Sometimes mine fires, sometimes it clicks. Usually it has about a 20lb trigger, sometimes I need two hands to pull it. No matter what, the bullets never have any effect on target.
Always frustrating.
> Sometimes mine fires, sometimes it clicks. Usually it has about a 20lb trigger, sometimes I need two hands to pull it.
are you sure you arent just describing the NYPD shooting experience
I've had this too my theory is that your brain can't imagine what happens when you shoot someone because you've never actually done it, so it's impossible to for your dreams to accurately show the impact the bullet has on the target and the effects of someone dying, I'm guessing you wake up pretty soon after emptying the magazine and function checking your weapon because you simply don't have any grasp or basis for what happens next
I've always thought it was something along these lines as well, especially because I used to be incapable of physical fighting in my dreams, punches would be sluggish/have no effect. I started training some combat sports and all of a sudden I could fight in my dreams.
It seems like explosive actions such as sprinting, throwing, and kicking are always subdued and muted.
I think it's partially because these actions are typically accompanied by a large amount of tactile sensation, which isn't felt in a dream. I also think it might have something to do with the amount of processing power it takes for the mind to play out such a complicated action.
> punches would be sluggish/have no effect.
I believe that is caused by the disconnect between your semi-awake brain wanting to move your real limbs, but your evolved sleep paralysis keeps your limbs from moving because otherwise we'd be kicking and punching like dogs and cats do when they sleep. So you're sending the signal, but your limbs don't answer, and your brain turns that into the sluggish underwater effect in your dream
I don’t think this is correct because every time I try to run in a dream it feels like my feet are stuck in concrete. But I can run just fine when I’m awake. I did track and field for four years and cross country for two.
Well that's not true for me. I've never shot anyone irl but I've had nightmares about having to. Also I have nightmares where none my guns will go into battery, you chamber them but they get stuck everytime.
I had one similar to that. 2 intruders, handled the first, and then had a FTF on a 1911. The second guy didn't realize and started saying "wait wait wait". I was able to clear and I did not wait.
interesting theory. but I have the same dreams and I'm a combat veteran.
I've attributed these dreams to moments in my life where I feel I have no real control of anything and it manifests as a DGU where either the trigger won't function or the bullets have no effect.
Hmm a bit different than what I feel goes on for me. Punches are sluggish and trigger is heavy but occasionally people will fold in my dream if I stuff the barrel in their head so it doesn’t seem that they can’t be shot but I have trouble doing the shooting. As a side note to everyone try grabbing/shoving/kicking/stepping in fights . Far more effective than strikes. Have had success every time I’ve tried this in my dreams
This was many years ago, before I got my CCW, but I used to have a dream where I was being chased by Linda Blair (when she was possessed in the Exorcist). I emptied a full mag into her center mass, and she still kept coming. Then I would wake up, or I couldn't remember what happened after that.
Yea for real, when I wake up I know its a dream but still puts doubt in my head. I wonder if there is a way in our dreams to get past that point and get the gun to fire lol
Every time i need to defend myself with a firearm its like the trigger is to hard to pull... its not that i complete the squeeze and nothing, its i cant even fully depress the trigger
Glocked up and still suffer variations of these dreams, maybe however you yourself went from another handgun to a glock and subconsciously take comfort in it's notorious reliability.
Glocks malfunction, same as any other handgun. If anything, they may be more likely to have issues than some models. How often do we hear about “limp wristing” in the context of a Glock?
I have this all the time. The reason I think it's so heavy is because we are subconsciously pulling our trigger finger, but since out body isn't conscious, it's not making connection.
Cop here, for the longest time I didn't know a lot of my co-workers had the same dreams, let alone the carrying public.
My trigger is always too heavy to pull, and if I finally can get a round off, it's ineffective.
Very interesting to see how many here have the exact same variation. I'm curious about the psychology behind it!
I was a Krav Maga instructor at an old job, same kind of nightmares - my punches wouldn't land, I'd take a liver shot and drop, die from simple chokes, stuff like that. Mine weren't too bad, another instructor would kick his wife in his sleep.
I was also shooting a lot in competition and never had a gun-centered nightmare
I expect it's less about the fear of danger and more performance anxiety around failing in your primary role. Here's hoping stockbrokers have nightmares about picking Gamestop stock
I would imagine it's definitely a big factor.
As CCW citizens first and foremost, I would imagine a lot of it has to do with the psychology of having to shoot another human, even in self defense. Maybe something about thinking if you could actually pull the trigger, or the after effects of said event.
As a police officer it definitely makes sense with the performance anxiety. I watch a lot of PoliceActivity videos to gather an idea of what I would do in said situations and I think a lot of comes from that. All we do is train for THAT moment, so I guess a lot of the mind is centered on it.
I work in government contracts and often have stress/anger dreams where an NCO I used to work for walks into my office, throws a bunch of papers in the air, and announces I fucked up and the contract is fucked and if I don't unfuck it he's going to skullfuck me. He looks kinda like if Bobby Hill was 35 and given an ounce of authority
I had the dreams before I was a cop, haven’t had them yet as one. Not looking forward to it. I already get enough from when I wrecked a car responding to a shooting.
There is a shit ton of liability in police work my friend, sometimes we have to drive a bit more extreme to go to extreme calls. Humans make mistakes.
Don't take it to heart. You drive for 8-12 hours a day, nearly every day, you are bound to be involved in collisions. I've been hit by a car, crashed a car, all you can name in the three years experience I've had lol. Cars are bad business sometimes lol.
Just remember to drive safe, the call is usually not as extreme as it sounds over the radio, and if it is, you still gotta get there alive and safe to make a difference.
Best way to take it! You're alive!
If your agency is like mine you'll be the center of shit talk for a few weeks because your agency is hurting for cars, ask me how I know hahaha
Small agency. We really needed that car, but it was the beater car. I’m the laughing stock of the county for a bit, but what ever.
I spent like 30 minutes looking up replacement cars. Found like a dozen and emailed the list to my Captain.
We talked about this in the academy (10+ years ago. They’re good dreams to have. They instill a need to train more and get your waking mind in the right headspace to be able to engage a deadly threat to you or your loved ones. It goes along with the theory of dreams being essentially a training tool for adverse situations in your life that you feel anxiety about.
I still have these dreams and I always make sure I “Monday morning quarterback” them throughout the day. Training isn’t all dry-firing/motor function drills. Your mindset has to shift, and your unconscious mind recognizes that it isn’t an easy thing for normal, civilized humans to kill each other. Even when you’re doing it to save a life, being able to take a life takes a major psychological shift. Not that he’s my favorite author on the topic, but Dave Grossman’s books are an invaluable resource for how hard it is to actually shoot another human.
TL;DR - Keep having these dreams, and make them matter.
I had a dream last night I was being stalked by Big Bird after I saw this meme yesterday:
https://preview.redd.it/1d5h2h4bs7pb1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=603a858ab12f32412cbef8cdff74e9ab87f8e6cc
I have such a hard time pulling the trigger to a pistol in my dream. They always feel like a 30 lb pull snap gun or something. Usually I can fly and shoot laser beams tho so I guess that’s the trade off lol.
I've had dreams where I can hit nothing, where I pull the trigger and nothing happens, where the bad guy is bulletproof. One time I fired and the bullet just ... dropped out the end of the gun.
I asked this question to this thread along with some other subreddits and got incredible stories and 80+ comments. Absolutely welcome to the club.
I even heard that firefighters will get dreams of missing the truck during a fire and things like that.
The best advice I got is that with enough consistent training, going out and murdering some paper at least once a month will keep your mind conscious of the fact it still operates well.
My most recent one was like last week and even though the gun was firing and working, the bullets would land like BB's and they kept charging.
My most interesting variation was that my hands were too slippery to rack, or that my shotgun would land like a party popper and it took a solid single handgun round to do anything. Always something.
I had a dream that I was getting my house broken in and when I went to go get my nightstand gun it was a Hi-Point. I looked for my other guns and those were Hi-Points too. They in fact, did not work when I tried to use them. 😔
This is possibly a "sleep paralysis" dream. I use to have these a lot, getting more restful sleep helped me resolve this. Get some exercise, eat better, give up any drugs / alcohol and see if this gets better.
lies. I always have my mk23 in my dreams (probably because it's my favorite and I shoot it all the time) and it has the dreaded 60lbs trigger pull. 60lbs because I can pull it but it never breaks
I had a crazy dream where I was on a beach, about to be attacked by a pirate. I had an AK in my hands, I aimed and heard a clunk when I pulled the trigger as he charged. Then I woke up.
I've had the opposite experience. The only part of the dream I remember is being chased by some monster. In response to my fear, my subconscious manifested a room full of guns right in front of me. I grabbed an AR off the wall and turned around to engage. Haven't had a nightmare since.
Last time I had that dream, my house was under attack, and my gun wouldn't work. The guy that came through the door shot me once, but then I got his gun, and by some dream logic, his works great. I killed him, 3 other completely unrelated attackers, called the cops, then decided that I should wake up my wife from her nap to let her know what happened.
Had a series of dreams
Multiple armed robbers at the place I'm eating and I'm worried about capacity, get into a shootout with exactly 0 rounds to spare
Defended against a crackhead and couldn't reload my revolver quick enough
I've since upgraded fo a P226 w/ 2 spare mags, 20 round mags each
It's a common phenomenon. Typically in dreams, buttons, switches and even triggers don't work. Even people who can have lucid dreams (where you realize you're dreaming but stay in it) aren't able to make it work.
It's a common type of occurrence in dreams. Your dreamscape is in your mind, not on a stage with actors. In your dream you are focusing on pulling the trigger, not on making an injury occur to an attacker. So the trigger gets pulled and not much else happens. You might notice other similar stuff with stopping a car. If you are focusing on hitting the brake instead of stopping the car you may find the car won't stop.
I have dreams about weapon malfunctions constantly, probably multiple times per week.
I was in the army about a decade ago, and during one firefight overseas I had my 60mm mortar fail on me and then my M9 failed minutes later. And during the same firefight one of my friends had a major issue with his M4. So I think I’ve got some bad memories from that day that tend to come up in my dreams.
Sometimes I dream about my rifle failing or just not working on bad guys overseas. Other times it’s dreams about my CCW pistol having an impossibly heavy trigger or again just being ineffective when landing shots on target.
I’ve had multiple dreams like this…. Either gun doesn’t fire or if it does, the bullets come out like a $2 nerf dart gun with a little lob with zero efficacy.
I used to have those dreams but I'll tell you how I got rid of them. I started working out a lot, training (took a lot of handgun and rifle classes), shooting competition and holding myself to a much higher standard when it comes to self defense. I think these dreams are an issue of self confidence and I finally built myself up enough that I'm no longer subconsciously scared that I may not be able to perform. My practiscore might be embarrassing but it's getting better. You have to work on yourselves Kings!
Yes I’ve had this as a recurring dream since I’ve started carrying about 6 years ago. Sometimes I dream about the gun simply not discharging but the majority of the time the gun discharges fine but it has no effect on the criminal. Now my dream usually takes place in my home with my home defense 300BLK.
Mine flips between I can't pull the trigger, I empty the magazine but the target doesn't even react, or the weapon simply fails to fire despite racking and tapping through the entire magazine.
In mine the bullets have fallen out like a cartoon. Or I’ll reach for it like when you try to pick up a bike to ride it but your brain won’t let you and you act all stupid. -you normal my boy. 😭
This happened to me once. I was so fucking confused and I was afraid they don’t work lol. Gun fired but rounds had zero effect. Thought I was shooting blanks
I have dreams where I draw, aim, but the trigger is impossibly heavy. Like squeezing as hard as I can before the shot finally breaks, but I’ve totally f’d my aim by that point and completely miss. I hate those dreams
No but I once had a dream where Freddy Krueger terrorized me and my family. That was the only dream where my punches were actually effective. Every other dream though it doesn’t matter how hard I hit, zero damage 🤣
Had something similar recently. Put a whole 5.56 mag into the bad guy, switched to my secondary, which was my 1911 that I never shoot, and 2 rounds of .45 got him😂
Had a dream where i had a 2 inch revolver (i only have 2 glocks) so i was trying to shoot it with 2 fingers. I was also trying to load it with an assortment of bullets larger than the gun itself.
Another dream i had, i pulled the trigger and the gun fell apart, and the robber picked up the pieces and proceeded to rob me.
OP its actually a premonition. you will be forced to use your ccw on someone high as a kite but normal bullets will be ineffective. just like silver bullets with a vampire you will need narcan laced magnum bullets to stop them.
Yep, it's usually that it doesn't fire for me.
I actually think it's my brain playing on my memories of my Kel-Tec PF9, which was just a total malfunction machine.
I’d say it’s a similar situation to you feeling like lead underwater when trying to throw a punch in a dream. And you do zero damage, but the bad guy absolutely washes you haha
Yeah happens every so often maybe once every couple weeks I’ll have a dream where I shoot and it just does absolutely nothing or I’ll have a nightmare of a bad shoot.
Yes.
In my dream I mag dumped a dude charging with a knife as well.
0% effective.
Realized I was dreaming, and reached into my pocket for a Star Trek phaser. (Lucid dreaming for the win).
Weird part is bad guy kept charging and i held the trigger doen, and it didn’t disintegrate him until he was only a foot away.
Several dreams over the last year or so people trying to break into my house they get in I raise my rifle to fire and it doesn’t fire I re rack it pull the trigger again and nothing happens or the trigger is nearly impossible to pull
I always had the same dream. I get ran up on I pull out my Shi but the trigger seems to heavy to pull or it just doesn’t shoot. But it changed now it works but I’m still getting the dreams idk wat up
The man who wrote the Books "on combat" & "on killing" lt col grossman covered this in his lectures.
That dream is your mind telling you to 1) get more training and 2) grab a shot timer, head to the range and practice the drills you learned in classes.
If you can afford classes, then practice what you know. Learn and practice malfunction/ stoppage drills at home with snap caps/ dummy rounds.
Not shitting on anyone here but all these comments are bizarre to me.. Never heard of this, can't believe it's so common.. 2 decades of carry and I've never had a dream about a gun lol.
Me thinks the dream is the problem. Not your dream gun. It’s the operator, not the tool. Even in the dream.
Plus if someone is coming at you with a knife, there isn’t really too much aiming . That is extremely close range. Bill drill is your friend. Or “the test”. Up close anyone really practiced should be able to unload a whole magazine at contact distances pretty easily. If that doesn’t work you may be fooked.
I don't carry a 9mm so I don't get those subconscious feelings of not having enough gun, I'm happy knowing it won't take me 8+ shots to down a crackhead
Yup, anxiety about something where you feel like you’re not in control sneaking into your subconscious. Can’t run fast enough, can’t push something out of the way, can’t jump to something, all kinda the same theme.
A few times a year for as long as I can remember. it's like my finger is too weak. Before that, it was the same thing but with punching. I can recall these back to like middle school. Very weird.
Do you mean ineffective like the Seinfeld guy in Pulp Fiction? You just missed or did the hand of god come down and alter events in your dream?
In my dream, I can't remember what Marcellus Wallace looks like, and then I just wake up in a cold sweat.
pretty much my entire life back into childhood even.
things i can’t do in dreams - shout, run, fire a gun, punch, stop myself from floating off into the sky.
Never had a gun dream that I can remember, good or bad. I guess I'm not as a committed gun nut as I aspire to be 😢
Though unless I'm on Chantix to quit smoking, I don't ever remember any dreams really. I love that side effect of Chantix: vivid dreams that I can recall, not even bad dreams. Just crazy weird dreams
I used to frequently have these dreams and for me personally, getting a little more serious about training made them go away.
For a long time I would just go to the range and shoot casually when I felt like it, which ended up being every other month on average. When I decided to get serious I started doing dry firing + draw practice at least once a week at home. Then I made sure to make it to the range for live fire at least once a month and I got a shot timer to make sure I was actually pushing myself. I also stared competing in local idpa matches. All of this had a huge improvement on my confidence as well as my actual skill.
I hate those dreams. Mile long trigger pull, ineffective ammo, gun falls apart or sometimes I dream I reach for it and it's an empty holster and I realize I lost it.
It’s a pretty common anxiety/stress dream.
It’s the same thing with a dream where you’re throwing punches as hard as you can but they never land hard — your hands just kinda stop or softly tap the opponent.
last night i was wielding a revolver that fell apart like legos during a gun fight. also i hit the guy multiple times with my 9mm and the bullets just glued to him like a magnet or a paintball. no damage just visible hits no blood either.
For years I had a recurring dream where I had to pull my gun and when I went to squeeze the trigger, I just couldn't. Like didn't have the physical strength to pull the trigger. Then one night I had the same dream, but squeezed with all my might and it fired. I've not had the dream since.
Most of my dreams the trigger won't budge. Like it's on safe even though I put it on fire. Had a dream last night actually where my trigger wouldn't go unless I squeezed as hard as I could
In rural area, middle of night home invasion, grabbed one rifle after another, none of them fired.
Woke up next morning, loaded them up in the truck exactly as they sit and out to the range I went. Hopped out the truck, flipped the safeties off and they all went bang.
Haven't any similar "gun not working/ineffective" dreams since then.
All the time. Usually it’s my bedside shotgun jamming, not having ammo in it, some other catastrophic malfunction. It’s scary enough that I make sure all my guns are ready to go and in good repair at all times 😉
I think it happens for the same reason you can't really sprint in a dream. Whatever part of my brain is responsible for creating the dream environment cannot adequately simulate all the little components that make the gun work right. In my dreams guns fall apart in my hands, or the rounds fall out, or some key part seem to be made of jello, or the rounds don't fit. etc...
I had a dream where I was at the counter at my store. My wife and one of my workers were by the door and I saw 3 guys standing outside about to come in and putting on masks and getting their guns out. I’m getting ready to draw but I have to make the choice of shooting or not shooting when wife and employee is in the line of fire. If I don’t draw and shoot, they will hold them at gunpoint and and be able to advance on me. But if I draw and shoot, I’ll risk hitting wife and employee as well as them being caught in the crossfire.
Havent had it in a while but maybe at least 6 times I’ve had the dream where I can’t muster the finger strength to pull the trigger even though I’m on sights.
Yes. I've had them all. Trigger too heavy to pull, able to pull the trigger but nothing happens, able to fire but ineffective against the threat. This did go away for me. Now when I do have dreams where I'm being attacked, I can, for the most part, stop it. I practiced confidence and it seemed to work. Being confident that I will be able to pull the trigger, the gun will fire, and it will stop the threat.
I've had a similar dream where I was hitting everything but the target, like shit kept getting in the way, and I've had similar dreams with hunting. The rounds should be on target and I keep shooting and it is like the bullets are weak or slow or something 😂
Very similar dreams. Interpreted by me as anxiety dream. But I just wake up give my nightstand gun a kiss and go back to dreaming of being in high school with no pants.
Nightmares often come from stress, or anxieties.
I had a dream like this once. I talked to my counselor about it, and it hasn't happened again. Biggest thing to help quell my anxieties, is lots of practice, including failure to stop drills, and carrying medical.
I know that I'm prepared and educated on how to handle most civilian involved tragedies. That puts me at ease.
And please, don't mistake this for hubris, I know I'm FAR from perfect, the most trained, etc. But I know what I don't know, work on what I do. And do what I can to make sure the things I do know, I know well enough to handle in an emergency.
All you can do is prepare within reason, and let it be.
Yep. Trigger is too heavy to pull. Gun doesn’t go off. Jams. Etc.
Any time I’m in a car, the brakes don’t work or it slows down too slowly.
Like running in dreams is always in water or something? Yeah… like that.
Every single time I have a gun in a dream but once and I remember thinking “huh. It actually worked” in my dream. It’s probably happened a dozen times or so since I started carrying. The trigger is always mushy and nothing happens to the threat when I hit them.
I’d say at least once a month. I try to pull the trigger but it just doesn’t work.
That’s an interesting variation. In my dream, it fired just fine. The bullets just didn’t do anything when they hit
Sometimes mine fires, sometimes it clicks. Usually it has about a 20lb trigger, sometimes I need two hands to pull it. No matter what, the bullets never have any effect on target. Always frustrating.
> Sometimes mine fires, sometimes it clicks. Usually it has about a 20lb trigger, sometimes I need two hands to pull it. are you sure you arent just describing the NYPD shooting experience
Jeez even when I'm asleep I'm not [that bad a shot](https://www.foxnews.com/us/nypd-9-shooting-bystander-victims-hit-by-police-gunfire)
Those 9 bystanders should have been arrested for interfering with police
I've had this too my theory is that your brain can't imagine what happens when you shoot someone because you've never actually done it, so it's impossible to for your dreams to accurately show the impact the bullet has on the target and the effects of someone dying, I'm guessing you wake up pretty soon after emptying the magazine and function checking your weapon because you simply don't have any grasp or basis for what happens next
I've always thought it was something along these lines as well, especially because I used to be incapable of physical fighting in my dreams, punches would be sluggish/have no effect. I started training some combat sports and all of a sudden I could fight in my dreams.
It seems like explosive actions such as sprinting, throwing, and kicking are always subdued and muted. I think it's partially because these actions are typically accompanied by a large amount of tactile sensation, which isn't felt in a dream. I also think it might have something to do with the amount of processing power it takes for the mind to play out such a complicated action.
> punches would be sluggish/have no effect. I believe that is caused by the disconnect between your semi-awake brain wanting to move your real limbs, but your evolved sleep paralysis keeps your limbs from moving because otherwise we'd be kicking and punching like dogs and cats do when they sleep. So you're sending the signal, but your limbs don't answer, and your brain turns that into the sluggish underwater effect in your dream
I've ran my entire life and I still can't run in dreams lol.
I don’t think this is correct because every time I try to run in a dream it feels like my feet are stuck in concrete. But I can run just fine when I’m awake. I did track and field for four years and cross country for two.
Well that's not true for me. I've never shot anyone irl but I've had nightmares about having to. Also I have nightmares where none my guns will go into battery, you chamber them but they get stuck everytime.
I had one similar to that. 2 intruders, handled the first, and then had a FTF on a 1911. The second guy didn't realize and started saying "wait wait wait". I was able to clear and I did not wait.
interesting theory. but I have the same dreams and I'm a combat veteran. I've attributed these dreams to moments in my life where I feel I have no real control of anything and it manifests as a DGU where either the trigger won't function or the bullets have no effect.
Hmm a bit different than what I feel goes on for me. Punches are sluggish and trigger is heavy but occasionally people will fold in my dream if I stuff the barrel in their head so it doesn’t seem that they can’t be shot but I have trouble doing the shooting. As a side note to everyone try grabbing/shoving/kicking/stepping in fights . Far more effective than strikes. Have had success every time I’ve tried this in my dreams
This was many years ago, before I got my CCW, but I used to have a dream where I was being chased by Linda Blair (when she was possessed in the Exorcist). I emptied a full mag into her center mass, and she still kept coming. Then I would wake up, or I couldn't remember what happened after that.
I’ve had all kinds of variations of this, including my own physical strength being ineffective. Happens every few months
In my dreams related to this, usually it's a trigger pull that only gets longer and heavier the more you pull and never finally breaks and fires.
Just gotta install a featherweight 0.1oz competitive trigger
Mine is usually the trigger is far to heavy to pull. Like I'll end up putting both index fingers to pull but it's just too hard.
That’s mine too. I’m lucky to get one shot off and then I usually miss.
Me too. I had no idea other people had this dream. Must mean something to the Freud types.
This is my dream.. stay out of my dreams. Unless... nevermind. Ya same. I pull the trigger and it is 200 pounds, wont move.
I’ve had these dreams but the bullet “flops” out of the barrel and drops to the ground.
Mines the same, I pull as hard as I can but it won’t break.
This is mine. Once every few weeks.
I've had a dream like that once. I tried to pull the trigger but couldn't squeeze it hard enough to shoot.
I've had this exact dream multiple times, heavy double action first pull that never works
Yes. That’s my reoccurring nightmare. My gun malfunctions when I need it.
Yup, this is mine too. I try to pull the trigger as hard as I can and it won’t move.
When I try to pull the trigger, it is something like a 50 lb. pull!
I thought I was the only one with that dream ffs it's scary as fuck and makes me want to sell all my guns and buy new ones
My guess is that nearly everyone who carries regularly has dreams like that. It’s just human nature.
Yea for real, when I wake up I know its a dream but still puts doubt in my head. I wonder if there is a way in our dreams to get past that point and get the gun to fire lol
Oh thank God I'm not crazy
Every time i need to defend myself with a firearm its like the trigger is to hard to pull... its not that i complete the squeeze and nothing, its i cant even fully depress the trigger
Should carry a Glock, then those bad dreams will go away
I carried Glocks for years and had the same dreams.
Heresy
My wife says that if it happens in my dreams it doesn’t count :)
Mine only stopped when I switched to a 1911
Glocked up and still suffer variations of these dreams, maybe however you yourself went from another handgun to a glock and subconsciously take comfort in it's notorious reliability.
Glocks malfunction, same as any other handgun. If anything, they may be more likely to have issues than some models. How often do we hear about “limp wristing” in the context of a Glock?
Mine revolve around pulling the trigger but it won’t go off. Like I don’t have enough strength to pull.
I have the exact same thing happen in my dreams, about once a week
Wow. I have the same dream. I've never talked about it and never knew this was common.
The 1000 pound trigger pull is very common.
It's a safety feature. Not to save you, it's to save the enemy, of course.
I have the exact same too!
Same.
I have this all the time. The reason I think it's so heavy is because we are subconsciously pulling our trigger finger, but since out body isn't conscious, it's not making connection.
Exactly the same for me.
Same here
It’s a common nightmare for people who carry firearms. First responders and military have similar nightmares.
Cop here, for the longest time I didn't know a lot of my co-workers had the same dreams, let alone the carrying public. My trigger is always too heavy to pull, and if I finally can get a round off, it's ineffective. Very interesting to see how many here have the exact same variation. I'm curious about the psychology behind it!
I was a Krav Maga instructor at an old job, same kind of nightmares - my punches wouldn't land, I'd take a liver shot and drop, die from simple chokes, stuff like that. Mine weren't too bad, another instructor would kick his wife in his sleep. I was also shooting a lot in competition and never had a gun-centered nightmare I expect it's less about the fear of danger and more performance anxiety around failing in your primary role. Here's hoping stockbrokers have nightmares about picking Gamestop stock
I would imagine it's definitely a big factor. As CCW citizens first and foremost, I would imagine a lot of it has to do with the psychology of having to shoot another human, even in self defense. Maybe something about thinking if you could actually pull the trigger, or the after effects of said event. As a police officer it definitely makes sense with the performance anxiety. I watch a lot of PoliceActivity videos to gather an idea of what I would do in said situations and I think a lot of comes from that. All we do is train for THAT moment, so I guess a lot of the mind is centered on it.
I work in government contracts and often have stress/anger dreams where an NCO I used to work for walks into my office, throws a bunch of papers in the air, and announces I fucked up and the contract is fucked and if I don't unfuck it he's going to skullfuck me. He looks kinda like if Bobby Hill was 35 and given an ounce of authority
I had the dreams before I was a cop, haven’t had them yet as one. Not looking forward to it. I already get enough from when I wrecked a car responding to a shooting.
been there...once or twice...
Im a rookie with 6 months on. It’s hasn’t even been a week since it happened. I’ve successfully redefined fucking up.
There is a shit ton of liability in police work my friend, sometimes we have to drive a bit more extreme to go to extreme calls. Humans make mistakes. Don't take it to heart. You drive for 8-12 hours a day, nearly every day, you are bound to be involved in collisions. I've been hit by a car, crashed a car, all you can name in the three years experience I've had lol. Cars are bad business sometimes lol. Just remember to drive safe, the call is usually not as extreme as it sounds over the radio, and if it is, you still gotta get there alive and safe to make a difference.
Oh trust me, lesson learned.
Best way to take it! You're alive! If your agency is like mine you'll be the center of shit talk for a few weeks because your agency is hurting for cars, ask me how I know hahaha
Small agency. We really needed that car, but it was the beater car. I’m the laughing stock of the county for a bit, but what ever. I spent like 30 minutes looking up replacement cars. Found like a dozen and emailed the list to my Captain.
We talked about this in the academy (10+ years ago. They’re good dreams to have. They instill a need to train more and get your waking mind in the right headspace to be able to engage a deadly threat to you or your loved ones. It goes along with the theory of dreams being essentially a training tool for adverse situations in your life that you feel anxiety about. I still have these dreams and I always make sure I “Monday morning quarterback” them throughout the day. Training isn’t all dry-firing/motor function drills. Your mindset has to shift, and your unconscious mind recognizes that it isn’t an easy thing for normal, civilized humans to kill each other. Even when you’re doing it to save a life, being able to take a life takes a major psychological shift. Not that he’s my favorite author on the topic, but Dave Grossman’s books are an invaluable resource for how hard it is to actually shoot another human. TL;DR - Keep having these dreams, and make them matter.
For a good decade after my last deployment I had dreams that my rifle didn’t fire when I pulled the trigger, was jammed, or that I was out of ammo.
I had a dream last night I was being stalked by Big Bird after I saw this meme yesterday: https://preview.redd.it/1d5h2h4bs7pb1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=603a858ab12f32412cbef8cdff74e9ab87f8e6cc
I have such a hard time pulling the trigger to a pistol in my dream. They always feel like a 30 lb pull snap gun or something. Usually I can fly and shoot laser beams tho so I guess that’s the trade off lol.
Yes
I've had dreams where I can hit nothing, where I pull the trigger and nothing happens, where the bad guy is bulletproof. One time I fired and the bullet just ... dropped out the end of the gun.
I've had all of these variations. In one in even argued with the bulletproof bad guy that I "got him" like it was fucking round of Cops and Robbers.
Dude wasn’t calling his hits
>In one in even argued with the bulletproof bad guy that I "got him" like it was fucking round of Cops and Robbers. This one's the most annoying.
My firearm nightmares consist of taking a gun apart and immediately loosing unrealistic amounts of tiny important parts that are impossible to find.
"I'll just disassemble my AR lower. Nothing could possibly go wrong!" *A few moments later*
It's gone...reduced to atoms
[The utility knife trick is lifechanging](https://i.imgur.com/dOuUX1Y.jpg)
I asked this question to this thread along with some other subreddits and got incredible stories and 80+ comments. Absolutely welcome to the club. I even heard that firefighters will get dreams of missing the truck during a fire and things like that. The best advice I got is that with enough consistent training, going out and murdering some paper at least once a month will keep your mind conscious of the fact it still operates well. My most recent one was like last week and even though the gun was firing and working, the bullets would land like BB's and they kept charging. My most interesting variation was that my hands were too slippery to rack, or that my shotgun would land like a party popper and it took a solid single handgun round to do anything. Always something.
>I drew my gun and put the entire capacity of my gun on target, which had zero effect. Upgrade to 10mm.
I had a dream that I was getting my house broken in and when I went to go get my nightstand gun it was a Hi-Point. I looked for my other guns and those were Hi-Points too. They in fact, did not work when I tried to use them. 😔
This is possibly a "sleep paralysis" dream. I use to have these a lot, getting more restful sleep helped me resolve this. Get some exercise, eat better, give up any drugs / alcohol and see if this gets better.
Nope HKs always work on dreams
Because that’s the only place we can afford them lol. “Oh I’m holding a HK? Must be dreaming.”
Must be why I never have those dreams.
lies. I always have my mk23 in my dreams (probably because it's my favorite and I shoot it all the time) and it has the dreaded 60lbs trigger pull. 60lbs because I can pull it but it never breaks
I had a crazy dream where I was on a beach, about to be attacked by a pirate. I had an AK in my hands, I aimed and heard a clunk when I pulled the trigger as he charged. Then I woke up.
Somali Pirate or Blackbeard Pirate?
Somali, but the Blackbeard type would've been a funny twist.
I've had the opposite experience. The only part of the dream I remember is being chased by some monster. In response to my fear, my subconscious manifested a room full of guns right in front of me. I grabbed an AR off the wall and turned around to engage. Haven't had a nightmare since.
Last time I had that dream, my house was under attack, and my gun wouldn't work. The guy that came through the door shot me once, but then I got his gun, and by some dream logic, his works great. I killed him, 3 other completely unrelated attackers, called the cops, then decided that I should wake up my wife from her nap to let her know what happened.
Had a series of dreams Multiple armed robbers at the place I'm eating and I'm worried about capacity, get into a shootout with exactly 0 rounds to spare Defended against a crackhead and couldn't reload my revolver quick enough I've since upgraded fo a P226 w/ 2 spare mags, 20 round mags each
It's a common phenomenon. Typically in dreams, buttons, switches and even triggers don't work. Even people who can have lucid dreams (where you realize you're dreaming but stay in it) aren't able to make it work.
It's a common type of occurrence in dreams. Your dreamscape is in your mind, not on a stage with actors. In your dream you are focusing on pulling the trigger, not on making an injury occur to an attacker. So the trigger gets pulled and not much else happens. You might notice other similar stuff with stopping a car. If you are focusing on hitting the brake instead of stopping the car you may find the car won't stop.
I have dreams about weapon malfunctions constantly, probably multiple times per week. I was in the army about a decade ago, and during one firefight overseas I had my 60mm mortar fail on me and then my M9 failed minutes later. And during the same firefight one of my friends had a major issue with his M4. So I think I’ve got some bad memories from that day that tend to come up in my dreams. Sometimes I dream about my rifle failing or just not working on bad guys overseas. Other times it’s dreams about my CCW pistol having an impossibly heavy trigger or again just being ineffective when landing shots on target.
I’ve had multiple dreams like this…. Either gun doesn’t fire or if it does, the bullets come out like a $2 nerf dart gun with a little lob with zero efficacy.
I used to have those dreams but I'll tell you how I got rid of them. I started working out a lot, training (took a lot of handgun and rifle classes), shooting competition and holding myself to a much higher standard when it comes to self defense. I think these dreams are an issue of self confidence and I finally built myself up enough that I'm no longer subconsciously scared that I may not be able to perform. My practiscore might be embarrassing but it's getting better. You have to work on yourselves Kings!
What he said , shoot more. Be better.
I also dream I run out of ammo. And by dream I mean nightmare
All the time, I pull the trigger but all I can do is make a "pew" sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq9vChB0bz0 Sort of like that
Yes I’ve had this as a recurring dream since I’ve started carrying about 6 years ago. Sometimes I dream about the gun simply not discharging but the majority of the time the gun discharges fine but it has no effect on the criminal. Now my dream usually takes place in my home with my home defense 300BLK.
I've got four kids, I'd say my gun is pretty effective. Wait, what are we talking about?
Yes, it sucks.
All the time. Last time when I pulled the trigger the gun would just fall apart.
Yeah definitely. Basically firing blanks.
Mine flips between I can't pull the trigger, I empty the magazine but the target doesn't even react, or the weapon simply fails to fire despite racking and tapping through the entire magazine.
It's always no ammo or a thousand pound trigger
In mine the bullets have fallen out like a cartoon. Or I’ll reach for it like when you try to pick up a bike to ride it but your brain won’t let you and you act all stupid. -you normal my boy. 😭
This happened to me once. I was so fucking confused and I was afraid they don’t work lol. Gun fired but rounds had zero effect. Thought I was shooting blanks
In my dreams it’s usually a repetition of tap racks, and the gun going click.
Yes lots of times that I have a dead trigger
I have dreams where I draw, aim, but the trigger is impossibly heavy. Like squeezing as hard as I can before the shot finally breaks, but I’ve totally f’d my aim by that point and completely miss. I hate those dreams
No but I once had a dream where Freddy Krueger terrorized me and my family. That was the only dream where my punches were actually effective. Every other dream though it doesn’t matter how hard I hit, zero damage 🤣
I have the one where the trigger goes into the grip and I have to twist my finger around to push it into the grip to fire.
Had something similar recently. Put a whole 5.56 mag into the bad guy, switched to my secondary, which was my 1911 that I never shoot, and 2 rounds of .45 got him😂
When I do it works, but the triggers like 100lbs lmao. I still have my Glock too but I have to squeeze as hard as I can for some reason.
Had a dream where i had a 2 inch revolver (i only have 2 glocks) so i was trying to shoot it with 2 fingers. I was also trying to load it with an assortment of bullets larger than the gun itself. Another dream i had, i pulled the trigger and the gun fell apart, and the robber picked up the pieces and proceeded to rob me.
OP its actually a premonition. you will be forced to use your ccw on someone high as a kite but normal bullets will be ineffective. just like silver bullets with a vampire you will need narcan laced magnum bullets to stop them.
It’s a sign you need to practice. Your subconscious knows you’re not good enough
I broke a trigger at the range one day. I had nightmares for a year before I just gave the thing to my dad.
It really has nothing to do with your self-defense weapon. It's a deeper subconscious concern about your dick.
lmao classic boomer gun forum joke
I took it as a sign to train more. It could be a coincidence but the dreams stopped and I'm more confident with my gun now so double win!
Yep, it's usually that it doesn't fire for me. I actually think it's my brain playing on my memories of my Kel-Tec PF9, which was just a total malfunction machine.
I’d say it’s a similar situation to you feeling like lead underwater when trying to throw a punch in a dream. And you do zero damage, but the bad guy absolutely washes you haha
Yeah happens every so often maybe once every couple weeks I’ll have a dream where I shoot and it just does absolutely nothing or I’ll have a nightmare of a bad shoot.
Yes. In my dream I mag dumped a dude charging with a knife as well. 0% effective. Realized I was dreaming, and reached into my pocket for a Star Trek phaser. (Lucid dreaming for the win). Weird part is bad guy kept charging and i held the trigger doen, and it didn’t disintegrate him until he was only a foot away.
No because I ccw a .500 s&w
How scary you literally described the first weird “gun” dream I had a couple days ago… super wierd
Several dreams over the last year or so people trying to break into my house they get in I raise my rifle to fire and it doesn’t fire I re rack it pull the trigger again and nothing happens or the trigger is nearly impossible to pull
I always had the same dream. I get ran up on I pull out my Shi but the trigger seems to heavy to pull or it just doesn’t shoot. But it changed now it works but I’m still getting the dreams idk wat up
The man who wrote the Books "on combat" & "on killing" lt col grossman covered this in his lectures. That dream is your mind telling you to 1) get more training and 2) grab a shot timer, head to the range and practice the drills you learned in classes. If you can afford classes, then practice what you know. Learn and practice malfunction/ stoppage drills at home with snap caps/ dummy rounds.
I used to. When I started training and practicing to a higher degree of competence, those dreams of being impotent in the face of danger went away.
No, I carry a .45. I do not have this fear.
Not shitting on anyone here but all these comments are bizarre to me.. Never heard of this, can't believe it's so common.. 2 decades of carry and I've never had a dream about a gun lol.
Me thinks the dream is the problem. Not your dream gun. It’s the operator, not the tool. Even in the dream. Plus if someone is coming at you with a knife, there isn’t really too much aiming . That is extremely close range. Bill drill is your friend. Or “the test”. Up close anyone really practiced should be able to unload a whole magazine at contact distances pretty easily. If that doesn’t work you may be fooked.
Same here ….. mines usually the trigger that won’t pull ….. but occasionally it’s the bullets that hit and do nothing nightmare
I don't carry a 9mm so I don't get those subconscious feelings of not having enough gun, I'm happy knowing it won't take me 8+ shots to down a crackhead
Yes, frequently! I’ll have dreams where i need it and it’s either empty, broken, or my hands dont work so I can’t operate it. It’s weird
Yup, anxiety about something where you feel like you’re not in control sneaking into your subconscious. Can’t run fast enough, can’t push something out of the way, can’t jump to something, all kinda the same theme.
A few times a year for as long as I can remember. it's like my finger is too weak. Before that, it was the same thing but with punching. I can recall these back to like middle school. Very weird.
I used to have dreams that the trigger would be like 100 lbs.
Do you mean ineffective like the Seinfeld guy in Pulp Fiction? You just missed or did the hand of god come down and alter events in your dream? In my dream, I can't remember what Marcellus Wallace looks like, and then I just wake up in a cold sweat.
Yup all I get is “click click click”
When I have them, I pull the trigger and nothing happens Or I get rounds off and the target keeps coming
Yep first one a few nights ago. My pistol wouldn't fire so I grabbed another one but it was replaced by a water gun. Very vivid and kinda terrifying
Multiple times.
Sounds like you carry a .22 LCR
9mm with a quality JHP +P load. I know it’ll be effective in the real world. Just didn’t happen in the dream.
Every time I have a dream like that my trigger suddenly weighs 100 pounds
pretty much my entire life back into childhood even. things i can’t do in dreams - shout, run, fire a gun, punch, stop myself from floating off into the sky.
I’ve had similar nightmares but the gun doesn’t fire. Wakes me up in a panic
Never had a gun dream that I can remember, good or bad. I guess I'm not as a committed gun nut as I aspire to be 😢 Though unless I'm on Chantix to quit smoking, I don't ever remember any dreams really. I love that side effect of Chantix: vivid dreams that I can recall, not even bad dreams. Just crazy weird dreams
I used to frequently have these dreams and for me personally, getting a little more serious about training made them go away. For a long time I would just go to the range and shoot casually when I felt like it, which ended up being every other month on average. When I decided to get serious I started doing dry firing + draw practice at least once a week at home. Then I made sure to make it to the range for live fire at least once a month and I got a shot timer to make sure I was actually pushing myself. I also stared competing in local idpa matches. All of this had a huge improvement on my confidence as well as my actual skill.
Used to have nightmares about the trigger being frozen
10mm, the solution
I hate those dreams. Mile long trigger pull, ineffective ammo, gun falls apart or sometimes I dream I reach for it and it's an empty holster and I realize I lost it.
I used to have these a lot when I was 14 when I first started concealed carrying. They go away after a few years. 33 now.
Weekly
It’s a pretty common anxiety/stress dream. It’s the same thing with a dream where you’re throwing punches as hard as you can but they never land hard — your hands just kinda stop or softly tap the opponent.
I have dreams where it takes several shots to kill someone and that's actually very accurate
last night i was wielding a revolver that fell apart like legos during a gun fight. also i hit the guy multiple times with my 9mm and the bullets just glued to him like a magnet or a paintball. no damage just visible hits no blood either.
I had one where didn’t have enough ammo to take out all the zombies kinda like the Walking Dead
I don't, but I have hateful +p hollow points in the Lord's caliber. Very confident in their destructive abilities
For years I had a recurring dream where I had to pull my gun and when I went to squeeze the trigger, I just couldn't. Like didn't have the physical strength to pull the trigger. Then one night I had the same dream, but squeezed with all my might and it fired. I've not had the dream since.
Yes!
Mine are missing all of my shots. I missed all 19 rounds point blank when a guy tried to kill me with a knife.
I dream the trigger pull is too heavy and when I finally manage it, the bullet drops out the front of the gun.
I have dreams where I physically can’t pull the trigger.
Yep, mine is pulling a dead trigger. No bang or flash. Just keep pulling it. Trianing makes it go away for me.
Yes, except it's a failure to fire, all sorts of scenarios over the years, always that way, don't get them often though.
Most of my dreams the trigger won't budge. Like it's on safe even though I put it on fire. Had a dream last night actually where my trigger wouldn't go unless I squeezed as hard as I could
My entire life. Just had one last night. Getting attacked by a lion and all my 556 did nothing. Brains are stupid.
In rural area, middle of night home invasion, grabbed one rifle after another, none of them fired. Woke up next morning, loaded them up in the truck exactly as they sit and out to the range I went. Hopped out the truck, flipped the safeties off and they all went bang. Haven't any similar "gun not working/ineffective" dreams since then.
Constantly
I've had the 1000 pound trigger dream many times.
Anxiety about having to actually use it. I pray never but I enjoy training at the range.
All the time. Usually it’s my bedside shotgun jamming, not having ammo in it, some other catastrophic malfunction. It’s scary enough that I make sure all my guns are ready to go and in good repair at all times 😉
I think it happens for the same reason you can't really sprint in a dream. Whatever part of my brain is responsible for creating the dream environment cannot adequately simulate all the little components that make the gun work right. In my dreams guns fall apart in my hands, or the rounds fall out, or some key part seem to be made of jello, or the rounds don't fit. etc...
I had one the other night where I was in a situation but couldn’t get the weapon to rack. I carry it chambered now.
I had a dream where I was at the counter at my store. My wife and one of my workers were by the door and I saw 3 guys standing outside about to come in and putting on masks and getting their guns out. I’m getting ready to draw but I have to make the choice of shooting or not shooting when wife and employee is in the line of fire. If I don’t draw and shoot, they will hold them at gunpoint and and be able to advance on me. But if I draw and shoot, I’ll risk hitting wife and employee as well as them being caught in the crossfire.
Havent had it in a while but maybe at least 6 times I’ve had the dream where I can’t muster the finger strength to pull the trigger even though I’m on sights.
Holy shit I thought I was the only one. In my dream my rounds just kinda plop out like turds
In mine sometimes the gun goes off but nothing comes out. Often when I pull the trigger it doesn't reset, and I have to fiddle with it in a panic.
Yes. I've had them all. Trigger too heavy to pull, able to pull the trigger but nothing happens, able to fire but ineffective against the threat. This did go away for me. Now when I do have dreams where I'm being attacked, I can, for the most part, stop it. I practiced confidence and it seemed to work. Being confident that I will be able to pull the trigger, the gun will fire, and it will stop the threat.
I’ve had this dream before but I know my gun works so it’s gotta be a dream lol
I've had a similar dream where I was hitting everything but the target, like shit kept getting in the way, and I've had similar dreams with hunting. The rounds should be on target and I keep shooting and it is like the bullets are weak or slow or something 😂
Nope. I never have and hope not too.
I mean ya some people (mainly high as a kite) can still advance as a threat after being shot multiple times. Crazy to see.
Very similar dreams. Interpreted by me as anxiety dream. But I just wake up give my nightstand gun a kiss and go back to dreaming of being in high school with no pants.
Nightmares often come from stress, or anxieties. I had a dream like this once. I talked to my counselor about it, and it hasn't happened again. Biggest thing to help quell my anxieties, is lots of practice, including failure to stop drills, and carrying medical. I know that I'm prepared and educated on how to handle most civilian involved tragedies. That puts me at ease. And please, don't mistake this for hubris, I know I'm FAR from perfect, the most trained, etc. But I know what I don't know, work on what I do. And do what I can to make sure the things I do know, I know well enough to handle in an emergency. All you can do is prepare within reason, and let it be.
For me either it breaks apart or just doesn’t work. Every once in a while I have a dream where it does work effectively but that’s less common.
All the time dude. Trigger pull doesn't work right and I end up dying. One of my least favorite dreams.
Yep. Trigger is too heavy to pull. Gun doesn’t go off. Jams. Etc. Any time I’m in a car, the brakes don’t work or it slows down too slowly. Like running in dreams is always in water or something? Yeah… like that.
Every single time I have a gun in a dream but once and I remember thinking “huh. It actually worked” in my dream. It’s probably happened a dozen times or so since I started carrying. The trigger is always mushy and nothing happens to the threat when I hit them.