Fourth IDPA match tonight…

My new Glock 20 barrel worked pretty well. Full power 10mm is fun to shoot. I also enjoyed hearing someone comment about their ears bleeding while I was shooting Stage two :).

I did have a feed jam on the third stage, but since my off hand thumb got bitten by the slide on the previous stage, it may have been a poor grip. Doesn’t seem terribly likely, but I suppose there is a chance. This drawing and moving while shooting thing is pretty new to me. It possible my brain is letting that fundamental slide while it struggles with all the new stuff. In any case, that’s one of several elements I need to run drills on.

One of the elements is keeping my finger out of the trigger guard when I’m moving. That happened twice tonight and the second earned me a DQ.

Stage three was the first time I would have gotten to shoot at a swinger target and in fact, I did get a shot or two off at it. For this stage, you begin with 4 shots to a target then step forward to retrieve an injured victim, played by a large gear bag loaded with a sack of concrete mix. This victim needs to be pulled into the cover area. Moving the bag triggers the swinger, which needs two hits taken while retreating and dragging the bag. I got two shots at the first target when I had a round jam. It took a couple of slide racks to clear it. I finished the rounds at the target. It then took two or three grabs to get the handle of the bag and I think it was at this point that my trigger finger probably relaxed and curled into the trigger guard while I was struggling with the bag. I tripped the swinger and started shooting, but somebody hollared stop and I froze.

There was some discussion amongst the SOs about whether calling stop was appropriate, but in either case, I was still disqualified and done shooting for the night. While I don’t have specific memory of either of them, that is really why there is so little tolerance for it. Keeping the finger clear of the trigger while not engaged with a target is very basic firearm safety. You are millimeters from a situation where the *BEST* thing that can happen is an unexpected discharge into the berm and the worst is manslaughter. It is not to be triffled with.

I geared down and put away my pistol, but I stayed to help with the rest of the match. I got a several pep talks and several tips suggesting drills to help train that trigger thing out, stuff like “dry shoot, finger out, move to the right, dry shoot, finger out, move to the left, rinse repeat”. I will probably do these drills with the airsoft pistol.

There is another match tomorrow night, at the Weatherford range, where I have not yet been. I plan to be there to complete a match with the boomer.

My incomplete score sheet still needs analysis….

Stage 1, T5, was actually the first target I shot. This was two 1’s and a miss. Im not sure how I did the miss. One procedural was for shooting two targets out of order. They should have been right to left from behind cover, but I took the left one first, perhaps because it was closer. The other procedural was my first trigger call. There were three fairly major movements and I’m not sure exactly where I violated it.

Stage two was cool. Three shots each in two targets from behind cover, then move to the other end of the barrier and place three shots in each of two more targets, then move into a center room and place two on each of two targets while moving. It was on my first target that I got my left thumb under the slide. I remember noticing it and correcting my grip. Finished the stage and only when I was reloading magazines did I notice a bit of blood. I suspect the miss on scored T6 was really that first target with the slide hit.

Except for the two misses, either of which could have been made up had I noticed them at the time, I shot reasonably well. Then, of course, the DQ…