Article: Why Second-Strike Capability Is Bad Procedure

[TGO David]

The subject of an automatic handgun's "second strike capability" tends to come up frequently in discussions both online and in the real world. I firmly believe that second-strike is bad procedure and this post will seek to explain why.

Definition of Second Strike

Second Strike capability refers to an automatic handgun's capability to deliver a follow-up primer strike with either a striker or a hammer just by manipulating the trigger a second time. Often the follow-up strike may be at a heavier trigger pull than the initial "pre-cocked" trigger pull of the first attempt.

Examples of automatic handguns with this capability are those from SIG Arms with their DAK trigger, those from Heckler and Koch with their LEM trigger, and those from any manufacturer which are marked as DA/SA (Double Action / Single Action) or as DAO (Double Action Only).

Why Double-Strike Is Bad Proceedure

My feelings on this matter relate to civilian self defense situations. There may be instances where second-strike capability is a desirable quality for a field service pistol in military combat situations or in law enforcement situations, although the latter to a much lesser degree.

To put it simply, relying on a follow-up trigger pull to resolve a problem inside the chamber of your defensive firearm is a questionable proposition that wastes critical time on an uncertain variable. The uncertain variable being the condition of your weapon and the condition of the ammunition that may, or worse yet may not be present in the chamber.

• Condition of Your Weapon: Is the chamber empty? Did you really remember to chamber a round before carrying it? Did you forget and leave the chamber empty the last time you finished cleaning the weapon? Are you 100% certain that there is a round under the hammer?
  

• Condition Of Your Ammunition: Is the round in your chamber good? Is it a factory dud? Will striking a dud primer a second time have any better odds of igniting it? What if the primer had been exposed to oils somewhere along the line and is no longer good?
  

If you rely on a second-strike to resolve either of these two problems, it requires two things to happen in a terribly short period of time:

• Your brain must comprehend that the firearm did not FIRE when you pulled the trigger.
  

• Your brain must override the confusion of the former, and instruct your finger to pull the trigger a second time.
  

These two things on a good day at the range will befuddle most average shooters. These two things on a bad night in a darkened alleyway will potentially de-rail the thought process of a person who is being attacked by a mugger or a rapist.

Statistics bear out that most self defense encounters occur within what is consider to be conversation distance. 10-15 feet. If your attacker is that close to you, armed not even with a firearm but with a knife, you do not have sufficient time to draw, aim, pull the trigger and CLICK ... CLICK twice before deciding to rack the slide and try again.

Within that short period of time, your attacker is now most likely upon you, stabbing you to death with his knife or pinning you to the ground to rape you. You have now unwittingly set yourself up to become a statistic.

That being said, I am convinced that you should neither rely upon a firearm's second strike capability when shooting for fun, when training, or in a self-defense situation. The more desirable alternative is to employ a comprehensive "Failure Plan" when something goes wrong when you pull the trigger.

Failure Plan or Failure Drill

Statistics bear out that the vast majority of weapons failures in combat can be resolved through a three step process known as Tap, Rack, Bang.

• TAP: Strike the magazine of your weapon, upward into the firearm's magazine well, firmly with the palm of your hand. This ensures that your magazine is properly seated and that the first round is ready to be fed into the chamber.
  

• RACK: Firmly grip the slide and pull it fully backward and then release the slide. Do NOT let your hand ride the slide back into battery. Allow the slide to ram itself home under the full power of the recoil spring. This ensures that the slide has proper force and momentum to strip a round from the top of the magazine and shove it into battery.
  

• BANG: Reacquire your target and pull the trigger.
  

A failure drill works for any automatic weapon. Dual Action Only. Dual Action / Single Action. Striker Fired. Hammer Fired. Handgun or rifle. And ideally it should be incorporated into your routine shooting procedure even at the firing range. Tap, rack, bang.

Do not rely upon a follow-up trigger pull to resolve a problem. Murphy Proof the situation by simplifying the solution. Practice it and live it. It could save your life.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

I agree 100%. No accepted failure drill includes a second trigger pull as a step.

Training is all about embedding automatic reactions, circumventing the thought process that will slow you down. Troubleshooting is for before the fight. In the fight, you have to fix the problem RIGHT NOW.

[DWARREN123]

I really think it is a personal thing, some like it and some don't. I don't care for it myself.

[Guest 2HOW]

Excellent post, I agree 100%.

[TGO David]

I really think it is a personal thing, some like it and some don't. I don't care for it myself.

I can see where buying a firearm because it has that capability might be a personal preference to some degree, but actually relying on it is foolhardy at best.

Unless death is a personal preference also.

[saintsfanbrian]

So Glock is good because it has a safe action which means it has to be cocked in order to be fired and beretta is bad because it is a double action?

[Guest Verbal Kint]

So Glock is good because it has a safe action which means it has to be cocked in order to be fired and beretta is bad because it is a double action?

This post is not about X brand being better than Y brand... it's about knowing how to handle a malfunction the appropriate way (as deemed by the "pros"), regardless of what semi-auto flavor you are carrying. Let's leave the brand bashing and comparisons out of this one.

[molonlabetn]

Since, in a defensive situation, I would expect to be pulling the trigger pretty rapidly already, and that second pull would only take a split second... I really don't see it as a disadvantage, even though the possibility of the problem only being a hard primer which a second strike would ignite is low. If the danger really is so imminent that a few hundredths of a second is that crucial... I'd honestly be evaluating more up-close-and-personal ways to neutralize the threat, anyways (I would hope).

I don't carry a pistol with second-strike capability... but it certainly wouldn't be any disadvantage for the subsequent trigger pull (concious or not) to have the possibility of firing the gun. RELYING on it to do so, I agree, is foolhardy... but the redundancy itself would be more likely to save a life than not.

[Guest bkelm18]

For someone who doesn't practice failure drills, I can see second strike capability being bad. They might have the tendency to just keep pulling the trigger hoping it will go bang instead of performing a T.R.B.

[dcloudy777]

Reliance on re-strike capability and training to use it is not so hot of an idea, but the capabilty itself has some advantages. This is because is a stresses situation, you are more than likely going to pull the trigger again anyway. I've seen this happen to very very good shooters, and done it myself (who isn't all that great at all). I've trained the tap-rack drill incessantly, and I can get it done pretty dern quick, but on the clock, I still can't "transition" mentally from trigger-pulling to malfunction-clearing fast enough to avoid an extra pull. Try it yourself: combine a "Bill Drill" with some ball-and-dummy. It usually goes more like:

BANGBANGBANGBANGclick-click-tap-rackBANGBANG or:

BANGBANGclickclickclickclick-tap-rack-BANGBANGBANGBANG

If the malfunction is a bad round (unlikely but possible), the restrike capability affords the fastest way to get the gun running again. I really wouldn't let it factor much either way into a defensive gun choice... I certainly wouldn't see it as a liabilty. BTW, the FTF drill with a wheelgun always starts with a second trigger pull.

DanO

[Cruel Hand Luke]

I do not know any professional trainer that is training pulling the trigger again as a conditioned response to the gun not going bang. Except for with a revolver... (edited: ooops... apparently Dano and I were posting at same time with same thought on revolvers..)

The conditioned response that pretty much everyone (at least everyone I am familiar with ) advocates is the Tap/Rack. Gun goes click, immediately Tap/RAck and try again. Pulling the trigger will only fix a hard primer problem and those are pretty low on the probability scale. You are likely just wasting precious time.

If it does not go bang after the Tap/Rack, then you have more serious issues (likely a failure to extract) and runing away is gonna be plan A unless you are within arms reach and then plan A might be use the gun as an impact weapon and beat them into the deck with it.

BUt honestly, if you have a quality pistol, keep it well maintained and acquire a proper grip on it when you draw it, the odds of a malfunction occurring are very small unless it goes off in contact with your body (slide hits you while it is reciprocating) or theirs (they grab onto it). And in either of those cases simply pulling the trigger again will do nothing for you (unless it is a revolver).

Some argue that the military wants pistols with second strike capabilty when they put out bids for new pistols. Look at the context of that....military primers are harder, and the average soldier shoots a pistol VERY little in basic and then probably never touches one again. So if he ends up with one he is simply not going to have Tap/Rack ingrained as a conditioned response to the gun going click and the military is not terribly interested in investing time into turning them into "pistol fighters" when the odds of them ever even having to use a pistol (unless they are in an SMU) are slim to none.....it is all about context.

Edited September 19, 2008 by Cruel Hand Luke

[Daniel]

The Army does not include pistol firing in BCT. MP's use pistols daily. Officers are generally issued them as are machine gunners as a back up. Everyone issued a M9 must qualify and have training on the weapon system.

[DaveTN]

I see it as a “featureâ€.

I wouldn’t buy a weapon based on that feature and I wouldn’t train pulling the trigger twice, but it offers that option in a slit second armed confrontation.

I am absolutely sure that if I am carrying the weapon there is a round in the chamber. So that isn’t even an issue. Unless I’m in a group of people or there are a lot of people around; I am also firing at least two rounds, so the trigger is probably getting pulled twice whether the round fires or not. That could take care of the problem; if not I’m clearing at that point. If that spit second counts you are probably shot anyway because of your weapon failure.