The Transition:
If youre in the middle of a firefight with your carbine and it goes "click" (or nothng) when it should go "bang", you have what is known as a malfunction. You options are: One, clear the malfunction. Two, transition to another weapon or three, use the darn thing as a club. If you are enganged in a long range fight (say 75yd.+ or 50yd+ and hes not rushing at you) and you have some cover, clearing the malfunction may make better sense as hitting a target that is shooting back at that distance with a pistol is a crap shoot. The generic method of doing that with a magazine fed semi-auto can be remembered as SPORTS.
S-Slap the magazine to make shure its seated properly. (Sometimes you may feel the bolt close on a live round when you do this and you may just decide to try shooting again.)
P-Pull back the bolt.
O-Observe the chamber as you Pull. Look to see if a round is ejected or an empty casing. Look into the chamber to see if there is a round stuck in there or a double feed.
R-Release the bolt, letting it go forward.
T-Tap the forward assist on weapons that have them (this one may be omitted if yours dosent have one).
S-Shoot.
If the fight is upclose and personal you wont have time to bother with this. If you are within H2H range you may just consider going bayonet style on the guy with your long gun. If you have the gap ,and a secondary weapon, its time to go to it.There are various methods to do this, each with Pros and Cons.
1. If on a sling system, swing the carbine down and away with the weak hand while drawing pistol with the strong one. Start shooting with one hand if you have to and bring up the support when you can.
Pros:
-This means you are using a sling system which has pros and cons in itself. Pro's:The sling gan give you better support for shooting and lets you free up your hands when you need to climb, cuff, dig out gear, etc. and still have your weapon "on you". The Con's are its attached to you and can hamper your movements and bind you up.
- Keeps the carbine on you so you can clear it and get it back into the fight when the immediate threat is taken care of.
Cons:
-Leaves the weapon attached to you and can be used as a "handle" to drag you by the BG.
-Can tie up your legs and hamper mobility.
-Harder to use the carbine as an impact weapon if needs be.
2. Drop the carbine and draw the handgun.
Pros:
-This means the carbine is unslung which makes it easier to change shoulders and fight with the carbine as an impact weapon.
-Slings cant be used to drag you down.
Cons:
-You may have to move away from the tossed weapon. Odds of geting it back "up" are slim then.
-If you drop it in mud, snow, sand it may just make clearing the malfunction later worse.
3. Hold the carbine to the chest with the weak hand and shoot one handed with the strong.
Pros:
-Same as above but you add keeping the carbine with you to them.
Cons:
-Pretty obvious, you can only shoot one handed and bolth hands are full.