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Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Maybe the worst screw up ever


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A shooter in my squad at a recent IDPA regional match had been having an exceptional day. The shooter was clearly shooting way (AND I MEAN WAY) over their classification on nearly every stage. (and/or they were a sand bagger)

We came to the final stage of the match and the "shooter in question" was chatting up all the squad and pretty much braging that as the last shooter in the squad on the last stage of the match..... the best had obviously been saved for last.

When the buzzer went off the shooter engaged enough targets to empty their Glock... then at the end of a wall the empty mag was dropped and the shooter just froze. After much head shaking, arm waving, and discussions with the SO... the gun was reholstered and the shooter came back to the starting line.

The shooter had been so busy being a social butterfly that they forgot to load mags or to put any on their belt. The mag in the gun was the only one they had with them when the stage started.

This left the shooter with 4 FTNs and about 30 points down for the stage. :sick:

Note to self...... always check mags before approaching start position. :blink:

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There's a word for that. I think it starts with a K...

:cheers:

Shooting is a great sport and I meet tons of wonderful, very friendly people. However, there are always a few shooters who are far too competitive for their own good and put a sour taste in the mouths of those of us who do this for fun. They will get theirs eventually, I'm sure.

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I once put an empty mag on my belt after a stage and forgot to reload it. When I shot the next stage, I threw the EMPTY mag in the gun! I thought to myself as I grabbed the mag off my belt...hmmm, that feels pretty light. Luckily the other mags were full. I learned a valuable lesson that day.

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I made the mistake of not checking mags at the state shoot. I was lucky enough to get through the pistol part running the gun dry(should have had like 4 rounds left)didnt get to use the makeup shot but at least no standing slidelock reload

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I once made the mistake of not chamber checking every round to be used for the match. I had that way above my normal level going on until I hit the moonclip with a fat round and had a happy seven second reload. Upon feeling the failure to settle into the cylinder I had the bright idea to help it in, creating a bigger problem. 10 seconds later a 14 second stage was doubled.

Edited by Forrest Halley
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I remember the shooter that made the mistake of putting a mag with 2 rounds in it back on his belt. next stage he was very surprised :blink:

Been there, done that :surprise: Now, I NEVER put a mag back onto my belt unless I top it off first.

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Having multiple guns to top off magazines makes it even harder to remember! Was at a multigun match this past weekend, and before starting a stage, I picked the magazines from my belt, and they all felt the same weight, so I assumed they were full... I was wrong. Ended up with about 4 in each (shooting limited for the MG match).

More magazines is NOT an excuse to forget!

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It is not as uncommon as one might think. I saw a paid shooter on the S&W team in a major match shooting production go to the line with only one mag, shot his 11 reached to the belt and explative. It was a 32 round filed course.

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I did the Blue Ridge Mtn. 3-Gun in KY in 08 and got to the last stage, last day. First was shotgun slugs, then a horseshoe-shaped pistol run, finally some short and semi-long rifle. Got to the rifle portion... NO rifle mags at all on my belt, looked at the RO and said "I'm done" and showed clear. I was already thinking of the 11 hr drive home I guess. I sure check now though.

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I did a similar thing on a stage, was a 2 string stage, 6 targets, 1 round each, mag change one round again. First box went fine .... moved to the second box and forgot to put a fresh mag in my pistol at the start of the second string. 1,2,3,4,5, slide lock (WTF), mag change, 6, mag change, 1,2,3,4,5,6. Man I was pissed the RO looked at me and just said "Im glad that you changed mags again or that would have been a bunch of procedurals". I learned, make sure you put a fresh mag in and not one youve shot out of.

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back at the 1992??? western states champs where we were still shooting single stack 38 supers w 10 rd mags, we had just come offthe chrono where they took 6 rds, and hit the standards stage(50 yrds) first string was 6 rds...and the first 3 people in our squad went 'click' after only 4 rds, WTF???? it took the rest of us a minute to realize...hey, we never refilled our mags afterthe chrono

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I once put an empty mag on my belt after a stage and forgot to reload it. When I shot the next stage, I threw the EMPTY mag in the gun! I thought to myself as I grabbed the mag off my belt...hmmm, that feels pretty light. Luckily the other mags were full. I learned a valuable lesson that day.

I shoot a gun with a magazine disconnect, so I keep an empty mag to clear with at the end of the stage. Recently figured out why you keep that in your back pocket, instead of in the last spot on your belt. A friend was recording, and there's a great spot in the video where I pull a mag out of my belt and then, just as I'm about to put it in the gun, I thrown it down and grab another. Same kind of thing. Cost some time Dumb mistake, but I won't do that again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I remember the shooter that made the mistake of putting a mag with 2 rounds in it back on his belt. next stage he was very surprised :blink:

Been there, done that :surprise: Now, I NEVER put a mag back onto my belt unless I top it off first.

exactly

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

We had the same thing happen at a major pistol match this past weekend. The squad was loaded as a group after the stage briefing and apparently the shooter had only loaded his single-round barney mag in the gun, not topping off with another or checking his belt before "nodding when ready." Buzzer goes off, movers are activated, a single round is fired, handgun's unexpectedly at slide lock, shooter searches unsuccessfully on his belt and in his pockets for mags that aren't there, two drop turners disappear, two more statics are unscathed, and a really bad score ensues for the stage. I wasn't there on the bay and don't know who the shooter was, but I bet EVERYBODY double checked their stuff for the rest of that match!

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Wow!

None of you ever had a good time with other shooters and buggered something up on the next stage because of mental or technical unpreparedness? Give the guy a break. I know I've had brainfart moments at matches before and have seen quite few empty mags being taken into a stage, even by seasoned shooters.

I'd still give him a hard time for a few weeks, though.. :devil:

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I just did something similar two weekends ago. I had my stage planned out and when I threw in my 2nd mag, the slide lock after just a few rounds was definitely a head scratcher. I had one mag loaded only half way in the first holder. I was able to finish with a third, but jeez did I feel dopey. My friend rode me pretty good about it, too. :blush:

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At least it wasn't a match DQ; I did the same thing a few times when I first started out. Only full mags went into my belt after this happened on more than one occasion :wacko:

Edited by SIG shooter
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