Malfunction Clearing and Immediate Action Drills
This domain tests whether you can diagnose a stoppage under time pressure and apply the correct drill, and whether you know when to stop shooting rather than clear.
The main stoppages
- Failure to fire: trigger pressed, no shot. Often a misfired primer or a magazine not fully seated.
- Failure to eject (stovepipe): spent case caught in the ejection port.
- Failure to feed: round not driven into the chamber, often from a weak grip or a dirty weapon.
- Double feed: two rounds competing for the chamber; the slide will not move forward. This needs a full reload drill, not a tap-rack.
- Failure to extract: case left in the chamber, typically combined with a double feed.
- Squib: a shot that sounds and recoils abnormally, with the bullet stuck in the barrel. Stop immediately.
Worked example
A guard fires twice; the third press gives a dead trigger and no sound. Immediate action: strike the base of the magazine to seat it, aggressively rack the slide to eject the faulty round and chamber a fresh one, then re-assess and fire if the threat persists. If that produces another dead trigger, the weapon is out of the fight: transition to a backup or withdraw. The reasoning is that a second immediate action costs seconds you may not have - the drill is one attempt, then a decision.
Traps that cost marks
- Looking at the weapon during the drill instead of keeping eyes on the threat.
- Tapping the magazine gently, or racking the slide slowly while riding it forward.
- Performing a tap-rack on a double feed, which jams it harder.
- Firing again after a squib.