I'm bored, what can I say? :D

And very few people, even some of the ones I've competed against for a while, know this. Since most pistol owners don't reload their gun except casually while plinking at the range, I decided to post a basic list of steps for doing it fast.

Realize the gun is empty. More new IDPA shooters flub this than anything else. If you shoot the gun a lot, you'll notice just because of the shift in it's balance with the slide locked back. Some gamers count rounds, I just try to figure out which target I'll be engaging when I run the gun dry. Trying to pull the trigger on a locked-open gun is a waste of time.
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Drop the magazine, WHILE reaching for your spare mag. Get on the mag release ASAP. It's not hard to be fast enough that you're waiting for the empty to clear, with the new mag hovering there, waiting. So get the magazine falling as quickly as you can. Hit the button as you pull the gun in. While doing this, reach with your weak hand for the mag on your belt.

The next two steps happen at the same time
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Gun hand: Pull the gun back about a foot from your face, bracing your bicep against your pec (and elbow against ribcage, if you wanna think that way). As soon as the mag clears, you roll your wrist and rotate the gun so that you're somewhat looking straight at the side of the gun. You want to put the gun in such a position that the magazine and gun align naturally. No wrist-bending or contortions are needed. Proper positioning of the gun makes it a smooth arc from your hip to the magwell. It also makes things so that you can see into the magwell. Stare at the front inner corner. Some people paint a white dot inside the magwell there, to focus on.
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Weak hand: While doing that, your weak hand grasps the mag on your belt, draws it, and brings it to the gun. When grabbing the mag, the index finger goes along the front edge of the magazine. This allows you to smoothly 'point' the magazine into the magwell, instead of slamming it into the edge of the magwell. Pause briefly a split second as the mag is about to make contact with the pistol to ensure proper alignment, and seat the mag with a firm tap from the heel of your palm.

Don't go for fast. Go for smooth. If you're watching the magazine come up to the gun instead of watching where you want it to end up, you'll miss half the time. Your arms have spent your whole life subconsciously bringing things into your field of vision. Take advantage of this. And be smooth. If you try to go fast, you'll miss more than half the time.
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Slide stop lever, re-grip, extend. This is one smooth motion. Drop the slide, re-establish your firing grip, and extend the pistol until the front sight is on the target. Practice will make this one smooth motion.

That's it. There are 3 key points from the above that most people don't learn on their own:
2 things at once. The mag is falling WHILE you're grabbing its replacement. Not one and then the other.
Fingertip on nose of #1 round in the new magazine. Grasping it with a fist around the floorplate makes it nearly impossible to align with the gun. Point it in.
Look where you want it to end up. Never follow it with your eyes, or you'll botch the reload by slamming the feed lips into the grip, or throwing the mag across the range

Now watch Bruce Gray do it. He's not firing the gun to slide-lock, but other than that, it's the standard stuff:
http://www.downrange.tv/player.htm?bcpid=452320104
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Oh, and here's a tip for lefties. For defensive encounters, the overhand rack is the way to go. It works on every autopistol ever made, in the rain, with blood on your hands.

But if you decide to compete, it's slow. Here's how I do it. As you drive the mag home with the heel of your right palm, your right fingers are in a unique position. With a little practice, they end up right there on the slide stop, on the left side of the gun.

So I drive the mag home, and use my right ring and index finger to sweep the slide stop lever downward. As soon as the gun begins to return to battery, I being returning my right hand to it's proper grip, and extending the gun to firing position. :)

One more post. Here's me botching a reload. Bad grip on the gun from trying to go too fast meant I didn't properly insert the magazine on the first try. You can't see it because of the angle, but it was still a 2.1 second load...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1857099201263572996

On the other hand... If you shoot for a living, have a mag right up front by your belt buckle, and the gun isn't shot to slide-lock... You can do this:
http://andersonshooting.com/images/video/natsvid/strader1r1.mpg

http://andersonshooting.com/images/video/natsvid/strader2r2.mpg

There are some fun videos on www.andersonshooting.com ;)

My $0.02:

Overhand for everybody, lefty, righty, it doesn't matter. Don't go "hollywood" and use the slide stop if you don't have to. The extra travel on the slide doesn't hurt, and it's needed on pistols with fresh mag springs, especially Glocks.

I agree, in the real world. But not if you're competing. Like I said:

For defensive encounters, the overhand rack is the way to go. It works on every autopistol ever made, in the rain, with blood on your hands.

But if you decide to compete, it's slow.

I'd rather not be quite as competitive and have my movements be functionally sound for when I actually need to defend myself... Do it one way all the time and you'll be that much better and sure of yourself, rather then hitting the slide release sometimes and going overhand sometimes...

BTW congrats on writing out that video you posted :flipoff2: He really did just cover all the same stuff you typed out LOL

Interesting technique rotating the firearm. I have always kept it verticle. Drop and shove in the new one. Going to have to try that.

Wow that 1st anderson clip is amazing. Had to watch it a couple times, otherwise I woudl swear he didn't really reload :D

Regarding round counting, I don't consider that gaming, but good technique. Deciding ahead of time which target to engage and then reload is gaming :flipoff2:

Interesting technique rotating the firearm. I have always kept it verticle. Drop and shove in the new one. Going to have to try that.
It's nearly impossible to feed the fresh magazine at warp speed with the gun vertical. Especially if you don't bring it in to your chest, and try to do it all out at arms length.

Ideally, you'd elevate the muzzle slightly (but keep it from going over the berm) and keep the gun vertical as you hit the mag release and pull it back to your chest. Then rotate it in time to feed the new mag.

With a little practice, you'll find yourself with the new mag ready to go in...waiting for the spent mag to clear the magwell. Getting on the button and orienting the gun so the grip is as close to vertical as possible will let it fall free ASAP. I try to roll the gun with a quick motion as well, so that the gun will fling the spent mag out with centrifugal force if it was only halfway clear of the grip.

It's more of a pain for IPSC shooters doing speed loads, using mags right there by their belt buckle. Their load speed is limited by the mag dropping out of the gun, not their ability to feed the next one.

Yeah most wont beable to do so in a real world situation due to stress and fumble fingers. Also most shoot off dont last very long unless they are really really trying to get you- that I would see more in a shtf enviroment.

Not sure if this my HK USP is supposed to do this but when I put in a new mag and push it in with a decent amount of force (but not super hard) the slide automatically releases and goes forward. I like that feature as I don't have to fumble with a slide release or the slide while reloading.

Not sure if this my HK USP is supposed to do this but when I put in a new mag and push it in with a decent amount of force (but not super hard) the slide automatically releases and goes forward. I like that feature as I don't have to fumble with a slide release or the slide while reloading.
It's fairly common. Most Glocks, and most Kahrs do it consistently. My G34 will do it sometimes, but not often enough that I train that way.

My USP 45C always did it, too.

If you can make the gun do it ALWAYS, then you should consider practicing reloads that way. If it's only 90% of the time, I would avoid getting in the habit.

The only thing that bothers me about this thread is that I posted it from a competitive/gaming perspective, and I should have assumed that most of it's readers would be reading it from a defensive-shooting perspective. My apologies for this, but take what you like, and leave the rest. :)

I watched Travis Tomasie shoot (along with Robbie Leatham, Mike Voight, Blake Miguez, Matt Burkett, just to name drop a few). They are SMOKIN fast at reloads. Here is a video of Travis reloading.

http://www.egw-guns.com/videos/travis_reload.mpg

He is shooting again (or ready to shoot again) before the other mag is off screen.