On Fumes

After a hectic week dealing with my elderly mother’s health issues, a dental procedure of my own, and very little sleep, I was running on fumes at my most recent USPSA match.

But all in all, I was satisfied with my results.

You’ll see that makeups on steel in a couple of places resulted in some unnecessary reloads…but the brain fart of the day (BFOTD?) came on the last stage. As I'm finishing up the first array, my gun goes to slide lock, which my sleep-deprived brain interpreted as a malfunction. It was not. I had inadvertently loaded a magazine with only seven rounds instead of eight, so when the gun stopped running, I assumed it was because of a malfunction…when in fact it was simply out of ammo.

Not a malfunction…just an unexpectedly empty gun.

The upside-down Texas star behind the wall was trouble for everyone, with most shooters (including me) deciding to try to get as many hits as possible with at least five rounds (to avoid the "failure to shoot at" penalty)...before tapping out and taking the misses rather than eating up a ton of time. I ended up taking three misses on that stage and one on an earlier one, but otherwise shot a decent…if not especially speedy match.

I don’t think this old heap is going any farther…let’s call it a day.