Common Newbe Screw Ups?

[mcb]

Thanks for all the help. I manage to not do anything unsafe. The RO did point out that during one reload on a stage that already had me turned pretty far to my right I came close to breaking the 180 rule but other than that one close call I did fine with the safety issues. He gave me a couple could pointers about how to keep my gun more in front of me and pointed directly ahead during my reloads. I will practice those the next time I practice. I had a blast; one of the stages had a Texas Star setup that made that stage a lot of fun.

Thanks Again

mcb

[Newguy]

All the things that can happen -- never happened to me though

when you're flustered or feeling pressured.

After you've finished shooting don't start pasting targets right away. Load ALL your mags immediately after you're done. You don't want to stick a 1/2 empty mag into you pouch.

Before you get to the line make sure the mags are on your belt.

Chamber a round and press check to make sure it's loaded.

Don't feel hurried. Everyone will wait until you're ready.

When told to "unload and show clear" make sure the muzzle is pointing level downrange -- pointing straight up is breaking the 180. Make sure the gun is high enough for the RO to see into the chamber and wait until all the ROs commands are done -- sometimes hard when you're coming off the adrenaline rush and YOU know the gun is empty and ready to be holstered.

If it's a field course tell the RO which way (left or right) you're going to move.

Choose caution over time -- some targets can be shot more efficiently at close to the 180. Opt for caution -- even if it will take longer -- to make sure you've got a comfortable margin in terms of the 180.

Finger out of the trigger guard during reloading and moving.

Be careful about sweeping yourself, especially when opening doors in a field course.

Cleats are important -- I've seen more than one shooter go down on slippery grass.

[mcb]

The stage were I was close to breaking 180 during a reload was actually shot twice. The first time we had a triagular area near the center of the lay out were we had to stay with in. This made shooting the far left and right targets pretty close to the 180. Combine with the fact that I had a reload on the extreme right target I got close to breaking 180 because of bad reloading technique. The second time we shot that target layout were were allow a much larger range of motion so I made sure to move further left and right to keep the angle more down range and keep my gun infront of me more on my reloads.

Never though of cleats for shooting? I usually wear a good pair of light weight hiking boots for good traction. I will have to keep cleats in mind if I end up shooting a course with grass. The two shoots I have attended were both on good hard dirt with a bit of gravel. Traction was never a problem.

mcb

Does this forum have a place to post things like range and match reports. I wrote one for this past match with a few pictures of the layout and posted it over at www.hs2000talk.com. {http://www.hs2000talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=21433} Just curious.

[sasquatch981]

These are the (2) screw-ups I had and now have learned from them.

1) Being a lefty watch for stage design "traps" In one particular stage at my range you started facing down range, after engaging a few targets, you needed to move around a large wall. Obviously this was a good time to reload, as you are moving, however when I turned right to go around the wall (about 160 degrees) I turned my hand to hit the mag release and drop the mag, when doing so my gun passed the 180 and the RO stopped me. Had I been right handed, or waited until after I passed the wall this would not have happened. Lesson Learned.

2) Don't get in your head that you need to move to fast. Again I engaged a set of targets to the left close to the 180 from the start postion. When moving to the next array, while in mid run, I noticed I missed a shot on one of the targets, split second reaction was take the make up shot, which I did but my movement towards the next array had moved me past the 180.

Now both of these situations could have been avoided, (Obviously no one else had problems with them) but just be sure that if there is a 180 issue on the course of fire at any time, be very aware of "your" location to the targets, and the 180. Everybody screws up, trick is to learn from it and not do it again.

[Austin Bradley]

Some of the things I learned in my couple years of shooting.

ALWAYS count the targets and match them to the number of rounds so you dont forget targets.

And consider D's as lucky misses.