Happened to me this weekend at the Indiana Sectional.
Stage 10. Seated in chair, gun on the table. Sit down, adjust my ears, exhaling. Staring at the grip safety on the gun. Just staring it down. Focused. Only thing in my vision. Leaning forward in the chair, ready to pounce. Standby. This is it, my muscles tense just a little bit in preparation to leap forward. Beep!
Off I go, hand flying to the gun, legs launching out of the chair, moving to the left of the table. And my eyes moving to the first target, right there. Gun in my hand.. Wait.. not in my hand. gun turning sideways.. 45 degrees to the right. Brain firing signals to my legs, stop!, momentum carrying me forward. Gun still rotating to the right. It' in my hand now, i get it pointed somewhat downrange, I'm staring at it.
STOP!
I freeze.
Looking at the gun, well it's pointed uprange now. But I know what's coming.
Unload show clear. Almost drop the gun getting it back in my holster. That would have sucked, but would have been icing on the cake.
RO was more than gracious. The whole staff running the stage was extremely professional. I think they were expecting me to fight it more. I'm sure they were expecting it. Not necessary, I'll own it. I screwed up.
Luckily it was the next to last stage. I did take about 5 minutes to put my stuff away, collect my thoughts, but I stayed to paste.
Looking back, the 0.2 seconds I "gained" to get a look at that first target, cost me the match. Next time watch my hand all the way to the gun. Use both hands. Plenty of time to find the target after I have a grip.