Massad Ayoob: One-Handed Reload Tactics

Editor’s Note: Massad Ayoob has been teaching one-hand only reloads in emergencies to police since the early 1970s and to law-abiding armed citizens in advanced courses since the early 1980s. This article is intended to be purely informational. These methods are best practiced with unloaded pistols and dummy ammunition. It is recommended that they not be done with live ammunition, and with close supervision by experienced, qualified instructors.

Picture a worst-case scenario: Someone is trying to murder you or your loved ones. You’ve been able to return fire with your autopistol, but the problem is still immediately ongoing … and you run out of ammo and have to reload to continue your desperate fight for survival … and, injured, you have only one hand to fight with!

Having taught this sort of thing for more than 40 years and learning all I could from multiple top instructors, here’s the best I have to offer. I think it can best be done in step-by-step pictography. We’ll address right-hand and left-hand methods as opposed to “dominant and non-dominant hand” simply because most autoloading pistols were designed for the right-handed majority of users.

Reloading with One Hand Only, Right Hand

If possible, take cover. Use your thumb to eject the spare magazine as demonstrated by the author here.

Reloading with One Hand Only Right Hand 3 — Grab your spare mag and *begin* to insert it as shown. Don’t do it too hard. Your holster wasn’t designed to hold a pistol at slide-lock and you don’t want to knock your gun out of the front of the holster. Consider expert Bill Rogers’s advice to keep a spare magazine accessible to both hands.

Reloading with One Hand Only Right Hand 4 — Complete the magazine insertion as shown. Once you know the magazine is in the mag well, do a “got your nose” like playing with a little kid, with your thumb between middle finger and index finger. The index and middle fingers act as pincers stabilizing the pistol grip while your thumb pushes the magazine the rest of the way in, until you feel it lock into place.

Reloading with One Hand Only Right Hand 5 — With the magazine now in place, draw the pistol and bring it out in front of you.

Reloading with One Hand Only Right Hand 6 — Use your thumb to press the slide release lever downward to chamber a round. Pointing the tip of your thumb straight downward will give you more leverage to do this.

Reloading with One Hand Only Right Hand 7 — Alternatively, you can catch the rear sight on your belt or holster and with the muzzle approximately 45 degrees away from you. Push downward and then pull the gun out away from belt or holster. This is also the plan if your slide has closed on an empty chamber. You now have a round chambered.

Reloading with One Hand Only, Left Hand

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 3 — Grab a spare magazine and insert it as shown. Don’t try to slam it all the way in: the holster was not designed to hold a pistol backwards and the gun could pivot out. Just get the magazine started.

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 4 — Perform what author calls “the crush.” As shown, the thumb of the reloading hand goes laterally across the back of the grip frame to stabilize the pistol in the holster, while the palm crushes the floorplate of the magazine all the way into the pistol until you can feel it positively seat.

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 5 — Once the magazine is seated, grasp the pistol in a firing hold for a cross-draw.

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 6 — As you bring the gun to bear on the threat, bring your left index finger to the slide stop/slide release lever.

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 7 — Press the slide stop lever downward to chamber a round. The more your fingertip can be pointed straight down, the more leverage you’ll have.

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 8 — Alternatively, you can catch the rear sight against your belt and, with the muzzle pointed away from you, push down and then let go to release the slide and chamber a round.

Reloading with One Hand Only Left Hand 9 — If your pistol has a red dot sight, it is an ideal “catch point” to use against your belt to operate the slide and chamber a round. You are now ready to re-enter the “fight for your life.”

Additional Considerations

If you have a second pistol accessible to the hand that’s still working, grabbing it and deploying it will probably be faster than struggling with the one-hand reload.

You may be carrying in a shoulder holster or something that precludes using a belt holster to hold the gun while you are reloading. The same will be true if you had to draw a gun that was just stuffed in the waistband, or grabbed from a drawer or gun safe in an emergency.

I’ve run across actual cases where wounded officers were able to successfully reload one-handed and win the fight when they couldn’t, or didn’t think to, use their holster to stabilize the gun. One cop put his empty pistol on the hood of his patrol car, butt upward, and successfully reloaded, re-entered the fight, and won. Another did the same putting to top of his locked-open slide on the pavement in front of him where he had fallen, and prevailed.

Reloading with One Hand Only — Here the author demonstrates a between the knees reload. While this method has definite drawbacks, modifications of it worked well under fire during the Battle of Mogadishu.

Some have taught putting the gun between the knees. This, of course, destroys mobility and also allows the risk of the magazine’s insertion pushing the gun in such a way that the slide release lever is activated and closes the gun on clothing, creating a hellacious jam.

However, at one school, Bill Rogers’, the between the knees one-hand reload is taught with the historical element of being seated. Bill points out that in the Battle of Mogadishu when American fighting men were racing through city streets in vehicles under heavy fire, many wounded soldiers were able to return fire while seated by placing their 9mm service pistols between their thighs. The top of the slide being supported by the vehicle seat made this method quite viable. Rogers teaches his students to perform this technique effectively in his Advanced course.

Conclusion

Being down to an empty gun and a wounded arm does not mean you will lose the gunfight. With the proper mindset and training, you can overcome this situation and survive. Just be prepared.

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