I want to talk about working off a table today. 

It’s important, because a lot of IDPA stages of fire start with your magazines on the table, where you have to reload from the table or stow them in your mag pouches before moving to another position.

The beauty of this drill is I can do it outdoors at a range, where they allow us to work from the holster or, if I am in an indoor range in a stall, I can stack my magazines up and practice stowing them or reloading off the table.

The key element to this drill is how I stage my magazines. I always stage them, so the bullets are facing up.  

The reason I do this is when my hand comes down to grab the magazine, it’s in the same position as when I pull it out of my magazine pouch, which aids in a quick reload. And I don’t have them pointing directly down range, because when I come down to grab, my hand naturally goes across my body. So, I turn them a little bit so when I come down, I can feel the magazine without looking, but get the proper grip to do a fast reload. 

The next element I want to talk about is staging my magazines on a table when I have to stow them in my magazine pouches, this is something that you see quite a bit in IDPA matches.  Let’s take a look at that.

When I stage my magazines to stow them the bullets are up, just like if I am going to reload off of a table, what I do is I put the right close together and one a little higher than the other, so when I come down and io grab them I pick up both together. 

This inside one goes in my front pouch, the outside one goes in my rear pouch, and I’m done. It’s that quick, that simple. 

I want to demonstrate a live-fire drill to practice this technique. The first thing I do is I set my magazines up. The magazine in the gun has three rounds, so it’s one in the chamber, two in the magazine. The second magazine is going to have two rounds and the third magazine will have one round. 

The reason is, every time I am doing a reload in this drill, I am dropping an empty magazine. Which is what I need to do to stay within IDPA rules. So, let’s take a look at what the drill looks like. 

When I am doing this drill I use the timer buzzer only as a start indicator, I don’t pay attention to time as much, yes this was a four point nine seven drill, that’s a great time for me, but what I am really trying to do is get the consistency of a very smooth reload.

The smoother you are the better shooter you’ll become, so practice this drill and you’ll become a better shooter.