Mundane Weapon Malfunctions--

All mundane weapon malfunctions must be DIAGNOSED to be addressed
specifically. Some places, such as the military, teach a general,
all-purpose, 'immediate action' drill, in which the operator does NOT
diagnose the weapon, and instead immediate performs what's referred to
as a 'Tap-Rack-Bang', meaning the operator taps the magazine to make
sure that it is seated correctly, racks the weapon to cycle a round
out of the chamber-- good or bad, the operator does not know-- and
then pulls the trigger, hopefully getting a 'bang' telling the
operator that the issue is resolved. Obviously there are several
problems with the so-called Immediate Action drill, particularly with
the doublefeed malfunction, which it completely fails to address. In
the case of a weapon being out of battery, it wastes a perfectly good
round. More advanced schools of gunfighting teach the operator to
always diagnose when the weapon fails to fire, even if it is simply
out of ammo, to ensure the proper course of action. The immediate
action drill, however, will properly address misfires, stovepipes, and
improperly seated magazines, three of the five mundane failures,
albeit sub-optimally, which is why it is taught.

Misfire- A round fails to go off. There are two main ways to remedy
this. First, the most obvious, is to manually cycle the weapon,
ejecting the round and chambering a new-- hopefully good-- round. This
works for almost all automatic weapons, the exception being the
revolver, which must use the second method. The second method is to
'doublefire', that meaning to attempt to pull the trigger again,
resetting the hammer and letting it drop on the round a second time,
hopefully setting it off. For revolvers, this rotates the cylinder,
bringing a new round into play. The efficacy of this maneuver is
highly variable, and dependent on the state of the ammunition. This
malfunction is most commonly associated with poor ammo, but it can
also be the result of an old or misaligned hammer or firing pin.

Stovepipe- A spent casing fails to properly exit the weapon, getting
stuck in the chamber. Addressing this malfunction requires bringing a
hand up to sweep the casing out of the chamber, and then re-engaging
the action, whatever it may be, one more time to chamber the next
round. This malfunction is /extremely/ common in poorly tuned weapons,
particularly those with weak recoil springs (the spring meant to drive
the action forward after firing and back into battery).

Out of Battery- A poorly made weapon-- or one caked with carbon
fouling-- will sometimes fail to go 'back into battery'. In other
words, the weapon's action will recoil, and then reciprocate forward
to rechamber a new round and set the bolt/firing pin in the proper
place, but instead of doing so, it fails to properly go forward. On
pistols, the slide remains slightly back, caught on something. On
automatic rifles, the bolt is slightly back. In any case, the first
indication of an out of battery weapon is a so-called 'dead trigger',
meaning the trigger cannot be pulled back, much less fire. The proper
way to address a weapon out of battery is to manually set the weapon
back in battery, by forcing the slide or bolt forward. For pistols,
this is easy enough. Striking the rear of the slide will usually bring
it back into battery. For rifles, whose actions are obscured by the
furniture of the weapon, the only way to set the bolt forward is to
use a 'forward assist', or a device made specifically for that task.
Some weapons have the forward assist built directly into the charging
handle of the weapon, either because the charging handle is stiffly
attached to the bolt itself, allowing the operator to actuate it, or
by some other mechanism. Weapons without any way to manually
manipulate the bolt must cycle the weapon's action. This malfunction
is common amongst poorly cleaned gas-driven weapons like the AR15/M16
style of weapons. In long, op-rod piston weapons, like the AK or
H&K416 weapons, it is much rarer, since unburnt powder and carbon
residue never touches the bolt.

Unseated Magazine- The result of an improper reload, an unseated
magazine is a 'malfunction' in the sense that the weapon fails to fire
because there is no round in the chamber. The magazine is in the
magazine well, but it is not seated high enough to deposit rounds, but
high enough that it sticks in. Tap-rack-bang /specifically/ addresses
this malfunction. Certain weapons, such as the AK, which uses a
'rock-in' method of magazine retention, and therefore has no magazine
well, cannot suffer from an unseated magazine. It is either in or not.

Doublefeed- The singularly most heinous mundane weapon malfunction,
the doublefeed is usually the result of either an overzealous magazine
spring, or an overly weak recoil spring. During a doublefeed, two
rounds slide up and attempt to jam their way into the same chamber.
One usually will get its tip in
while the other slides in from the bottom, its point stubbornly pushed
forward. A doublfeed CAN be addressed by repeatedly racking the
action, but this is extremely unlikely and the mark of a poor
operator. A professional will diagnose the weapon, lock the bolt or
slide to the rear to relieve pressure on the rounds attempting to
enter the chamber, which will allow him to forcibly strip the magazine
out, whereupon he will rack the weapon's action multiple times,
usually at least three, until the rounds tumble out of the ejection
port or the now-empty magazine well. The stripped magazine is usually
discarded out of haste, but a man with a lot of time or not a lot of
ammo can retain the magazine in a pouch. Now that the weapon is clear,
the final step is to perform a reload, whereupon the weapon should
fire. The doublefeed is universal to all autoloading weapons, and even
the most well maintained weapons can suffer this failure out of sheer
dumb luck, or poor magazines. Weapons that do not have a bolt or slide
lock suffer penalties to clearing this malfunction, as the operator
must manually hold the bolt open whilst both depressing the magazine
release and stripping the magazine-- a three handed affair.


Catastropic Weapon Malfunctions--

These malfunctions involve destroyed parts and cannot be remedied in the field.

Destroyed action-- The gas tube, operation rod, piston, or recoil of
the weapon system is destroyed. The weapon's trigger group remains
operation, so the weapon can fire, but it must be manually cycled
every round.

Destroyed trigger group-- The firing pin, hammer, or trigger sear is
destroyed. The weapon cannot fire.

Destroyed chamber-- The round explodes incorrectly, bursting the
chamber. The weapon cannot fire, and the operator suffers the risk of
shrapnel or lost fingers.