treadlightly wrote:Here's a tip, and you can ignore it without hurting my feelings.
I was in a Gander Mountain a while back and was struck by the obvious and mechanical way a salesperson cleared every pistol he touched, every time he touched it.
He established a good, correct grip on the firearm with his trigger finger firmly straight and indexed on the frame. With the muzzle in a safe direction he locked the slide and rotated the gun so he could look down through the magazine well. After about one second of observing the gun in that position, he rotated the muzzle down about 45 degrees so he could visually inspect the chamber. Both hands were involved, he really couldn't physically do anything distracting while performing his clearing routine.
With the act of clearing the firearm set as a dance move of several steps, I don't think I'll ever get distracted and fail to completely clear a pistol. If I am interrupted, I start over.
If I dump a round out of the chamber when I run the slide back, I still have my complete dance move to go. Lock the slide back, view the empty magazine well for a beat, rotate the muzzle down and view the chamber, ease the slide back into battery.
For my weak mind, standard procedures are the safest. In the past I just cleared the gun like a country boy and I was always safe. Now I clear the gun in a way some might say is a little foolish - but I'm on rails when I clear the gun. No accidental wrong turns.
For my peace of mind, as much as possible of gun handling is best done in rote fashion, with one's mind alert.
My practice is similar, except I add a physical chamber check by putting a finger into the chamber with the slide locked back to make sure I didn't fail to see a round.
I verify condition every time I pick a gun up. If I'm working on one on my bench, I still follow the clearing process every time I put it down and pick it up again. It takes very little effort, and it's pretty good assurance that a mental lapse won't result in an ND.
That's worked for me for over 40 years, so I'm sticking with it.
Even