Watch the Mags and read the Stage rules...

[muahdib4]

As a little background, I've only competed in 2 matches. The first one was a PPC match last year and I competed in a USPSA match about 2 weeks ago (will stick with USPSA, too much fun) and in both cases I made just stupid brain-fart mistakes...though safely.

At the PPC match we were all standing on the line facing our targets and told to "Load and Make Ready"...so I did...I thought. Apparently I didn't insert the magazine fully and when I cycled the slide...no round went into battery. I holstered and prepared for the start signal. The whistle went off...I drew my Glock 35 and the magazine flew out in front of me about 2 feet. I wasn't carrying any other magazines on my belt and couldn't retrieve the one that dropped to the ground (for safety reasons of course and I didn't even attempt). So I dropped all 12 shots for that round. I've learned to double-check that my mag is seated properly now and that reloads are done with a lot more gusto.

At the USPSA match...total mental lapse on my part. On the classifier called "Paper Poppers" you have 6 steel poppers in front of you flanked on each side by a paper target. The rules for that COF are to shoot either the paper, then reload, then shoot the steel or shoot the steel, reload, then shoot the paper. In either order but a reload is required in transistion from one to the other. I was thinking about the reload as I watched others shoot...I was planning for the reload but when I actually shot...totally forgot the reload. So, I got 6 procedural penalties and actually would have scored in the negative for total target points on the stage...but ZERO is the lowest you can go.

90% of the game is half mental...and apparently, I forgot that part in both cases as well. But, I still had a blast anyway and was safe about my mistakes. Nothing dangerous to myself or others so I still felt pretty good. I just learned not to do that again.

[calishootr]

at least you did it safely, and still had fun, and more importantly, still wantto come out and do it some more(with less mistakes one hopes) hey, we have a saying around here, when the buzzer goes off, you lose at least 50 IQ points, dont worry about it, I have been at this 21 yrs now, and at one point was shooting 9 matches a month, yeah ive had my fair share of goof ups, it happens, recently for me, on a classifier no less i did the second string also freestyle, when it was SUPPOSED to be shot stronghand only....

[Poppa Bear]

Shot a classifier and I was the only shooter to NOT reload between arrays. My brain caught up just as I shot the final time.

Shot 06-03 a week ago and ALMOST shot the second target without reloading. Caught it before I squeezed the trigger but it threw off my time for that first string. Mistakes like yours are not if they will happen but when they will happen. Everybody will brain fart a reload at some point.