut-out and the forward rock may not work as well. I don't know of any other gun that has that cut-out and I'm wondering if one gets into that habit and switches guns if the forward rock is still going to work.

However, I have noticed that the rearward rock/tilt works great on a 1911 and Sig, but a bit to much rearward tilt with a Glock can cause the mag to bind as it goes in or not go in at all.

I believe the purpose of the rearward tilt was to get mag contact with the gun to index the mag and to be sure the top bullet didn't get dinged going in.

 

[oregonshooter]

Good thoughts Tangle! I forgot about the cutout affecting spacing.

I think maybe what is really happening is, I'm "looking" the mag into the well better because it's a new way of doing it. For the "universal" part of it, I am gonna try the rear rock some more with better "looking" the mags in.

The rear rock I pretty much do by feel, but because of the binding issues of the Glock, it does not work as smooth as with the 1911, etc.

 

[rocky]

for me the backward rock works best. 1911 or HK USP. Might be diffrent if I had diffrent guns, but the finger indexing the mag well works best for me. (but like P95 said, years of practice).

 

[oregonshooter]

Yeah, the years of practice is getting me under "stress" I'm defaulting back unless I can think of it. I'm still indexing the forefinger on the tip of the bullet, but getting the finger out of the way as it goes in the well.

I think i'm gonna just work on smoothing out my old style. I haven't competed in a year, and it shows badly.

 

[CombatEffective]

The videos won't play for me.

 

[oregonshooter]

Not even the AVI? Your not missing much anyway. It's dark. I'll refrain from more videos untill I can make them WMV. sorry

 

[P95Carry]

Lee - the MOV file needs the very latest Quicktime it seems.

You can tho (do a search) pick up latest VLC media Player which is a freebie - v8.2 IIRC. If you try and run in that with no luck - it should ''go look'' for latest codec - mine did. I now keep MOV's associated with VLC and they play fine.

 

[oregonshooter]

OK, I bought the export program and both links are now going to a WMV file.

Could someone test it for me? Ironically it's in the ONLY windows format that VLC (Mac) can't watch. I'm gonna see if I can change that, but will post both MOV/WMV from now on unless I figure it out.

The WMV file is only 400KB or so.

Thanks!

PS. THe lighting is still crap.

 

[CombatEffective]

They worked that time. Thanks.

 

[oregonshooter]

Cool, thanks for the feedback.