TRAINING WITH KL STRATEGIC (10): Safe loading activities with the self-loading rifle

I am always amazed at the things you have to see when you move around shooting ranges and facilities and pay attention to what is offered. Especially when dealing with self-loading rifles, there are often images that you would rather not have seen live. When talking to those involved, one realizes that misunderstood safety and frequently lacking training and understanding of processes lead to simple things like loading activities being passed on incorrectly by unknowing people for many years, resulting in a potential danger.

Granted, such behavior is not the norm, but it represents the result of a process that seems to be very widespread.

Self-loading rifles do not have a good reputation, due to public panic and false accusations by non-experts. However, shooters themselves and their regulatory institutions contribute greatly to this image, by portraying these weapons as particularly dangerous to handle and treating them as if they were highly explosive, raw eggs. For this reason, I would like to take a closer look at loading activities on self-loading rifles.

Safety Check

The first safety rule (no matter how sharp) states that a weapon should always be considered loaded. I want to go one step further and say that a weapon should be considered loaded until you have verified its loading status. Even though I have not mentioned safety checks in the previous articles on loading activities, it should be clear that a safety check should always be the first action when picking up a weapon, wherever it may come from.

This is done in the following steps:

• Pick up the weapon, keep the muzzle in a safe direction
• Unload the weapon (remove the magazine, open the breech)
• Look into the chamber(s) - check that they are free of ammunition

Only after verifying the loading status in this way can you assume that you are holding a safely unloaded weapon. The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that a weapon is probably already unloaded.

Loading

As mentioned several times in this series, it is recommended to perform all manipulations on weapons in the working area (see Part 6 of the series). This results in a convergence of short distances, easy control, maximum workspace, and economically efficient workflow - in short, no problem and quick work.

To load the self-loading rifle, it is brought into the work area by holding the shoulder stock with the shooting arm against the body and lifting the muzzle slightly. This ensures that the weapon is automatically slightly turned and safely controlled while the process is being carried out. Self-loading rifles generally have a replaceable magazine, which is inserted into the magazine well of the housing. Some older models have an internal magazine, which is filled via a loading strip. These models follow the same procedures, except that in this case, the weapon is rotated with the ejection port towards the shooter, the loading strip is attached, and the rounds are pressed into the weapon instead of the magazine being snapped in. Therefore, I will only focus on those self-loading rifles with an external magazine.

Here, the magazine is grasped with the working hand and inserted into the magazine well of the housing with one movement.

At the same time, the firm seating of the magazine in the housing is checked. Subsequently, the breech of the secured weapon is retracted, feeding a cartridge from the magazine into the chamber. Two things should be considered here:

• The breech is brought to the rearmost position and then quickly released forward. The pressure of the closing spring must advance the breech, develop sufficient pressure to securely feed from the magazine, and securely lock the breech in the chamber. This ensures the proper functioning of the weapon. If the breech is brought forward (possible with silent fully loaded) it often has to be manually fully locked by hand. If the closing spring is already weakened, broken, the chamber is dirty, the ammunition is corroded, this may lead to malfunctions that cannot be detected in advance.
• The trigger finger does not touch the trigger but lies extended against the housing!

The weapon is now fully loaded and ready to fire. To control the actual ammunition supply, there are two methods that work both during the day and at night and in low light conditions.

1. Method

Control the load by pulling back the breech (brass check). In this method, the breech is manually retracted far enough to see the cartridge case in the ejection opening, but the round is not yet extended enough to protrude from the chamber. This way, you can visually or tactually (limited vision) check if a round has been fed. Then the breech is quickly released forward again and checked to ensure it is properly locked.

2. Method

Load control via the position of the cartridges in the magazine. The feed from magazines in self-loading rifles is usually double-row. This means that the cartridges are offset between the right and left sides of the magazine on the feeder. If you know where the top round was located when the magazine was inserted, you can remove the magazine after loading the rounds and check if the top round is now on the opposite side of the magazine.

If this is the case, it means that the previous round from the magazine has been fed into the weapon. This can be visually or tactually checked.

When reinserting the magazine, make sure to check the firm seat again to avoid malfunctions.

Magazine Change

As with a pistol, a distinction is made here between a magazine change (tactical reload) and a reload (speed reload/slidelock reload). The magazine change is always carried out when the weapon has not been completely emptied and there is enough time to change to a full magazine.

The weapon is then secured and brought into the working area. At the same time, the working hand releases the weapon and grasps a slow magazine (see Part 11 Equipment).

There are several ways to perform the change. The method depends mainly on the type of magazine release.

Weapons with a magazine catch behind the magazine allow for the following procedures:

• Elevated magazine change

In this method, the working hand grips the new magazine as deep and controlled as possible. The magazine is then placed as high as possible against the magazine already in the weapon, so that both can be grasped and the magazine catch can be operated with the thumb.

The old magazine is removed and the new magazine is inserted. Due to the elevated position, this can be done without having to thread the magazine between the old and new magazines.

• Modified L-grip

In the modified L-grip, the new magazine is gripped by the working hand in such a way that the magazine base is held in the turned hand palm. It is important to pay attention to the correct orientation of the magazine in the magazine pocket.

The new magazine is placed as high as possible at a 90° angle against the magazine in the weapon, so that the magazine catch can be operated with the thumb of the working hand.

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