Regardless if a gun is dropped during the course of fire, or outside a course of fire, it is the job of a Range Officer to oversee its retrieval and return to a safe condition (see 10.5.14). But how should a RO go about this?
[Read more…] about Handling dropped gunsGun swap Q & A
The recent post about getting RM approval to swap a broken or unreliable firearm brought up a few follow-up questions. Let’s look at those questions and answers.
[Read more…] about Gun swap Q & ASchrodinger’s PCC Flag
We have received multiple questions about whether a PCC that is transported between stages in a case and is only out of the case during the COF needs to be flagged. So, for the July Question of the Month we posed the following question: A PCC competitor comes to the line with a cased PCC. After you give the Make Ready command, he opens the case and you see a PCC with the bolt locked back and no chamber flag inserted. What do you do?
[Read more…] about Schrodinger’s PCC FlagWhen the gun breaks, the RM must be called
If you shoot enough matches, eventually you will have a situation where your gun breaks and becomes unreliable or nonfunctional. But what to do now? Do I just get my backup gun and carry on? Do I need to notify anyone? What is the proper way to handle this per the rules?
[Read more…] about When the gun breaks, the RM must be calledTending your fault lines
No, this is not a foot faulting post, at least not directly. One of the things I see at major matches are stage crews not maintaining the fault lines. As hundreds of competitors go through the course of fire, certain corners are getting buried by dirt and gravel that is kicked up as people stop in prime shooting positions. Is this an issue? If a competitor earns an unfair foot fault, it sure is!
[Read more…] about Tending your fault linesUnloaded starts
We don’t see a ton of unloaded starts in USPSA matches, but when there is one, the Range Officers usually have to advise the competitors to get the firearm in the proper ready condition. And usually it is a fair number of competitors who need some guidance. So, let’s chat about unloaded starts and what that means for pistols, revolvers, and PCCs.
[Read more…] about Unloaded startsZero score?
Now that magnets are allowed in all the divisions, most competitors have added them to their gear, but some run afoul of the distance of the magazine from the inside of the belt. Which is why we asked this Question of the Month: During the course of fire, a Production competitor places a mag on a magnet that is attached to a mag pouch. The magnet is on the side of the pouch opposite of where the belt attachment is which puts the edge of the magazine, that is retained by the magnet, 2.5 inches away from the inner most surface of the belt. What is your call as the RO?
[Read more…] about Zero score?Where’s your chamber flag?
Often, my ideas for posts come from questions asked at matches. This particular question came up at two separate matches over the last couple weeks. What happens if a PCC competitor comes to the line without a chamber flag? We are not talking about someone who had a flag in and removed it, we are talking about a competitor who uncased a PCC and came directly to the line without a flag. What is the call? Both times it was brought up, the ROs thought it would be a DQ, but is it? Let’s look at what the rules say.
[Read more…] about Where’s your chamber flag?