#fridayfundamentals

Empty Chamber Carry is strongly opposed by the US private sector training community and the ‘cognoscenti’ of the firearms community. However, carrying with the chamber empty is still a very common practice by large swathes of gun owners. Regardless of opposition to the concept, it is what it is. Some discussion beyond “Don’t Do It” is in order.

This is the first in a series of Fridayfundamentals posts about carrying with an empty chamber. The series is intended neither to advocate nor oppose empty chamber carry but rather to discuss aspects of it not typically examined. A sidenote is that many aspects of the discussion also apply to hammer down carry (Condition Two) with 1911 pistols but that is for another time.

First consider the advocates of carrying with an empty chamber.

• Fairbairn/Sykes in Shooting To Live.
• Israeli military/POlice, although it’s reported that this has relaxed in the past decade.
• Many foreign militaries and POlice forces.
• The US Army until the publication of the May 2017 version of TC 3-23.35   Pistol.

As one commentator noted when the May 2017 TC was published:

Since many people do carry with an empty chamber, let’s work with what we’ve got from the standpoint of instruction.

The single biggest problem with the method is the technique that new gunowners usually employ to load the chamber. The most common technique seen is to hold the pistol in the shooter’s workspace and pull the slide inward toward the body and out of the workspace. Most often the slide is held during the entire operation, retarding the strength of the recoil spring.

This is exactly opposite of what needs to occur. Pulling the slide inward significantly increases the possibility of not fully loading the chamber. This could be a disaster. At least one surveillance video shows an armed robber whose pistol didn’t load completely, which led to his demise.

Here’s a graphic from TC 3-23.35 that illustrates the workspace and its relationship to pistol operation.

Both Shooting To Live and the classic Israeli technique advocate holding the pistol in the workspace and then pushing the pistol forward to the outer limit of the workspace. The slide is held in place while the pistol is pushed outward.

Here’s a series of updated sketches from Chapter 3 of the edited and annotated edition of Shooting To Live that I will be publishing this year. A number of the original Shooting To Live sketches had to be redone due to finger in the trigger guard violations.

Similarly, the classical Israeli technique is to hold the pistol parallel to the ground in the workspace. The slide is held stationary and the pistol is pushed forward toward the enemy and fired.

Note that both Shooting To Live and classic Israeli use the slingshot method of grasping the slide rather than hand over the top of the slide.

The discussions of Empty Chamber Carry rarely include any commentary about what to do after the pistol is loaded, regardless of whether it is fired or not. One of the few comments ever seen was “If I don’t have to shoot, I’ll immediately download the chamber when I get back to my car.” Downloading or unloading afterward is an important enough topic for Shooting To Live to include it as part of the initial 30 round Recruit Training Program. Chapter IV states:

“In all practices at surprise targets, opportunity must be found for the performance of two very essential operations. In order of importance, these are:—

1. Making safe after firing only a portion of the contents of the magazine.

2. Inserting a second magazine after totally expending the contents of the first and continuing to fire without delay.

In the first instance, after firing one or two shots from a fully charged magazine, the instructor should give the order to cease fire. The shooter should then come to the ‘ready,’ remove the magazine, eject the live round from the breech, work the slide back and forth several times and finally pull the trigger, all as described [in] (Figs. 9 and 10).”

Note the order of importance Shooting To Live placed on unloading and reloading. Making the pistol safe after an incident was considered of greater importance than reloading during an incident. It’s probable to assume this priority came from their observation of hundreds of gunfights. Concerns and technique for After Contact actions will be covered in the next post.