Simple and Effective Ways to Clear a Pistol Malfunction

Through the fogged plastic mask, I saw the assailant charging with a knife held overhead. As I backpedaled to create distance, I raised my pistol and pressed the trigger. This action produced only a click. Without missing a beat, I tapped the bottom of the magazine, racked the slide, and pressed the trigger again…and again. This time, my rounds found their mark, painting the assailant’s upper chest blue.

Although this was only a scenario at the Simunition instructor course I was attending, it proved that my prior training was on point. I didn’t stare at my pistol to determine if the problem was due to a failure to feed, a failure to fire, a failure to extract or a failure to eject. I didn’t care because contrary to what’s commonly taught, none of that matters.

I teach only two pistol malfunction clearance techniques: immediate action and remedial action. If the former doesn’t solve the problem, transition to the latter. If neither works, your gun is probably broken, and it’s time to see how good of a hammer it makes—or start running.

Immediate action is often referred to by its more descriptive name; tap, rack, assess. This simple procedure will remedy all but one type of malfunction.

First Step

As the name implies, the first step in the process is to tap the bottom of the magazine to ensure it’s fully seated. The magazine may stay contained in the magazine well even when not fully seated, causing you to think everything is okay until you press the trigger.

Then two things can happen. If your pistol has a magazine disconnect, nothing will happen. Otherwise, the chambered round will fire but subsequent rounds will not. The magazine may drop from the gun after the first round is fired.

If the magazine isn’t fully seated, no amount of racking the slide will fix the problem. When you hear a click instead of a bang, tap the bottom of the magazine with the heel of your hand. I find this easier when I tilt the magazine well toward my non-shooting hand. And despite the term “tap,” feel free to slam that magazine into the gun. Just don’t waste valuable time doing this more than once.

After tapping the magazine, it’s time to rack the slide. This should extract and eject an unfired round or a spent casing, clearing a path for the live round atop the magazine to feed into the chamber.

Racking The Slide

There are two schools of thought when it comes to racking the slide. One commonly taught method has you reach over the top and grasp the slide. While this is a viable option, it relies on pinching the slide between your fingertips and the heel of your hand. When you grip this way, your thumb is uninvolved.

I prefer to rotate the pistol so that the slide faces my non-shooting hand. This makes it easier to grip with the thumb pointed forward. Including your thumb makes for a stronger, more coordinated grip with which to rack the slide. In either case, pull the slide fully rearward before releasing it.

The final step in the process involves assessing the situation as you reacquire a two-handed shooting grip and prepare to fire. Note the word “prepare.” Firing must not be automatic. Each press of the trigger must be in response to an imminent deadly threat.

To assess, you need to be looking at your adversary—not at your pistol. As such, the malfunction clearance itself must become second nature.

Double-Feed Dilemma

I mentioned there’s one type of pistol malfunction that immediate action won’t fix, and that’s the double feed. Essentially, you have two rounds trying to enter the chamber at the same time. If immediate action fails, go straight to remedial action.

The fastest way to perform remedial action is to first press the magazine release and strip the magazine from the pistol. However, this can be surprisingly difficult depending on the strength of the magazine spring and whether the magazine has a lip or whether the pistol’s grip has a cutout to enable you to achieve a solid grasp of the magazine.

If you can’t strip the magazine from the pistol, you’ll need to first lock the slide to the rear by applying upward pressure on the slide stop with your thumb while racking the slide rearward. With the magazine spring tension lessened, you should be able to remove the magazine normally.

Once the magazine is removed, cycle the slide three times—or until you see something eject from the chamber. Why three times? Because once or twice may not be enough, and if three cycles doesn’t clear the chamber, additional cycles probably won’t either.

Steady Grip

Keeping hold of the slide between cycling is more efficient than releasing it each time. Just be sure not to stifle the rearward or forward movement of the slide. With the pistol cleared, you have another decision to make.

You could either lock the slide to the rear, insert a magazine and send the slide forward to chamber a round, or you could insert a magazine with the slide forward and cycle the slide to chamber a round. If you have a spare magazine, use it instead of the magazine you stripped from the pistol, which may have caused the malfunction in the first place.

To attain proficiency and determine what works best with your pistol, train with inert dummy rounds in an environment that’s free of live ammunition and where the muzzle is always pointed in a safe direction.

Economy of motion is the goal. When you rack the slide, don’t allow your hand to separate too far from the gun because doing so just means it has to travel that much farther to reestablish your grip.

Keep It Close

Keep your gun at chest level or higher, with your head up. Clear the malfunction with the gun close to your body, where you’re more dexterous.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, head to the range and have a friend discreetly load some dummy rounds into your live-fire magazines. Work through the malfunctions as they occur, using the immediate action clearing procedure. Of course, you can stage double feeds with dummy rounds as well.

Just remember, if you hear a click when you’re expecting a bang, immediate action. If that doesn’t work, remedial action. It really is that simple.

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