Load & Make Ready

[Abman]

I have my own story of embarssing moments. I was giving my Gold Cup a through cleaning in my early days in IPSC (1991) and put her back together, cycle checked it, dropped the hammer, etc. all was well.

I was called to the line and instructed to 'Load & Make Ready' , I drew my GC, got a hold of a mag , and tried to insert it, , only took me 30 seconds to figure out I put the mag well on backwards (one of those with rabbit ears.

Needless to say, if I do a detailed strip, I fire the gun before showing up at a match.

[dajarrel]

At the Fla Open this year the RO gave me the LAMR command. I proceeded to load and the slide wouldn't close. I diddled with it a minute and dropped that mag, grabbing another and told the RO that my gun must not like that magazine. Well the next one wouldn't allow the slide to close either and about that time the firing pin hit me in the middle of the chest.

Apparently, the firing pin had gotten dirty (what!, my gun needing cleaning?) and stuck in the forward position allowing the firing pin stop to fall free. The firing pin had prevented the round from stripping away from the mag keeping the slide from moving forward.

I gathered up my parts and the RO let me go put my gun back together at the safety table dropping me to the end of the firing order. Needless to say I cleaned the the firing pin chamber well with a Q.tip and breakfree.

I still have a small round oil mark from the firing pin on that shirt. Kinda like a reminder to clean my gun

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

dj

[BLKturb091]

How about this one....RO gives me the LAMR pull my pistol out take a sight picture then load...Now given Shooter Ready..YES...beep draw and relize I didn't turn my c-more on!!!!!!!!

LAter

[John Baier]

Shot a classifier yesturday which required you to face up range for the starting position. Well I was a little nervous about my kimber falling out of my ghost holster, so I locked it knowing that all I had to do was release lever and I was golden. Well on the beep I pulled on my gun and I pulled and pulled Did you know that ghost holster has a pretty good locking system.

[SiG Lady]

Well it was a year or two ago this happened but mostly it was just embarrassing...

RO shouts "Load up!" (LAMR to you guys) and I grab a mag. It's empty. Grab the other mag (we use two per target)... it's empty too! Criminy, what was I thinking! So, in a nutshell, all 25 shooters got to watch the SiG Lady run back to her gun case, load 12 rounds and return to her booth. I've never done that again.

(Note: We don't draw-and-fire in these matches. We load and aim then wait for the buzzer.)

[Stuck in C]

I was up to shoot a 3 string classifier at the local match this weekend so I just needed the 3 "loaded" mags I already had on me, no need to grab any out of my bag. At LAMR I grabbed the first one-looked at the witness holes and it only had 2 rounds in it. Oops. Checked the other 2-full, but I needed three full ones. The RO confirmed I was clear, hammer down, reholster and then let me grab another full one from the bag. Sometimes I think the only reason they let me stay in the club is to serve as a bad example to new shooters.

[carinab]

Well on the beep I pulled on my gun and I pulled and pulled   Did you know that ghost holster has a pretty good locking system.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Been there, done that. Three stages at the nationals back to back in one bay and you walked hot between start positions. I was worried about my gun falling out loaded during the walk to the next box - the big DQ - so I locked the holster in between. I forgot to unlock after getting into the last box and practically drew myself out of my shorts. Man what a wedgie!

[Waltermitty]

OK here's one.

Arkansas State Limited Championship some years back. I was shooting a Glock 30 in limited division.

I had had a slide stop spring fail the previous year, it failed again during one of the stages but I didn't notice when the slide stop slid out of the side of the gun. After hammer down I holstered the gun in my IWB Galco (fit pretty good).

At the next stage the RO gives the LAMR command. I draw and present the bottom half of the gun. Slide, Barrel, etc stays in the holster.

You'd a thougth I was a chicken farmer from the cackling going on behind me.....

[Azone41]

About a year ago I was at the line shooting a classifier. Draw and forgot to turn on the aimpoint. Went ahead and shot the six reload six Second string went fine, funny thing was all the hits were on target. Thought about trying the rest of the day with the thing turned off.

[Mark80189]

i was at the 2005 Fl state match waiting for the results tocome out. i decided to shoot in the shoot off, i never thought i would have got so far. i won the C,B class and was up against the C,D,U class winner, the problem was he was from a different country, he was a M class but didnt have any uspsa classifiers! i beat him on the first, but he got me on the second. it was time for the tie-breaker. when loading and holstering my gun, i accidently triped the lock on my limcat holster! needless to say i lost the tie breaker.

[dfwmiket]

I've got several, but here's the most recent one. I shoot a G34 ( which takes the G17 mags) and the better half shoots a G19. She shoots ahead of me, so I pick up her mags for her.....stick one in my pocket, somehow, someway. My turn comes to shoot....... well, needless to say, when you do a mag change and use the WRONG mag, you just have a bad day. Took me a couple tap/rack/bangs to realize I had put the 19 mag in the gun. I now color code bottom of mags to attempt to avoid this.

Mike

[j2fast]

At LAMR you had to load up and then grab and hold a bowling pin attached by cable to a target that dropped and turned towards you then away in about .5 second.

Well I load up grab the bowling pin, hear the buzzer go to toss the bowling pin, gave it a candy arm toss and didn't activate the target. I kept going cussing in my head shot 5 shots and the guy holding the clipboard starting yelling stop (not the RO) then after the clipboard guy stepped up the RO stopped me and I got a reshoot.

I wasn't stopping and I don't think the RO was going to stop me. It wasn't the prop's fault I couldn't activate; I was just going to skip that target because it would have been up to high to shoot. Who am I to argue, I did pretty well on my reshoot.....

[Carlos]

Club match, I got the LAMR command & pulled a full mag from my front pocket.

Problem was, I was also using that pocket for spare pasters. Top round in the mag had a paster plastered around it & the top of the mag. Pulled off paster leaving behind a sticky mess; replaced the top round w/ a spare & worried about all the sticky crap left on the top of the mag. The whole while, the RO was chuckling at me.

Needless to say, I blew the stage worrying about my mag. Gun & mag worked fine of course.

[brother bad]

<hijack on>

how'd it get to be july 14th already?

<hijack off>

[m.e.t.]

Stage 5 at the Nationals. Started with gun on table. At the buzzer I did my much practiced snatch of the gun. The best I could tell I left the mag about 1/2 inch from where it was setting when still in the gun. According to my squad mates the reload only cost me a second or less.( I felt it leave the gun.)

But on a 10 second stage that was more than enough. And of course the CRO was from my area. That means the story will be waiting for me where ever I go.

I have since had my smith drill and tap a hole just above the mag release and install a threaded pin. I do believe that I could hit the gun with a hammer and not release the mag.

[gino_aki]

This happened a while back at one of our State Championships...teaches the lesson about modifying your equipment. I'd just gotten the then new Hogue PowerSpeed holster and while setting it up put in an extra spacer to make it "looser" for an even faster draw. Any of you familliar with this holster know it has a cylindrical locking block that slides in and out of the trigger guard as you manipulate the lock. It had worked fine in two club matches prior to the State so all was good, right? Well, on about my seventh stage of the match, get all set after "Load and Make Ready" (it's a turning target stage run by computer with all targets left displayed at the end of the sequence) so I want to really get the gun out of the holster FAST from the surrender position or else I'll end up having to wait and poke instead of shooting in sequence. Beep! Hands come down and BLAAAMMM!!!! Hole in the ground about 8 inches from my foot. Unload and show clear...I'm already freaked out...bend over to get my shooting bag...gun drops out on the ground. Far as I can tell, the extra spacer allowed the gun to twist enough in the holster to let the locking block hit the trigger, and from the above description you can also tell my safety got pressed off on the "grip" rather than the "draw." Thay couldn't DQ me twice...I'm sort of amazed they let me stay around to help out for the rest of the match. Anyway, I got the holster set up the right way afterwards...and got a stern lesson in letting too much trying for an "edge" overcome standard safety practices. Hope you guys can learn from my mistake...Shoot fast, shoot well, but above all SHOOT SAFE!!!

[RayKu]

Area 5 gave me a LAMR screw up to share. I was shooting production and got the LAMR command, popped the mag in and holstered my XD. Buzzer sounds and I am off to the races. Of course, I get to the first target, and pull the trigger and nothing, not even a click as I forgot to chamber a round Must of cost me at least 2 seconds on a very short stage If that were not bad enough, I did it again later in the match.

[grassy knoll]

being the match director and getting dq'd after having my loaded pistol fall on the ground,

felt like I was going to burn down a run and gun stage, start position was hands on the barrel facing up range, turn and engage targets, I just swung around too fast and then complete stop looking at gun in the sand,

do as I say, not as I do

Edited September 26, 2005 by grassy knoll