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#Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
Click no bang
DIR By: allmanav
Date: January 30, 2020, 8:35 pm
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How can this be? You've done everything right. You're shooting
factory loaded ammunition. Your firearm is squeaky clean and
minty fresh.
Get over it. In fact, accept it. As with any mechanical device,
things can go wrong with your pistol, and they will. Your
acceptance of this will allow you to stay calm and fix the issue
to your best ability. Your job is to know which problems you can
solve-and how.
That click you just heard is one of the most common symptoms of
several issues. Some are operator induced, and some might not
be-but in all cases, they're nothing to panic over. Even better,
most of them can be fixed right there, if you do your part.
Let's take a quick look at the most likely causes of this
"CLICK-not-bang," which is essentially a failure to fire:
Empty chamber
Bad ammo
Broken firing pin or other mechanical failure
In my experience, 1 and 2 cause a majority of these dreaded
clicks; broken firing pins or other parts are rare (they also
require mechanical repair, and are not addressed further here).
How do we end up with an empty chamber: Did you forget to load
your chamber? If you are sure you loaded your chamber, did you
check it? Is your magazine seated improperly? If the magazine is
not inserted and locked fully into place, you won't be able to
load a cartridge into the chamber.
What about "bad ammo"? In this case, "bad" means that for
whatever reason, the cartridge does not fire. This in turn can
result from a wide range of manufacturing defects-whether the
ammo is made in the factory or at home-and can include anything
from backward primers to no powder in the case. It's nothing to
worry about; it's rare, but it happens. (Note: In this article
we are not addressing squib loads.)
So how do we fix these? In each case, our objective is to get
whatever is in the chamber and not working for us (thin air, bad
ammo) out, and to feed a new cartridge into said chamber.
Since a poorly seated magazine might have caused the empty
chamber in the first place, before we consider doing anything
else, we'll make sure the magazine is properly inserted and
secured in the pistol's magazine well.
That will take a "tap" (or, more precisely, a "whack") with the
non-firing ("support side") palm against the bottom of the base
plate of the magazine. Do it just once, but do it with intention
and force so it only takes once.
Next, take the same palm, pivot on the base plate of your
magazine with fingers coming toward your body, and slide your
hand to the top and rear of the slide, right where the rear
sight is. (The pivoting motion prevents your hand from traveling
in front of your muzzle as you move it to the top and rear of
the slide.) Grasp the slide firmly in your support hand palm,
thumb in your direction, four fingers on the side of the slide
away from your body.
Pushing sharply with your firing hand while simultaneously
pulling back with your support hand, run the slide all the way
to the rear. While you're working that slide, roll your pistol
to the right-the side the port opening faces-to help whatever is
in the chamber drop out. (The "racking" of the slide happens at
the same time as the "roll.")
As your slide comes to the end of its travel, and as soon as you
feel the resistance at the end of the slide's movement, release
the slide with such abandon that your support hand ends up on
your firing-side shoulder.
For left-handers, the process is the same-just make sure that
your support hand (right hand) does not block the port in any
way as you rack-and-roll, and thus allows whatever is in the
chamber to eject out.
In training for real-life encounters (whether defensive or
hunting), we engage the "Tap, Rack andRoll" as quickly as we
can. At the range, you can practice this as often as you like,
either using a purposefully unloaded chamber with loaded
magazine, or dummy rounds.
Happily, the "Tap, Rack and Roll" also works to resolve some
other instances when the firearm doesn't quite work. The most
common are failures of the firearm to "go into battery"-that is,
the slide does not fall fully forward, and thus the action
remains partially open ("out of battery"). This results in a
springy trigger that neither "clicks," nor is completely
unmovable and locked (as when the safety is engaged).
Frequent causes of an out-of-battery pistol are:
A failure to eject (often with an empty case poking out the
top or side of the port, looking like a "stove pipe" -which is
why it's called a stovepipe).
A failure to properly feed the new cartridge into the
chamber. While dirty chambers and defective cartridges might be
the culprits, operator error is also common. Not releasing the
slide and allowing it to move forward with all its spring
tension often causes failures to feed. Another possible cause,
known embarrassingly as "limp wristing," occurs when the shooter
doesn't grip the pistol firmly, and thus deprives the slide of
enough resistance to provide the force to return to its firing
position.
Once again, the remedy for the out-of-battery pistol is quick:
Your immediate response should be to "Tap, Rack and Roll" the
pistol. With practice, you'll learn to "Tap, Rack and Roll"
immediately upon feeling that "funny trigger" or that unexpected
"click," and you'll be back on target within a second or two.
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