{"id":2870,"date":"2025-01-03T07:55:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T07:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=2870"},"modified":"2025-01-03T07:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T07:55:48","slug":"massad-ayoob-one-handed-reload-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=2870","title":{"rendered":"Massad Ayoob: One-Handed Reload Tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Massad Ayoob<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0Massad Ayoob has been teaching one-hand only reloads in emergencies to police since the early 1970s and to law-abiding armed citizens in advanced courses since the early 1980s. This article is intended to be purely informational. These methods are best practiced with unloaded pistols and dummy ammunition. It is recommended that they not be done with live ammunition, and with close supervision by experienced, qualified instructors.<\/em><\/p>\n

P<\/span>icture a worst-case scenario: Someone is trying to murder you or your loved ones. You\u2019ve been able to return fire with your autopistol, but the problem is still immediately ongoing \u2026\u00a0and you run out of ammo and have to reload to continue your desperate fight for survival \u2026\u00a0and, injured, you have only one hand to fight with!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Having taught this sort of thing for more than 40 years and learning all I could from multiple top instructors, here\u2019s the best I have to offer. I think it can best be done in step-by-step pictography. We\u2019ll address right-hand and left-hand methods as opposed to \u201cdominant and non-dominant hand\u201d simply because most autoloading pistols were designed for the right-handed majority of users.<\/p>\n

Reloading with One Hand Only, Right Hand<\/h2>\n
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If possible, take cover. Use your thumb to eject the spare magazine as demonstrated by the author here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Leave the slide locked back and insert the pistol into that handy gun-holder, your holster, so you can use your hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Grab your spare mag and\u00a0begin\u00a0<\/em>to insert it as shown. Don\u2019t do it too hard. Your holster wasn\u2019t designed to hold a pistol at slide-lock and you don\u2019t want to knock your gun out of the front of the holster. Consider expert Bill Rogers\u2019s advice to keep a spare magazine accessible to both hands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Complete the magazine insertion as shown. Once you know the magazine is in the mag well, do a \u201cgot your nose\u201d like playing with a little kid, with your thumb between middle finger and index finger. The index and middle fingers act as pincers stabilizing the pistol grip while your thumb pushes the magazine the rest of the way in, until you feel it lock into place.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
With the magazine now in place, draw the pistol and bring it out in front of you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Use your thumb to press the slide release lever downward to chamber a round. Pointing the tip of your thumb straight downward will give you more leverage to do this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Alternatively, you can catch the rear sight on your belt or holster and with the muzzle approximately 45 degrees away from you. Push downward and then pull the gun out away from belt or holster. This is also the plan if your slide has closed on an empty chamber. You now have a round chambered.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Reloading with One Hand Only, Left Hand<\/h2>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
The magazine release button is usually on the left side of the pistol frame. Running the gun southpaw, the easiest and fastest release is using the trigger finger to drop the empty magazine, as shown here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
If you are left-handed, simply insert pistol at slide-lock into the scabbard as you would normally holster. If right-handed, insert into holster cross-draw as shown. WARNING: This is unlikely to work if your pistol has a weapon light attached. For that, inserting into a side pocket may be the best fallback.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Grab a spare magazine and insert it as shown. Don\u2019t try to slam it all the way in: the holster was not designed to hold a pistol backwards and the gun could pivot out. Just get the magazine started.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Perform what author calls \u201cthe crush.\u201d As shown, the thumb of the reloading hand goes laterally across the back of the grip frame to stabilize the pistol in the holster, while the palm crushes the floorplate of the magazine all the way into the pistol until you can feel it positively seat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Once the magazine is seated, grasp the pistol in a firing hold for a cross-draw.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
As you bring the gun to bear on the threat, bring your left index finger to the slide stop\/slide release lever.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Press the slide stop lever downward to chamber a round. The more your fingertip can be pointed straight down, the more leverage you\u2019ll have.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Alternatively, you can catch the rear sight against your belt and, with the muzzle pointed away from you, push down and then let go to release the slide and chamber a round.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
If your pistol has a red dot sight, it is an ideal \u201ccatch point\u201d to use against your belt to operate the slide and chamber a round. You are now ready to re-enter the \u201cfight for your life.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additional Considerations<\/h2>\n

If you have a second pistol accessible to the hand that\u2019s still working, grabbing it and deploying it will probably be faster than struggling with the one-hand reload.<\/p>\n

You may be carrying in a shoulder holster or something that precludes using a belt holster to hold the gun while you are reloading. The same will be true if you had to draw a gun that was just stuffed in the waistband, or grabbed from a drawer or gun safe in an emergency.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve run across actual cases where wounded officers were able to successfully reload one-handed and win the fight when they couldn\u2019t, or didn\u2019t think to, use their holster to stabilize the gun. One cop put his empty pistol on the hood of his patrol car, butt upward, and successfully reloaded, re-entered the fight, and won. Another did the same putting to top of his locked-open slide on the pavement in front of him where he had fallen, and prevailed.<\/p>\n

\"Reloading\n<\/picture>
Here the author demonstrates a between the knees reload. While this method has definite drawbacks, modifications of it worked well under fire during the Battle of Mogadishu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some have taught putting the gun between the knees. This, of course, destroys mobility and also allows the risk of the magazine\u2019s insertion pushing the gun in such a way that the slide release lever is activated and closes the gun on clothing, creating a hellacious jam.<\/p>\n

However, at one school, Bill Rogers\u2019, the between the knees one-hand reload is taught with the historical element of being seated. Bill points out that in the Battle of Mogadishu when American fighting men were racing through city streets in vehicles under heavy fire, many wounded soldiers were able to return fire while seated by placing their 9mm service pistols between their thighs. The top of the slide being supported by the vehicle seat made this method quite viable. Rogers teaches his students to perform this technique effectively in his Advanced course.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Being down to an empty gun and a wounded arm does not mean you will lose the gunfight. With the proper mindset and training, you can overcome this situation and survive. Just be prepared.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the \u201cGo To Forum Thread\u201d link below to jump in!<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Massad Ayoob Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0Massad Ayoob has been teaching one-hand only reloads in emergencies to police since the early 1970s and to law-abiding armed citizens in advanced courses since the early 1980s. This article is intended to be purely informational. These methods are best practiced with unloaded pistols and dummy ammunition. It is recommended that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}