Bad day & borrowed stuff

[InTheBlack]

At our monthly "defense/action" shoots I like to use both revolver and pistol.  On the first run, revolver, I did under par but expected some problems since switching from SWC to RN changed the point of impact and I hadn't had time to change the sights around.  Second run, pistol, was said to be the fastest so far but I wasn't happy since I used twice as many rounds as I should have to get a hit on every target.  Again, using a new, heavier load and discovered that the "rhythm" of the recoil was causing my timing to be off.

Second time around with revolver I did worse.  Didn't have enough speed loaders to make up for the misses...

Last run, pistol.  Not a happy day anymore.  Feeling that I just want to get it over with, screw the accuracy.  All the stages had started with 5 rounds of shotgun, and I found that I was short a shell.  So I asked a friend and borrowed one.  Also using a borrowed pump gun with a standard sized chamber.  Tried to load my pistol, and the mag jams tight misfeeding the initial round.  Second mag, same damn thing.  Fiddling on the line with a third mag...  Finally got a loaded handgun in my holster.  Loaded the shotgun.  First three rounds of buckshot do fine.  Moved to the 75 yard lane and tried to chamber... something won't work right.  Fiddled with gun.  Got it chambered, sort of.  Shell seems to be caught in the feed ramp.  Screw it; hand off shotgun & start running to the first pistol point.  Shoot the mag; mag won't drop... fiddle... yech all around.

The reason the shotgun didn't work it because the borrowed round was 16 gauge.  I was using a 12 gauge.  Good thing it had a standard chamber; otherwise the 12 gauge round behind the 16 would have had enough room to chamber.  Could have been a much, much worse day.

Morale:  Just because you're having a bad day, never ever forget to check your equipment.  I should have looked closely at that borrowed shotgun shell.

Correlary:  The rest of the season is going to be sweet.  I used up all the bad stuff that could possible happen.

[sfinney]

Ouch....  16 gauge into a 12 gauge, huh..... oops.

Yeah, I remember the time I loaded up my .45 with 9mm.....  ok , cheap shot, just kidding  

(Edited by shooter40 at 8:20 pm on June 18, 2002)

[InTheBlack]

Uh, well, now that you mention it... I keep the piece of .40 SW brass that I shot out of the .45 in my pistol case, just as a cautionary tale.

[Hank Ellis]

Although not a screwup, more of making do with what's handed to you.

I didn't have the facilities to reload my own so I had one of the local masters do them at his leisure. I had shot up everything I had and called the master to make sure that he was going to bring my reloads when we met at the Wednesday night match. "Yeah, they're ready and I'll bring them."

Showed up and when we went to exchange cash for bullets, he couldn't find the 30 cal ammo box. Tore up the pickup looking for it and it was nowhere to be found. Since his house is an hour away, going back was not an option. Master was kind enough to let me work out of his stash.

However, the gent who set up the stages set up a few that had high round counts. After the third stage I was running short and master was scrounging the bottom of his bag to keep himself in the hunt.

Ended up borrowing rounds from a couple of other folks, a few from master, and maybe two or three that was found on the floor. LRN, SWC, jacketed, factory, reloads, major, minor. Didn't matter.

"Shooter ready? Standby." BEEP.

bang, bang, poof, BANG, poof, BANG, bang, poof.

Reload, repeat.

All you can do is laugh. And make sure you come to the match with enough ammo, even if you have to go to Wal-Mart for factory loads.

[scooterj]

Hank, Lloyd is getting on in age and they say that the memory is the first to go!!! LOL