Single Shot Magazines Are Not Optimal

[kdj]

First of all, in my own defence, I have to point out that I do know better but didn't have any choice

I've just got back into IPSC after many years out, and decided I really wanted to shot the match last Saturday, especially since it was deemed sensible for me to take a "reorientation" class and they only occur once a month.

I decided this about 2 weeks before the day. The problem was that I live in CA, want to shoot open, and other than a box of odds and ends (including some high cap mags - yay!) and the odd really unsuitable gun, I needed to get all new gear.

Anyone tried doing that in CA recently?

Anyway, by dint of some very helpful people (many of whom are in these forums), a few minor miracles, and paying more for overnight shipping than some people do for their gear , everything came together the night before the match. I'd decided that the sensible thing to do was to order a bunch of factory new 10 round mags and not try to get the older mags working for the first go round. Unfortunately, due to shipping and confusion about caliber, they didn't reach my hands until late on Friday.

So I turned up to the match on Saturday with a bunch of equipment that had never been used together (remember I did say that I knew better!).

The class was fine and except for the occations where the Limcat didn't feel like an Ernie Hill, no problems emerged.

Then came the shooting of the first stage ...

3 targets, strong hand with a brief case in the other hand ... OK so far ... remembering how much fun this IPSC game is!

Dump case on tub ... reload ... engage 3 targets ... fire 1 shot ... get a click ... notice there is no mag sticking out the bottom of the mag well ... assume I flubbed the reload ... reload again ... fire another couple of shots ... see the mag departing the gun ... jam it back in ... finish that sequence ...

Move to the next ... get another 1 shot after the reload ... <elided for the sake of brevity> ... scramble on the ground to try and find one of the mags that will stay in long enough to finish the stage ... eventually give up and take 4 failure to engauge penalties plus 4 misses ... um ... not do too well on the stage

With help (Thanks Nolan!), a burred mag catch was discovered and the day got slightly better after that. Still some equipment problems but at least I got to finish the stages!

In spite of all this, I had a lot of fun and am rehooked. And I've remembered why you never want to change *anything* just before a match. I can now confirm that changing *everything* is an even worse idea.

Kevin