Derped up using weird/new gear in the middle of a match...again.

[BitchinCamaro]

I invited a friend and his son to an ICORE style match last weekend. This was the kid's first time shooting a match and it was a good time all around showing him how to be safe and focus on the fundamentals.

I was having an OK day with a few top 5 stage times and a few hiccup stages, but I was just trying to have clean runs. I happened to have a KCI 33rd glock stick mag in my range bag, and after spotting it the kid kept insisting that I should shoot with it. There was a pretty straightforward stage coming up, 5 big steel plates engaged once each from 5 different shoot boxes a few yards apart. 25 rounds. Easy peasy.

I was shooting a production Glock 17, and the shoot boxes were far enough apart that reloads weren't really a time factor - figured I would entertain the kid and throw in the stick mag and just mow this stage down.

AWWWWWWWW YEEEEAAAAHHHHH...

After the beep, my squad, and the squad watching behind us, started to wonder if I had a stroke as I was just looking into my sights perfectly aimed at a ginormous steel plate 10 yards away.

In actuality, I was trying frantically to fire as second after second passed without a bang. I thought I had a sort of dead trigger, as I could pull the trigger back but the striker wouldn't release. After a tap-n'-rack, the gun sounded like it doubled with a crazy fast split as my finger bump-fired on accident as it caught the recoil. I finished the first string, moved to the second box, and I had to press the trigger twice HARD to get the Glock to fire. Just monging down on the trigger pulled my shots super low, and people began wondering aloud at WTF I was shooting at. 3 boxes in I probably had 2 makeups for each plate, with a few seconds between shots as I choked the trigger into compliance.

I was tempted to stop half-way and call it a mulligan, but I had already bought my ticked to suck-town and the train had left the station. Somewhere towards the end, I eventually ran the giant mag dry. I hit the mag release and nothing happened. The fat KCI stick fit so tightly that I had to really wrench it out of the grip using my knees as bracing (respecting trigger finger and 180 all the while, of course). That alone took about 7 seconds.

The pain of shooting poorly, in front of multiple squads to witness, was multiplied 10x by the fact that I had a giant turdy-three round albatross of a magazine hanging out of the bottom of my Glock like truck-nutz.

To boot, the kid wasn't that impressed.

Anyway, I hate to blame gear, but I dropped from some top ~10 times to about 64th on that stage. I had a new Zev V4 connector, fresh striker and recoil springs, and a new Zev striker installed. 130 PF minor loads ran beautifully with stock glock mags.

The KCI magazine fit is so tight that I think the frame bowed out to the point that the connector wasn't engaging the cruciform correctly and wasn't allowing the striker to release without a death squeeze . This is probably the third or fourth screwup based on a "casual" switchup of parts and not taking an easy stage as seirously as any other stage I shot that day. I'm posting here so I can start taking lessons like these to heart and not waste time and money on gameday.

Edited April 30, 2015 by BitchinCamaro

[Ultimo-Hombre]

Hey... You get a gold star for using DERP or any form of such as " derped up" in a post.

You are either a chiver or just a brilliant man... Either way.... Cheers amigo!