WaJim Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Well a local Range that I frequent had their first USPSA match of the year yesterday. At the IDPA Match on Saturday I was told that the Ranges websight said that the match was on (it sometimes gets flooded) and it was going to be a low round count. I imagined this was possibly due to the amount of rain that was forecast for yesterday...we all know how well tape sticks etc....so it makes sense. I was happy it was on...I need Classifiers. Well I bring 250rds. I almost loaded my mags before I left my house but I figured I had more than enough. Drove 80 miles to the match. I show up yesterday morning to find that the match is approximately 80% steel. I'm ok with steel but as far as round count? We all know steel eats ammo. Aaaaaaaand ...........Stage 2 has a Texas Star at 25 yards and 2 poppers at 27. A friend of mine had a rangefinder. Well, I made it without running out. My Last stage I had 45 rds left....I had 2 plate racks and 7 paper targets left to shoot. I got in the car with 13 rds left in a mag. That will never happen again....Ill be the guy with a hundred more than I think I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eern Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Right there with you on bringing extra rounds. I generally bring double what the expected round count is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi-Power Jack Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I'll be the guy with a hundred more than I think I need. Not enough. Doesn't take any extra effort or expense, so I bring at least double what I think I'll need. Just in case ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Yeah, I double as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaCharis Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 That stage killed me! I dropped a mag in the beginning of that stage with 6 rounds in it when I transitioned... whoops! For some reason, I couldn't hit one of the poppers at the end (even though it was WAY closer than the 25 yard Texas Star was) and ran out of ammo with 2 poppers left!!! I accidentally swore for my first time in a course of fire, too! hahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi-Power Jack Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I accidentally swore for my first time in a course of fire, too! hahaha You have been officially inducted into the IDPA Hall of Fame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaJim Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 (edited) That stage killed me! I dropped a mag in the beginning of that stage with 6 rounds in it when I transitioned... whoops! For some reason, I couldn't hit one of the poppers at the end (even though it was WAY closer than the 25 yard Texas Star was) and ran out of ammo with 2 poppers left!!! I accidentally swore for my first time in a course of fire, too! hahaha AlphaCharis. I was next to last on that stage in my squad....I was shooting with a couple of M's and at least one GM. They were not having fun. I saw a couple other guys that are better shot than I stand and dump ammo. So I took a bit of NickBlasta's advice when we talked about Base Ball Standards last year. I shot the two poppers and fired 6 rounds at the star so I wouldnt get a FTE and moved on. I left 4 plates on the Star and gladly took the 20 point penalty. Look at my score in Limited....no way I would have done that well on that stage dumping 4 mags at the Star wasting a full minute of time.......I cant shoot that far above my ability. I'd have probably Zeroed the stage. That and I wouldn't have had enough ammo to finish the match. Edited February 23, 2016 by WaJim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racknrider Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 I was shooting an IDPA classifier, on the last string I was 1 bullet short so I took a miss 2.5 seconds plus a PE 3 seconds for a total of 5.5 seconds. I missed moving up in class by 4 seconds. Talk about your inadvertent sandbagging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theWacoKid Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I left 4 plates on the Star and gladly took the 20 point penalty. Look at my score in Limited.... You got off easy. Leaving 4 plates should hit you with 40 penalty points for misses. On top of that you give up 20 more points by not getting the 5 per steel. A total swing of 60 points versus the alternative. At some level of time that is worth it, but that's a lot of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EDA Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Makes me want to shoot limited or open instead. I carry 7 mags on my belt for single-stack and when there is steel, esp with a texas star, I get a bit nervous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaJim Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 Makes me want to shoot limited or open instead. I carry 7 mags on my belt for single-stack and when there is steel, esp with a texas star, I get a bit nervous I left 4 plates on the Star and gladly took the 20 point penalty. Look at my score in Limited.... You got off easy. Leaving 4 plates should hit you with 40 penalty points for misses. On top of that you give up 20 more points by not getting the 5 per steel. A total swing of 60 points versus the alternative. At some level of time that is worth it, but that's a lot of time. My HF was 2.22 so I'm sure I got the penaltys.....better than Zeroing the stage. I'm a High D Shooter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theWacoKid Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 (edited) My HF was 2.22 so I'm sure I got the penaltys.....better than Zeroing the stage. I'm a High D Shooter. Most definitely better than zeroing the stage or running out of ammo. If you consider not running out of ammo as an issue and in hindsight knowing you got a 2.22 HF you can figure how you came out. You actually could have added 27 seconds to your stage time just to shoot those 4 plates and come out with a better hit factor. So if you think you would've taken more than 27 seconds to hit the four steel you made the right decision, otherwise you would've been better to shoot them. Plus, you can only truly zero a stage by accruing more penalty points than hit points. Just letting your stage time run out to infinity will get you closer and closer to zeroing a stage but will never actually result in a zero. Edited February 24, 2016 by theWacoKid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaJim Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 My HF was 2.22 so I'm sure I got the penaltys.....better than Zeroing the stage. I'm a High D Shooter. Most definitely better than zeroing the stage or running out of ammo. If you consider not running out of ammo as an issue and in hindsight knowing you got a 2.22 HF you can figure how you came out. You actually could have added 27 seconds to your stage time just to shoot those 4 plates and come out with a better hit factor. So if you think you would've taken more than 27 seconds to hit the four steel you made the right decision, otherwise you would've been better to shoot them. Plus, you can only truly zero a stage by accruing more penalty points than hit points. Just letting your stage time run out to infinity will get you closer and closer to zeroing a stage but will never actually result in a zero. It would have taken me waaaaaay longer than 27 seconds.....my luck doesn't run that deep. Remember after I hit the first plate that sucker started moving. Well, all bets are off on me at 25 yards hitting another plate purposely...it'd be all luck from then on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzShooter Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Forget more ammo, learn to make your shots count. Even at 25 yards you should be able to clean the Texas Star. Slow down, concentrate on your sights and make your hits. A little more time is better than any penalty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalG34Tupperware Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Ive done this same thing before except I actually ended up not having the ammo to finish, thankfully the other guys in my squad picked me up. Now I basically double any round count I see and when I step up to the shooting line I put as much ammo on my belt as I can because I've run out on stages before too haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBunniFuFu Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Bring double, always. Never know if a buddy might have forgotten some rounds as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tubguy Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I recently was not paying attention and put a partially loaded mag back on my belt. Boy was I surprised when I went dry on the last array of targets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davsco Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I recently was not paying attention and put a partially loaded mag back on my belt. Boy was I surprised when I went dry on the last array of targets. yep i always try to stuff a used mag in one of my pockets and not in a mag pouch just for that reason. one worse than that was the guy in front of me at a 3 gun match last year. got thru pistol and then shottie, ran to rifle position and figured out he had NO mags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishsticks Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I recently was not paying attention and put a partially loaded mag back on my belt. Boy was I surprised when I went dry on the last array of targets. yep i always try to stuff a used mag in one of my pockets and not in a mag pouch just for that reason. one worse than that was the guy in front of me at a 3 gun match last year. got thru pistol and then shottie, ran to rifle position and figured out he had NO mags. 3gun can eat your lunch with that stuff. Start adding and pulling ammo and carriers from your belt and eventually hilarity for your squad mates will follow. At a local match I pulled my shotgun ammo off the belt between stages. Later, on a stage including shotgun after reaching my reload spot I discovered that the caddies were at the other end of the bay in my range bag. Thankfully it was just a local match and there were only a couple of shotgun targets not engaged. Needless to say, my pre stage prep is slightly more thorough now than before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamikaze1a Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 Bring double, always. Never know if a buddy might have forgotten some rounds as well. Not to mention reshoots... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proudprado Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 I went to do a day-long course with a shooter on the SA national team. Loaded 500 .45 ACP and was ready for serious fun. I took the Glock 17 instead of the Glock 21. He had to give me some 200 rounds of ammo. Not as much fun as I expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlvrDragon50 Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Geez.. I would die shooting 700 rounds of .45! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClangClang Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 I remember the first time this happened to me. I shot my first 3-gun match with a borrowed (un-bubba'd) SKS. Loaded via clips. One stage had 3 paper targets... so I loaded 3 rounds. Needless to say, each paper only got 1 hit. Sigh.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out of Ammo Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Now, this brings back memories that my friends (?) and I still laugh about. A few years ago when I first got into USPSA, I was shooting at a match and ran out of ammo on a stage. The RO didn't realize it and was trying to help me by yelling, "Keep shooting, keep shooting!" I slowly shook my head and said, "I'm out of ammo". He just gave a look of disbelief. Since that time my alias has been Out of Ammo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted August 2, 2016 Share Posted August 2, 2016 I show up yesterday morning to find that the match is approximately 80% steel. I'm ok with steel but as far as round count? We all know steel eats ammo. you are doing it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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