Although really, if your shooting for tactical training ( not just out plinking, I never go out with the intention of plinking with my carry guns though ), there should never be a time when the slide locks back. You should always have a round in the chamber.. When you chamber the last round in the mag, you should be dropping the empty mag and putting a fully loaded mag in.. This way you are never left without a round in the chamber. It makes reloading quicker ( 1 less action ), it also trains you to become fully aware of your ammo situation. If your gun holds 7 in the mag, plus 1 in the chamber, you shoot 7 times, pop in a new mag, shoot 7 more times, then pop in another mag.
You can also look at that as a personal protection issue. When it's time to reload, if you are confronted you have a round you can fire off while in the process of reloading. You are always protected.....
Something else I like to do to stay mindful of my ammo situation is to load up several mags a few nights before I plan to shoot, with snap caps.. Just place them in random area's.. When I go shoot, I dont remember how the mags are loaded. So it's a surprise when I get a FTF. After a few times of that a FTF doesnt slow you down, you just know to rack the slide and keep going, all while keeping count of how many times you've pulled the trigger, not how many times the gun went "boom"
