Talyn
Emissary
SPORTS or How NOT to Clear a Jammed AR-15 Rifle
All self-loading firearms can experience stoppages, an interruption in the cycle of operation, of which there are eight steps. For that reason, it behooves trainers to teach their students how to clear a stoppage when one eventually occurs.One of the coolest acronyms that the military ever came up with was ‘SPORTS.’
If your rifle has a stoppage, you will perform SPORTS to fix it. S, slap the magazine. P, pull back on the charging handle, O, observe the ejection port. R, release the charging handle. T, tap the forward assist. S, attempt to shoot your rifle.
SPORTS or How NOT to Clear a Jammed AR-15 Rifle - The Shooting Wire | The Shooting Wire
No description available
www.shootingwire.com
SPORTS: Wrong for Every Occasion?
But the author explains, SPORTS was either more steps that necessary…or not nearly enough steps.
There are three primary stoppages that you’ll encounter with an AR-15/M4 rifle: Type 1, click, no boom. Type 2, stovepipe/feedway obstruction (piece of brass stuck in ejection port), or Type 3, double-feed (two objects attempting to occupy the chamber at the same time).
For the Type 1 and Type 2 stoppages, we clear them by dropping our elbows to our ribs (ejection port toward the ground), tap the magazine (once), rack the charging handle vigorously (let it go, allowing a full compression of the recoil spring to drive the bolt home) and attempt to fire if the situation warrants.
For a Type 3 — the dreaded double-feed — you have the recoil spring putting pressure on the bolt and the bolt pushing two objects into the chamber. You can SPORTS your AR until you die and that method won’t clear a double-feed.
The standard AR double-feed clearing mantra is, Lock, Rip, Rack, Reload.
Lock the bolt open to get the recoil spring tension off of the bolt and chamber. Rip out the magazine. Nine times out of ten, it’s the magazine that caused the double-feed.
With the mag out, rack the bolt once, twice, three times for good measure. Ninety-nine times out of 100 that will clear the brass traffic jam.
Grab a fresh mag and reload like you should — insert it fully and rack the bolt vigorously to the rear. Then, if you still need to keep shooting, do so.