Didn’t wanna hijack the thread so here’s the question.
What is a good reload speed? Not a running and gunning guy but an EDC guy. Obviously you don’t have all day but sub 1 or 2 sec times seems unlikely.
I carry a Glock 19 and practice malfunctions and reloads however I go for smooth and fluent vs speed. If 15 rounds doesn’t get me either distance or cover, I feel it’s a safe assumption the reload isn’t gonna save me at that point.
3 seconds or less is a pretty good benchmark.
If you practice enough you’ll eventually get to where you can slam a new mag in and chamber a round before the first mag hits the ground.
I REALLY dislike “time standards”. It’s a lot like saying if you can’t hold a 1/4 MOA you aren’t worth a (fill in the blank).
To that end:
Slow is Slow.
Fast is Slow.
Smooth is Fast.
If you are in a gun fight and you run your gun dry and have to reload you have already screwed up as you noted. That said hitting an empty mag and fixing it should be as second nature as draw and shoot. The reason being we run our guns dry on the range all the time, mostly on purpose to force a mag change.
To answer the question: What is a good reload speed? The rest of your life.
Cheers,
Craig6
I agree I don’t like time standards or accuracy standards. I was just curious because when we reference time it’s usually the high speed or competition guys. Which i think sets up the average joe with unrealistic expectations.
I’m curious if my thinking on this was way off track. I think being consistent and smooth is the most important. Speed comes later if you want.
I don’t think you’re far off.
My 3 seconds or quicker standard is based on the time it takes for someone to charge you from cover at normal self defense ranges.
It will probably take someone 2-5 seconds to even realize you’ve run dry so the split second reload isn’t all that important.
As you say practice makes for consistency and once you build the necessary muscle memory the speed will follow.
That’s a good number. I’ve always assumed a defensive reload would come from cover anyways. But I like that 2-5 second window. It’s realistic and 5 seconds is actually a pretty long time is a defensive situation
@Sheepdog556 IMHO if you are interested in consistency and improvement there of… then get a shot timer or download one to your phone and do a 1 shot reload 1 shot and time it. You will set a base line. From there if using the same tools you can see if running the gun dry and not being prepared for it affects your reload time as the timer tracks “bangs”. You can look back and see if it causes you a delay to run dry or if it matches your “pre positioned” mag change. The “OH SH!T” should be a bit longer than the planned one as you have to identify the problem. Work on what suits you best.
Cheers,
Craig6
It seems like a very practical number to me.
Think of the “Tueller Drill” and add the recognition time to it.
@Craig6. I didn’t know they had shot timer apps… I’ve got a few downloaded now.
I’m going to try to incorporate that with a shot timer. Mainly to add stress and see just how smooth I am at that point. I’ve got no problem pushing myself to failure and then backing off a bit and drilling inside those parameters.
@Sheepdog556 We used to do a drill that was designed to induce stress both for physical activity as well as competition.
I doubt you could do it on an indoor range and mebby not even on an out door range depending on the rules.
It was basically a magazine or in our case a single round (rifle) placed at 5 foot (or yard) intervals as far back as you felt like going. In this case (pistol) 1 round in a mag and two rounds in the second mag. Fire the first round, slide locks back, reload and fire one round, safety and holster. Then turn and run back to the first mag, pick it up and put it in the #1 reload spot and run back to the line. Fire, Reload and fire. Safety and holster. Each pickup mag had two rounds in it. When you got really hard you induced 10 pushups or 5 eight count body builders.
Fast was fine. Accuracy was final. In our case there was a time cut off so those of us smart enough (old enough) to game the system could not walk we had to at least “trot”.
Cheers,
Craig6
That sounds like a great one. I’m a member of an outdoor range. Other than normal range safety rules. You can’t go full auto, no tracers and no 50 cal.
They have two action pistol ranges with multiple permanent targets. This drill is very doable. I can add multiple shooting positions using the fake walls and barrels they have
Oh He!! NO! Stand on your hind legs and shoot it man up!! If you really want to see how well you do in a stress situation do a “BINGO drill” where coming back from a run you have to remember 5 numbers and every time you come back you have to add 1 number to the first number. THINK, BREATHE, SHOOT last.
Cheers,
Craig6
my 2¢:
I think 3 seconds is OK with most of us… but after I’ve analyzed real self-defense videos I’ve found that once you are out of bullets, you don’t have 3 seconds for reload 
You have to take another shot, maybe 2 or 3 within these 3 seconds to survive, so your reload cannot be longer that 1.5 second.
I’ve started thinking about this seriously and recently was able to make my slide close automatically after inserting new, loaded magazine - this speeds up reload process dramatically. No time wasted for racking or pressing slide release.
There is a very good drill, called “666 drill” with reload variation -> 4 shots, reload 2 shots. Strongly recommended for fast reload practice. It’s more stressful than fry fire 
That has always been my answer to why do I carry a 1911 .45 (until double stacks came out). If I didn’t hit you with the first 8 rounds, then I had no business shooting at you in the first place.
Simple drill using empty magazines. Start at slide lock, have spare mags where you carry them. Drop mag and reload, timer stops when you hit your slide release after the “reload”.
The goal here is to start slowish and get the hang of it, get it nice and smooth. Then build speed. Repetition is key.
You can do this in your own home.
As my instructors used to say and still do “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”
My hubby says it like this
Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
The idea being that developing smooth, efficient, optimal movement that is precisely repeatable will ultimately produce the fastest possible effective result.
Yup, smooth is the key. Too fast and you make mistakes. Slow is just slow. Move at the speed of precision.
Cheers,
Craig6
The key being take your time, practice and become proficient. Starting slow and smooth leads to being smooth with increased speed.
I’ve always gone with speed is how fluently you can execute an action.