Don't pick up any ejected rounds.

[OUshooter]

I flip and catch. If by some miracle I miss it I don't worry about it. Let it lie and double check for an empty chamber. Then proceed to follow the range commands. I've never had an RO say anything about it one way or the other.

I've wondered about the live rounds being hit by a lawnmower. I believe I'd have to see that to ever believe it. Some pretty nutty things would have to happen all at once.

1. The round has to be sitting right on top of the grass.

2. You would have to have the mower set very very low to pick up the round.

3. The blade would have to strike across a very small area.

I think #2 alone would keep it from happening. The mass to surface area ratio seems like it would preclude the mower from having sufficient vacuum to pick up the round. I'm not calling anyone out, I'm just saying it sounds like an urban myth. Maybe I should send this into Mythbusters.

[Sheperd80]

Why would the Ro get upset about the rack and catch? If something like sweeping happens DQ and move on. If nothing bad happens all is well.

Yeah we basically all do it at my club

[Drachen27]

Why would the Ro get upset about the rack and catch? If something like sweeping happens DQ and move on. If nothing bad happens all is well.

Yeah we basically all do it at my club

For some reason, this is very frowned upon at my club. Doing so is considered "unsafe gun handling" and will result in a ban from range for a month or more.

[pskys2]

If all you had was a .40 in your 9's you were lucky.

I religously do not pick up loaded rounds at the range. Even if it looks like mine and I just dropped it.

Don't really want to replace a trusted match gun, because someone with a worn barrel had the already red lined load over max for my gun.

Just not worth it.

[DyNo!]

I pick up, load, and fire all ejected rounds I find at the range.

I do pull, inspect, and reload them with my own components though...

[latech15]

Why would the Ro get upset about the rack and catch? If something like sweeping happens DQ and move on. If nothing bad happens all is well.

Yeah we basically all do it at my club

For some reason, this is very frowned upon at my club. Doing so is considered "unsafe gun handling" and will result in a ban from range for a month or more.

You should go to USPSA with this. That is stupid that they ban you for a perfectly legal action. Have them explain to you exactly what is unsafe about it.

[Ted Murphy]

Saturday we had a shooter UASC. The ejector hit the primer. Out of battery detonation. The shooter got a cut on his thumb. The SO got a gash on his forearm and a welt on his chest. I patched him up. The bleeding from the arm was bad, the gash was about 2" long by 1/8" wide. The chest was a large bruise with a smallish cut. A piece of brass might still be in there. He was going in for x rays. I have not heard yet what was found.

The gun was an STI 1911 in .40. The ejector is done for but the gun is ok.

The shooter racked the slide using the front cocking serrations. His thumb was near the ejection port, which is how he got cut.

I'm glad he was not covering the ejection port to catch the round. He would have trouble with ketchup bottles.

Ted

Edited October 29, 2012 by Ted Murphy

[IceCold4x4]

EDIT I did not see the above post before writing mine. Bewarned but i rack the slide SLOWLY so I seriously doubt this would ever happen to me but YMMV

a great tip for those of you that have forward serrations on the slide put the gun upside down use your weak hand on the forward serrations and let the round fall into your hand then grab the rear of the slide and show the RO that it is clear and deposit round into pants pocket for later comedy when you go looking for that last penny.

Edited November 1, 2012 by IceCold4x4

[Rodan]

If I pick one up I just add it to my pratice rounds