Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Quit a stage?


cali shot doc

Recommended Posts

Many years ago shooting my first "big" match the extractor on my gun decides to crap out in the middle of the biggest stage. The stage ended on a sled that moved forward to a low port which meant going prone.

By the time my single shot and I got there and finally finished, after "Unload and Show Clear" I asked the RO if I could stay there prone and cry. (What? There's no crying in shooting!)

I've also had to quit a stage because of a squib.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 76
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I'm intrigued by the number of posts on this thread that equate leaving plates on a star with losing the will to live. If the game is about hit factor, what's the point in blowing a bunch of time and ammo (or, let's be honest, time and money) just to make sure every plate falls?

I *can* imagine turning a star nightmare into a learning experience. If you are able to calm down, come back to the moment, and learn something from the experience, that would be great. In my own experiences of staring at the spinning plates and pulling the trigger yet again, only to find the slide had locked back because I'd blown a whole 17-round mag already, I can honestly say I wasn't "learning" anything. (I did, however, come up with some creative profanity.) The only thing I learned was that adding thirty seconds to the rest of your stage time doesn't improve your score at all. I've long since come to a point of peace with the star. When the plates are falling, I'll toss a few extra rounds downrange to pick up the last plate or two if necessary. When they are not, I make sure I've spent at least five rounds and move on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have done that...Many years ago, in a pin match, shooting a 45 ACP...SUCKS!

With the right load, a .45 is the perfect pin gun. Big, fat bullets going as fast as you can safely push them devistate pins at our local club. Now shooting with a 9mm or a .22 can be MURDER! :devil:

Joe W.

Edited by joecichlid
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had a couple overinsertions during stages that cost me a minute + to clear. Some of my proudest moments behind a gun were when the above happened, I finished the stage, back on my plan without getting so rattled I tried to rush.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I quit my first stage this last Saturday. I'd been having a recurring pistol problem that made the pistol unshootable. I'd pull the trigger and NOTHING would happen. I got three shots off in the stage when it occurred again. There just wasn't a way to finish or I would have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've only shot about 4 matches so far. I quit on a 200yd steel stage. You had to hit 5 targets 15 total times. 5 prone, 5 from a blue barrel and 5 from behind a table. I thought I would never hit them at all. So I took one 30rd mag up to the stage and said to myself... self you got thirty bullets have fun :D Turns out I didn't do to bad, I hit 13 of 15 target. I wish I would of took another mag. I think I could of hit the last two in under 20sec. Thats what I got in pentalies for not engaging.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've stopped on a stage and didn't finish the match one time. I'd bought a 9mm major Open gun along with some 300 rounds of loaded ammo the seller said he'd run for over a year. A half dozen shots into the first stage I had a case head seperation that spit lube and assorted small bits on my face and chest. Nearly did damage to my underwear. I stopped, cleared and holstered the gun and studied the damaged case for a few minutes. I decided I didn't like the chances of it happening again so I bagged it and watched the rest of the match. The load was supposed to be 7.0 N350 w/ a 124 Zero HP. I took the rest apart and found several powder charges north of 7.2 grains. The gun came from the midwest and I'm in South Florida. An over charge of powder and 90* heat apparantly added together. I don't shoot anybody's loads but my own and I don't share mine. Now you know why. :surprise:

____________________________________________________________________________________________

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” -John Ruskin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As long as I have safe equipment and ammo, I will not give up on a stage.

At the 2009 Double Tap Championship, I developed a firing pin problem. It happened in the middle of a stage and I quickly discovered that if the hammer just hit it enough times, the shell would fire.

The average time for the stage was something like 18 seconds. After 60 seconds, the RO would ask me after each shot if I was finished. If I remember correctly, my time was something like 1 minute 48 seconds with not a single FTE.

Not a good showing for that stage but that 0.12 HF did move me up in the standings several places.

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would never quit completely on a stage unless my gun broke but even then I'd be looking around for a holster with something similar to mine in it to grab and drive on. I have quit on targets many times especially long range rifle targets in 3 gun. Every target has a time/ point value that you should be aware of before you say shooters ready. The hard part is letting go and stopping after the predetermined 3-5 shots and moving on.

When I first started I had to quit on like my 3rd stage ever. All steel stage and I tan out of ammo about 8 targets early. The next 20 matches I carried 8 mags for production division. I wasn't gonna run out if ammo ever again!

Edited by jtischauser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Last Week I shot a couple stages @ my uncle's local club and the guy before me quit in the middle of the stage. He was shooting at a texas star and just had a hard time making the shots. Seeing this made me nervous since I was next and I didn't want to have the same issue. It took me 9 shots to complete it (took me 3 shots on the last plate), but as I was shooting it I could see how the guy before me gave up after emptying two mags and still not completing it

I'm just wondering how many people have given up durring a stage or had really considered it when things weren't going their way?

Why quit? Even if you have screwed up the stage by taking too long, you may as well finish all the targets to get the practice and fun out of the

stage. The only reason for quitting is running out of bullets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back at the IRC... I'd like to say in 2009... I come to the line.. and make ready..

Timer goes off, I draw my gun.. and... something isn't right... oh h&ll.. my front sight is GONE!!

Stage consisted of lots of stationary plates, a few paper, and two, count em, TWO texas stars...

I finished the stage in about 105 seconds, no misses, and both texas stars cleaned.. Can we say major kentucky windage (more like elevation but still)?

If I had a front sight I would have likely cleaned it in about 45 seconds...

So now part of my routine is "make sure the front sight is attached" before holstering..

I wanted to quit.. but couldn't make myself do it.. The guys I squadded with were all wondering WTF?

Thankfully I had a spare front sight in my bag..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While first getting into OPEN, I might as well have been shooting a bult gun because I had to use that slide racker like crazy. I never did quit but I did have some really long times... I've kept with it and its smoking fast now. On the other hand I have ran out of ammo before...

Probabaly the people that do quit are not mentally focused on the possibility that everything doesn't always go thier way...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I almost did this past sat at 3-gun match... I had Hungarian AMD-65 AK with 75 round drum which never gave me anything as much as a hiccup at shooting range... I was in big bay with around 40 targets and about 10 shots into rifle section the drum just didn't advance the next shot... I only had 20 rounds in my spare mag as I didn't think I would need more than that.... but, I took my lumps skipped the targets and moved on to shotgun stage and got failure to neutralize 20 shots and ended up last...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I quit a stage this past weekend. 40 and 50 yard poppers. Got the closer ones and ran 2 extra mags from my new G34 before I decided it was better to save the ammo and move on. I will be sighting in that pistol and practicing that shot, though.

Mac

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I quit the match one day after an 8 hour drive to Tulsa for the Pro AM. Didn't even get the first shot off. I thought everything was going nicely, until an overly excited gentleman with a Monkey Wrench tattoo on his leg invited me to to to Dairy Queen for the remainder of the match. I will never forget that Monkey Wrench as long as I live.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing is harder for me as a shooter to than to step out on the field, promptly drop 4 targets out the gate and continue to shoot the remaining 196 knowing that it will take at least a 199 to win!!! I have never lost my lunch on the field but I've sure thought about it before....LOL

Been there done that when I was shooting skeet at a zone shoot. First round, 12 ga high one lost. The remaining 99 dead. Followed by the next 100 in 20, 28 and 410. 399x400 the hard way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm thinking there is a big difference between quitting a stage because your equipment has failed or you believe it is unsafe and quitting a stage because it's not going well for you.

I agree. It ain't quitting if the gun is broke or there is a squib. Quitting is when you decide to stop because you cannot mentally go on. I always admire the folks that hang in there and fight tooth, nail and claw to finish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two matches for me were about quitting. One was a steel plate match that had to be shot right to left with no exceptions if you missed one you had to try again and hit it before you moved on to the next plate. That was so different than what I was used to( going one direction then going back and knocking down any misses) I did not shooot a single stage without a fault. I felt like quitting but I was eliminated so fast I didn't have the chance to!

The other was a man on man plate match with pistol caliber carbine. I am much better with a pistol and the stress fractures in my feet were killing me. I was on my last elimination and was thinking of quitting. However my line officer was a Marine Gunnery Sargent. I could't quit in front of him. So I did my best and kept winning untill I had won out in my class. SO never give up! pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must confess I quit on a stage at the Indiana sectional this summer. As one shooter already said FTE's get expensive. Basically I ran past one target and finished the stage. I knew I did it but for whatever reason(pride maybe) I left it standing. I thought I was shooting pretty poorly in the match anyway so it was no big deal until I saw the results of the match. I ended up 4th in my class in production. And if I recall(I try not to) I was only a few points out of first. The FTE on top of the Mikes cost me everything.

Chris K said to me 5 times that day, "whatever happens in a match don't ever quit". I should have listened.

I'm the short fat dude working the ammo can stage at that match.

We shot Friday and didn't get done until after 7pm. I barely remember shooting the last 3 stages and thought I was literally gonna die in that heat. I was determined to at least finish and shoot the match clean, but of course I had to throw a Mike on the last stage, because I looked up at the sunset like a moron.

Glad I stuck with it, ended up taking Top D in Limited.

Of course, I should have quit at the SS/Prod match earlier in the year, as I basically shot it while having a heart attack...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 years later...

Reading this thread gave me a few chuckles and reminded me of the stage that I quit on earlier this year.  Might as well bring this thread back from the grave for one last post.

 

Back in March, I was getting set to deploy to a certain hot, dry country for a few months.  I wanted to get a match in the weekend before I left, but most of my stuff was packed up and put away in storage.  I probably could've cobbled together a belt for limited minor with my glock or something, but then I remembered that I had a certain gun that I really, really wanted to try out in a gimmick match: The S&W 500

 

Have you seen this video? Take a look if you haven't yet.

 

I wanted to shoot a match like that guy.  I had a .500 with a 4" barrel, some reloads, an N-frame holster that SOMEHOW I could modify to hold the 500 seucrely, and a big pouch to carry my speedloaders.  Did I mention that I got 500 S&W speedloaders?  Because I sure did!  I also had brewed up some nice, reduced-recoil handloads that wouldn't beat up my hands on every shot.  Fun, right?

 

It actually worked pretty well for about 3 stages!  Of course, my times were incredibly slow, but it made a TON of noise and everyone thought it was a hoot.  Unfortunately, on the last stage of the four stage match, I started getting strange FTFs.  I think the primers might have been too high, because the trigger wouldn't fully go back and the cylinder wouldn't rotate when I pulled the trigger.  The last stage was a 30 round COF, and after I had dumped about 3 cylinders-worth of ammo trying to fix the problem, I just looked at the RO, said "Yeah, I'm done" and did ULSC.  

 

Would I do it again?  Of course!  Nothing is more fun than making a TON of noise and putting huge holes in targets.  Less fun is having your huge revolver jam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2nd or 3rd Florida open, circa 2002 or 03 Frank put up a stage that was All steel, All behind closed windows that had to be opened with one hand and the steel then engaged with one hand.

I was shooting an HKP7 M13 and the ROs and the on deck shooter saw the way I was heading. Two of them grabbed some of my empty mags, reloaded them while I was finishing my last mag so I was able to finish the stage.

Not exactly in the rule book, but finished :-).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...