Les Jones

Guns > Gun Clearing Procedures

A reminder of why you should stick your finger into the breech to do a tactile check when clearing an autoloader:

"After a day at the range, I took my G32 out of its holster in order to unload it, so it could be cleaned. My backup pistol, of course, remained i n its holster and fully loaded.

Holding the G32 in my master grip, I turned the gun ejection port down and pulled the magazine out of the gun. I then racked the slide backwards and let it go, then locked it to the rear.

A single, live round dropped out from the magazine well. I guessed it was the one from the chamber. I was wrong! Adhering to procedure, I then checked the magazine well, bolt face, and chamber with my little finger. It was the n that I felt another live round, this one still in the chamber!

Apparently as I pulled the magazine out, the top round came loose and fell out into the magazine well. As I subsequently racked the slide back, the extractor evidently failed to pull out the round that was actually chambere d. Fortunately, there is sufficient redundancy built into our unloading proced ure, including tactile verification, that, even with this unrepresentative sequence of events, I still didn't endure the embarrassment of firing a round into my Safe Direction Bag while inside my condo!