You just contradicted yourself, are you for real, really are you?
You take a few weekend Rambo courses, probably sit at home and read and read and read because no one wants to play with you and then you come on here and preach tactics and tactical solutions you have no real world experience with. Man if you knew half the qualifications of some of the people in this thread you are challenging, you would not yap anymore.....Wait yes you would, you have to have the last word, so have at it.
Like I said Red Dawn.
Did you read the next sentence in my post?? The magazine cannot induce a stoppage on a pistol with an in battery slide. The first round, the one in the chamber is unaffected by the loaded magazine. That first round could very well be the most important. An out of battery slide will cause the first round NOT to fire. The magazine plays no part in function of the pistol. The slide and fire control group are the only components that matter when depressing the trigger. The slide must be in battery and the fire control group must function, that's it. The magazine doesn't even need to be present(unless you have a poorly designed firearm with a disco). So lets try this again. With a round chambered, the most likely cause for a failure to fire(type one stoppage) of that first round will be what, the magazine or an out of battery slide??? Does f*cking with the magazine effect the slide? NO!! So I guess that leaves only one action that could contribute to a stoppage, that would be press checking.
As for the rest of your post. Again I ask, since when does being "qualified" automatically equate to knowing "the" way and being an "expert" on the subject? No offense to LEO's but they qualify to prove they're safe enough to drop rounds in public. They don't qualify as an SME on pistolcraft.
Who said anything about a soapbox. I'm discussing the thread topic and stimulating debate(atleast I thought so). You assumed I was pushing my agenda which I'm not. I'm simply challenging the beliefs of others who fail to see one method as more effective than another.
TDC just to be clear, I'm saying your idea definitely isn't the end all be all when it comes to knowing your gun is loaded or not. I don't often say there is only one valid "way" but when it comes to knowimg your gun is loaded, there really is only one way. Its like pregnancy, there is only one way that is 100% effective, don't f**k. Same with looking at your gun. Sure you could induce a stoppage if you don't put the slide back properly but same thing if your mag doesn't go back in right. mags not feeding right does induce stoppages including messing with mag safeties on some guns (Smiths, Berettas for instance).
As for knowing your mag isn't working, well the only way to know that, is when it stops working. You can inspect them all you want, but springs break, followers break, mag lips come off and mag spines break at the most inopportune moments. Sometimes while shooting, and sometimes during insertion. I've seen of those things happen, had them happen to me too. Hell baseplates come off during firing and loading, rounds shooting up through the slide when feed lips let go, you name it. I've seen guys put a stripper mag in, rack the slide take out the empty mag put in a fresh one and still get a "click" no bang when they draw. The live round being on the ground after not actually being fed or jumping up out of the slide during feeding due to loose lips or broken ones. I've seen pieces of dirt/brass/whatever hung up in the inspection holes on a pistol so it looked loaded and I've seen the same crap hold extractors out after a gun was cleared making it appear loaded.
The absolutely only way you are going to know if your gun is loaded is if you actually see the round in the chamber. It really is that simple.
I hear what you're saying and agree that observing brass in the chamber is about as sure as you can get. What I have issue with is deliberately cycling the action(be it slide or bolt) slightly to confirm that a round is indeed present. With the risk of an out of battery slide/bolt I don't see any advantage. Counting rounds in the magazine, using the LCI or just plain trusting your abilities and the design of the firearm are less failure prone than partially cycling the action.
If observing the brass is the only sure way then why not execute a press check during a stage/gunfight? You just admitted that it is "THE" way so anything less is well, less effective. Why would every(quality) school/instructor teach immediate action drills if simply press checking and observing the chamber is the only reliable method?
I have to agree with easy, if you've seen all the catastrophic failures you list above, you either shoot 24 hours a day, are well into your old age pension or hang out with seriously unlucky folks with unlucky(sh*t quality) firearms. I'm not saying such failures can't happen or don't happen, as they surely can and do. I'm saying that you can't plan for every conceivable failure. Most of the failures you mention can be attributed to the operator.
Inserting a stripper mag and still having a type one stoppage is attributed to the operator not observing the stripper mag to ensure the ONE round is now missing prior to discarding the magazine.
Base plates coming off is something you really can't remedy without running better mags or otherwise securing them in place. Most quality designs incorporate some form of locking plate to prevent such occurrences.
Feed lips that separate and/or break is plain bad luck, sh*t happens. Such a failure is not induced by inserting the magazine so it has no bearing on using a stripper mag or witness holes as a method of verifying a chambered round.
Ensuring your magazine is seated in the case of pistols with a disco is easy. Insert magazine, tug on base plate/bottom of magazine to ensure it is indeed locked in place. This should be done with every pistol on every admin load. In fact, with a rifle the IA for type one stoppage is TAP TUG RACK, for a pistol its simply TAP RACK, just saying.
TDC
good comment.
