When is a Double Feed Good?

There are many ways our guns can malfunction, and normally we want to maintain our equipment to avoid problems. However, there is one time when you might want to force your gun to malfunction. Forcing a malfunction in training lets us safely experience what happens during a stoppage, how it feels, and the opportunity to learn how to fix it quickly, and get the gun running again.

Training the Type 1 Malfunction—

If you've spent some time training on the range, you might have practiced how to fix a failure to feed or failure to fire malfunction, referred to as a type one malfunction. Usually, in training, we replicate this by mixing in an inert dummy round somewhere in the magazine amongst the live rounds.

You've probably heard and practiced the simple process to fix a type 1 malfunction—tap, rack, bang. Ensure the magazine is seated fully in the gun by hitting the bottom of the magazine, rack the slide completely to the rear to extract the spent casing or problem round, then sight in and fire a round if necessary.

When it comes to type three malfunction training on the range, it's a bit more difficult, but now there is a training device that makes it possible.

Training the Type 3 Malfunction, known as a double feed—

Also known as a double feed, a type three malfunction, is more difficult to replicate unexpectedly during live fire. Potential causes of a double feed are because of a worn or damaged extractor, magazine failure or a spent case stuck in the chamber.

To set up a double feed on the range, you'll typically drop a spent casing into the chamber through the ejection port, then with a filled magazine release the slide forward. When the slide goes forward, it strips a round from the magazine and tries to chamber it, which obviously causes a double feed.

While this appropriately duplicates what happens in the gun during a type 3 malfunction, it doesn't happen unexpectedly during a string of fire. Simulating it unexpectedly during training is a better way to practice not just how to clear it, but practice how to identify what type of malfunction you have and then use the right method to fix the gun quickly.

Now there is a product that allows you to cause a real type 3 malfunction randomly during live fire.

The Type 3 Malfunction Round perfectly simulates a double feed during live fire practice.

Type Three Malfunction Round Training Device—

The product is the Type Three Malfunction Round (T3MR). It's a brilliant, and simple training tool. The T3MR looks quite similar to any other dummy round, but there are two fins that protrude out of the front. These fins make it so that it won't chamber completely, which perfectly simulates a double feed.

You can get the T3MR in all the popular pistol calibers—.45, .40, 9mm, and .380. If you have an AR15, you're in luck because the T3MR comes in .223/5.56mm.

Below, I've included a video of Riley describing the T3MR and how he uses it in his classes.

If you want more information on how to fix type 1, 2 and 3 malfunctions, check out this post.