AR15 shooters, does "tap, rack bang" work for anyone?

[Hk940]

back in the day it was the thing to teach and may still be.  but i never got why???  sure if you fail to seat a magazine and you drop the bolt it can pickup the top round and then not pickup the second round on a mag but 99% of the time i properly seat the mag because i push up and then pull down.  also 99% of my gun problems are made worse with a TRB drill.  i turn a simple failure to eject or a stove pipe into a double feed and it's a bear of a double feed that causes me to have to jerk the mag out and maybe pry a cartridge out.

just wanted to get your thoughts on how you run it. 
 am thinking the easiest thing might be locking the bolt back
pulling the mag (jamb should fall free).
clearing or seating a fresh (new mag) and hitting the bolt release. 

thoughts? 

[Chris]

I find the quickest & easiest way is to drop mag, work charging handle, slam a new mag home (and pull it  down to make sure it's seated) work charging handle again, and shoot. TRB doesn't work for me in that case. Something about the way AR mags seat in the gun... but don't fully seat in the gun. I have shoved a mag in on a bolt forward/round chambered reload, only to have it fall out. Guess I didn't slam in in hard enough and neglected to do the "pull down" to confirm seating. In any case, when that happens, I go to the above.
Chris Christian

[sharpshot23]

When I was still in the Army, we were tought the SPORTS Drill.  SLAP bottom of mag and pull on it to ensure it is properly seated, PULL the charging handle fully to the rear, OBSERVE the ejection port, bolt, and chamber to ensure that stopage is cleared fully (when you do this it is best to tip the ejection port toward the ground to let gravity assist with clearing the weapon), RELEASE the charging handle (do not ride it forward) allowing it to chamber a good round, then reaquire your target and SHOOT.  If this doesn't work or if you do not OBSERVE a round leaving the weapon or you see that the bolt is damaged in some way then you need to go into a remedial action and stop the SPORTS drill there.  The only time that this didn't work for me is when I had put around 1000 rounds down range and had the sand flying everywhere and the weapon need to be lubricated and cleaned.  But for me the SPORTS has always worked.

[Carrot]

When I was still in the Army, we were tought the SPORTS Drill.  SLAP bottom of mag and pull on it to ensure it is properly seated, PULL the charging handle fully to the rear, OBSERVE the ejection port, bolt, and chamber to ensure that stopage is cleared fully (when you do this it is best to tip the ejection port toward the ground to let gravity assist with clearing the weapon), RELEASE the charging handle (do not ride it forward) allowing it to chamber a good round, then reaquire your target and SHOOT.  If this doesn't work or if you do not OBSERVE a round leaving the weapon or you see that the bolt is damaged in some way then you need to go into a remedial action and stop the SPORTS drill there.  The only time that this didn't work for me is when I had put around 1000 rounds down range and had the sand flying everywhere and the weapon need to be lubricated and cleaned.  But for me the SPORTS has always worked.

I can second this.  I was not in a combat MOS, so I had to train with the shot-out M-16s they would never even think of allowing infintry to carry.  I had one that would jam about every 20 shots, and SPORTS worked for me every time.

[Eric R Shelton]

I default to TRB in case of a bad primer or something, but SPORTS is really the way to go.  Of course, now with the BAD lever, it's that much easier, as well...

[wingsprint410]

Another vote for the SPORTS Drill. Has worked everytime.

[Rob Kroupa]

Never had a problem with SPORTS but it's really just a slightly more in depth version of Tap-Rack-Bang.  But tap-rack-bang just sounds so much cooler.

[Drifting Fate]

TRB done properly is SPORTS if you ask me.  SPORTS is just broken down a bit more to detail the steps.  TRB was never meant to be done with one's eyes shut.  It's a "vigorous" action which will clear the majority of malfunctions.  It is not a cure all.

The point of TRB was to implant an immediate action drill into the response cycle.  Such a drill would cure most, but not all, of the functioning problems.  It by-passes thought and evaluation and is/was intended to be worked to the point of pure reflex. 

I can only speak of my experiences from training, but with many different pistols and with AR's, it's a great drill.  It will take care of the vast majority of malfunctions.

This breaks down to statistics that I really don't care to run, but if the vast majority of problems are fixed by drill X, with drill X causing more issues for the situations if doesn't work, you still run drill X because the odds of one experiencing a malfunction it will clear are greater than experiencing a malfunction it won't clear. 

Reinventing the wheel is always a problem in our society.  Questioning is excellent.  Reasoned questioning is the issue.  Just understand that "the way it has been done" usually doesn't mean "the wrong way" just because it hasn't recently been invented.

[mattpittinger]

The fastest and easiest way to fix a malfunction is to drop rifle and grab your secondary. 

[sharpshot23]

I would just like to point out that TRB is not the same as SPORTS.  I have seen people that practice TRB try and clear a jam and not be succesful due the them being tought that you "just do these three simple steps and you will clear your malfunction."  Sure they should have been tought better but if you were a newbie to the whole shooting scene and you didn't know what was really supposed to be done then you are going to be real upset when it doesn't fix your double feed or when you get a stove pipe or a broken extractor or something to that extent.  So I would always go to SPORTS and will always explain SPORTS and never recomend or even mention TRB.  It could just cause so much more stress to just do TRB when you could just be that much safer and that much more sure of your weapon with just a half second of care.  It only takes a few more breaths to explain SPORTS and teach it properly.

[J_Honky_44]

SPORTS is the way to go, mainly because of the observe. I clears up a lot of problems before they get worse.