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Don’t take new equipment to a match


jerkeejoe

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Picked up some Dawson extended bases for my Glock 35 a few weeks ago. Shot with them 5 or 6 times and function was perfect every single time and I felt plenty comfortable using them at the next match.

 

First stage, first mag change my mag doesn’t seat completely causing a fail to feed and the mag to nearly drop out of the gun. Felt like an idiot, but there was only one mag change on that stage, so I cleared the malfunction, seated the mag hard and finished the stage.  Stage 2, first mag change identical to the first stage except that the mag falls completely. Second mag change I realize what is happening and have to lock the slide back to seat the mag. 

 

I learned the the hard lesson that I needed to down load one round to get the mags to seat reliably. Also learned the hard lesson that I need to make sure to practice with my equipment in the exact configuration as a match. I generally did not fill mags completely when practicing. I do now. 

 

On a bright note, I couldn’t be happier with the Dawson bases.  

 

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I've been there. My very first USPSA match I needed a few more mags for my M&P 45. I travel a lot for my job and I was out of town the week before the match and ordered the mags just before I left. I get home Friday I unpackaged them and put them in my range bag after a quick visual inspection. I get to my first match and shot my first stage using an older magazine; no problem. My second stage I grabbed a new mag and made ready. After first shot I had FTF after FTF after FTF with the new magazines. Never made that mistake again.

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And to prove that I haven't learned my lesson, I changed out the sights on my limited gun the other day and will be shooting it in a match tonight.  :D

 

I'm going to at least go to the range to confirm zero and make adjustments before the match though.

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45 minutes ago, jerkeejoe said:

And to prove that I haven't learned my lesson, I changed out the sights on my limited gun the other day and will be shooting it in a match tonight.  :D

 

I'm going to at least go to the range to confirm zero and make adjustments before the match though.

 

For the record, just confirmed zero with new sights at range before I go to match tonight.  Trying to follow my own advice. ;)

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Try using new reloaded ammo that had the same recipe, same bullet, same primers, and you assume all is well. No need to try a few huh?

 

Of course when you use the wrong shell holder that fits the rim but does not seat the primer deep enough, you can leave quite a few unfired rounds littering the ground. Great feeling at a major Area match.

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Bought a Glock 31 round magazine with an MBX mega extension for my granddaughter's Christmas present for her PCC. Kept them separate and showed her how they go together, but forgot to bevel the transition between the mag & extension. First match she brought it with and when she shot the rounds out and it reached the extension turned into a very big salt shaker. I felt really bad.

 

gerritm

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  • 2 weeks later...

I learned running marathons that you NEVER do anything on race day that you haven't done in training.  Don't eat anything new, don't wear anything new.  Saw a training partner of mine get dreadfully sick from a carbo gel he decided to try for refueling mid-race when he couldn't find his usual product.  Watched another guy with blood running down his leg from a badly stitched seam on a brand new pair of shorts - 26 miles of anything scraping your skin with every step is gonna get ugly.  So - no mags, no springs, no ammo, no nothing that I haven't run in practice.

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  • 2 months later...
I wish I would've read this thread two weeks ago.
 
Just had a bunch of ammo-related malfunctions at a match this weekend.


Did the same. New STI, Old Glock 34 recipe. Several FTEs made for a sad day.


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Swapped out striker springs on my pistol the day before a match. I had used the same weight before but didn’t think about the fact I had only tested it in really clean conditions with the lighter recoil spring I would be using for minor pf. Add a little range grit and you get failure to return to battery in five out of six stages. 

 

New mag carriers. Testing them for the first time after the buzzer goes off is always a bad idea but I was really short on time thanks to a USPS delay so I went full retard and tested four new mag carriers on a new belt on the same day as the new striker spring from above. It was not a good day. 

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  • 3 months later...

1) First match with a 2011 first stage didn't download.  Lesson learned.  Got it on video as a reminder. 

2) Cleaned all mags and reinstalled SNL's on all mags.  Forgot that 2 of the SNL's were fit for the shorter SPS tubes.  Failed to seat.

3) Can't draw through the lock on a Safariland 014 like you can on a CR Speed WSM II.

4) Don't be lazy and not change from worn out shoes to your trail runners.

5) Taking a little too much tension off the hammer/sear spring makes for some fast double/triple taps.

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I resemble this thread just recently. I bought a new Tanfoglio Ltd Custom a few months back and I've only had two range sessions with it and figured I'd shoot my first L2 Standard Div match yesterday. The day before the match, I'm loading up my mags and found that two of them would bind up when I use my 1.180" OAL rounds. I had to size them down to 1.70".  My Dawson front sight also got delivered the day before and I took a gamble and installed it that night. So much brighter than the factory fiber optic. I know that was a bad decision but I went ahead with it anyway and guestimated how much I needed to adjust the rear sight. Took me two stages to figure out where my POI was and I was still occasionally buggering up the stages with no-hit targets. Doh!

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I got 6 new mags the day before a match once.   I loaded them up the night before to try and loosen up the spring a bit.   It was tough seating them.  Really had to slam them in.

 

 

I let my buddy borrow some mags once and they just did not want to seat in his gun.   Odd.  Glock 19 and all.

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Took my CK Open gun to a match the morning after I got it. DQ'd on the 180 cause I wasn't familiar with malfunction clearing with a slide racker on a tight left target. Also took my new Atlas Open gun to Area 5 after chronoing it. I guess I'm really bad about this kind of stuff! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

When I first built my PCC I had the Taccom 2 stage buffer and tried it out and everything ran fine. I ordered the 3rd stage for it when it came out and installed it the night before a PCC steal match that was around 40-50 targets per stage. Had multiple failure to ejects on each stage, could not for the life of me figure it out. It took 2 trips to the range afterwards to figure out that my load could not reliable cycle the 3 stage system. Settled on the JPSCS, now I always test my gear no matter what part I replace, you just never know.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had a reload happen at the double tap championships where I didn’t seat all the way either. I go to make the shot and the gun doesn’t go off. Turns out I left my magazine a few yards behind me... humiliating. Learned the same thing. Don’t take new gear to a match!

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