1st USPSA match (and second and third) updated

[Tok36]

Good to hear, i may have over estimated how often this occurs in a match. Currently i never muzzle anyone but i don't move either.

[Joe L]

Run and guns need to be run always with the first consideration being safety and they usually are.  The most uncomfortable call I had to make was when the RO came to his time to shoot on a stage where we had a nightstand and a bed.  He loaded the gun and placed it on the night stand, safety on, pointed down range.  Then he got up out of the bed and took off his jacket and walked in front of the loaded gun to put the jacket on a barrel, walked back to the bed, all after the load and make ready command.  In effect, he swept himself with a loaded gun, twice.  I stopped the substitute safety officer and told him what the shooter had just done.  The shooter (official range officer) then shot the stage and I asked him about it after scoring the targets.  He said, yep, I'm DQ'ed.  Can't have that, especially from the Range Officer.  Set a bad example.  He would have won CDP if he hadn't have DQ'ed himself.   

Joe

[2morechains]

I'm of the opinion that sometimes the stage can contribute to getting a shooter DQ'd, although its the shooter that ultimately makes the mistake. 

Case in point, I was the CRO for this one stage at the 2014 Area 1 Championships where the start position was gun loaded placed on a barrel.  All mags to be used for the stage also had to be placed on the barrel.  Most people pre-positioned their mags on the barrel first, then placed their loaded handgun on the barrel last  But a few did it the other way around and came close to sweeping themselves as they placed their mags on the barrel, especially on the downrange side of the gun.  That evening I talked to the RM and got permission to add a cautionary warning to the WSB about 'sweeping'.  It doesn't seem like much, but per the rules that would have earned somebody a DQ.   

Some stage designers will also leave targets visible after a shooter has gone downrange of them (i.e. past the 180).  It can be argued that we're all big boys and we should know better, but sometimes if taking those targets on the move its not hard to go past it.  Plus at bigger matches with lots of people somebody is going to break it.  To mitigate, I like to position barrel stacks or walls so you can't see it once you get close to the 180 and for sure not once you go down range of it.  I really don't like DQ-ing people. 

 

[danno_man]

Tok, unless you're in the habit of sweeping yourself or pointing your gun up range while shooting you shouldn't have any problems with muzzle discipline.

Make sure that you have good trigger finger discipline.

In a match last month, there was an area in the fault line (on the second stage) that was slippery mud.  5 people (including myself) took a spill on that stage, but no one let a round off during the fall.  Then there was a shooter (Limited - C) on my squad that let a round off into the ground during a reload on another stage, and he was pretty much at a walking pace.

[burlycz]

My second match two weeks ago wasn't very good, but I did learn a lot. I was running with all new equipment and I just felt "off". I couldn't shake the feeling all morning, but I went through and completed some very intricate (and what some were saying were "ridiculous") stages. I encountered pop-up, swinging, and disappearing targets, lots of small 20-25yd steel, awkward starting positions (laying down in the back of an SUV with no gun, all mags on belt). It was a ton of fun, difficult, but fun.

After the aforementioned 2nd match, I did quite a bit of dry-firing, reload drills, and target to target transitions.  Today was great, and again, I learned quite a bit. I focused a little more on speed and transitions, so my accuracy went down a bit, but my hit factor overall went up and was pretty steady stage to stage.

[ProtekTy]

Don't forget to take out your dummy round and o-ring over the firing pin before starting your first stage. That's what happened to me today. Lost about 5-6 seconds trying to figure out why it didn't go bang 

[burlycz]

Don't forget to take out your dummy round and o-ring over the firing pin before starting your first stage. That's what happened to me today. Lost about 5-6 seconds trying to figure out why it didn't go bang 

Lol. That actually happened during my second match 2 weeks ago, forgot to mention it. First stage - RO: "What is going on there?" - Me: "grumble grumble...o-ring...grumble grumble"

[2morechains]

Dummy round at the Safety Area is also a bad thing to have... 

[ProtekTy]

Yup, the match director was also my RO for that first stage. So I inserted my mag, rack the slide and the dummy round flew out. He didn't say anything. After I finished that first stage I picked up the dummy round and showed it to him he just smiled. I guess I could have been DQ.

[RTJ]

2..One of the easier places to break the plane,  is during a fast reload.  Reload practice needs to include consideration for NOT breaking the plane.

To add to what 1SOW said: be mindful during reloads on the move. Right handers and left handers need to move differently. Say you are doing a lateral move as a right hander, you want to start left and move right and the opposite for a lefty. This will help ensure that you keep your muzzle downrange during a reload.

Had a guy during my first match who turned the wrong way during a reload and swept not only the RO but most of the squad as well.