I feel it is important to talk to the customer and get as much information as possible before handling the firearm in question. This sounds easy but most of the time the customer has no idea what type of malfunction they are experiencing or even the name of the gun or part they think is broken. For example, if a firearm has a failure to feed the customer may come to you and say something like “I can’t get the ammo in the gun” or “I racked it, and nothing happened”. In my experience this is usually operator error because the magazine was not seated correctly, or the slide was closed when they inserted the magazine, and they never pulled the slide back to chamber a round. Occasionally the magazine spring is under powered and actually is the cause of the malfunction. I would ask the customer if the magazine was left loaded for an extended period of time because this can damage the magazine spring and not feed ammunition correctly.
Now when the firearm has a failure to fire you may have the customer approach you and say things like “It did not work” or “I think its broken”. My personal favorite was “Dis Choppa Don’t Burn”. I would usually start by asking what they are shooting so I can identify things like is there a safety and how does it work. A lot of times the customer has loaded the firearm correctly but forgot to disengage a safety selector switch or is not engaging the grip safety correctly. After I collect as much information as the customer has to offer, I can usually approach the firearm with a few ideas on how to fix the issue.
Finally, when the customer experiences a failure to extract, they may come to you and say things like “They keep getting stuck” or “My bullet will not come out”. I usually ask if the firearm is jammed, and they respond with yes. At this point I ask if the ammo stuck in the barrel was fired or if it is still live. Once I have these answers ill have a better understanding of the issue and how to fix it. Making sure the firearm is clean and the extractor is not broken or missing I would clear the firearm and talk to the customer and let them know why I think it happened. A lot of the malfunctions you come across are similar but be sure to take your time so as to avoid serious injury. Its easy to get complacent when this is your everyday work.
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