One in the Chamber

One in the chamber or not one in the chamber, That is the Question.

Too often, ladies say, they don’t feel comfortable enough to store or carry their firearm with one in the chamber. My short answer, that’s okay, just as long as you eventually get there AND as long as you practice that way until that changes.

Now to the little longer version…

Women Learn Differently

It’s common knowledge that women and men are different, which in turn means we learn different.  Typically, you could hand a man a gun, he picks it up, points and shoots. You offer that same situation to a women, she debates, she thinks, she may ask – well what happens if I do this, or when I do that – this is all before touching it. Women typically like to learn everything about things before doing. We want all the answers first, we want to ask questions.

We want to feel comfortable, BEFORE doing…. well, crap, how do you do that? How do you become comfortable not doing something first? Yep, I said that.  Knowledge is power. And with that knowledge, we feel more comfortable trying, we feel more empowered to try more.

Crawl Before You Run – Progress

So, our crawl may be to:

• walk around with a completely unloaded gun
• then it may turn to a loaded gun but not one in the chamber
• which turns to, and yes, this is our goal, to carry a loaded firearm WITH one in the chamber

These are ALL great progressions and that’s okay, as long as, you don’t get stuck there. AND that you practice how you carry. Your practice can be live or dry fire training and both work well together so you should be doing both.

Practice How You Play

Last post was all about practicing how you play/carry, so be sure however you are storing or carrying that each time you dry fire or shoot at the range that you give yourself the opportunity to practice completely unloaded, or a cleared chamber so that your brain doesn’t put loaded and ready to go as a habit.  Nothing like having a bad guy come into your house and you are always practicing with one in the chamber and your brain remembers that. Then the panic will set in and you think you have a malfunction, something is wrong and well, by that time, you may be injured, or worse.

So, I don’t mind that where you are with your crawl, just as long as you progress to the run. Because ultimately, your best case scenario is you being fully loaded and all you need to do is draw and defend, no extra steps.

Should you need to get more comfy with your crawl, wherever you are in your journey, or need to find your new gun, contact WTF Kristen today as I would be happy to help you!