I was thinking about the training session I had a few weeks back at the LuckyGunner Blogger Shoot, and how the trainers told me I had my magazines in my magazine pouch backward. The idea was that the magazine should be in the pouch with the bullets facing forward, so as you draw a new magazine from the pouch, you can place your index finger on the tip of the bullet and index it into the magazine well.
The problem is, when I first started shooting 19 years ago, I guessed wrong. I had no instruction, and I had a 50 / 50 chance in orientation of the bullets in my mag pouch. I don't remember thinking about it at all, but I know I started facing them backward.
I became aware of this "error" some time ago, and I even tried turning all my mag pouches around, and trying to teach myself to to it the other way. It was hard, because to me I seemed to be working against normal physiology. My way, I just pivot my wrist to orient the bullets forward. The other way, I have to twist my wrist, which seems to be a more awkward movement.
Any way, I worked on it off and on for about a month, before I gave up and went back.
So at the training class I just said "20 years of muscle memory, sorry," and kept them like they were.
Modern behavioral science tells us that it takes about 1,000 repetitions of anything to ingrain it as muscle memory*. In the mean time, when I tried to do it full speed, I messed it up.
I am willing to put in the training it takes, provided I know there is a solid reason.
So I ask, is there a real, verifiable reason for one orientation over another**? If so, I will work through the pain and change. If not, I'm going to stay the way I am.
Thank you in advance. I await your responses.
* I tried to find a first source for this assertion. Most of the sources I found just stated it as known fact.
** "Real, verifiable reasons" do not include "because that's the way they teach it at Gunsite" or "because that's the way Dave Sevigny does it." I need scientific proof, not hearsay or legend.
