[Graham Smith]

I had a rather scary moment at a USPSA match this weekend. About a third of the way through a course, I had a round go "pop" instead of "bang". Immediately my brain yelled out SQUIB!!! But my hands went, TAP - RACK... Then I froze as my brain and the RO both screamed STOP at the same time!

Now, all this probably happened in less than a second, but I can recall clearly in slow-motion detail how close I was to bringing my finger back into the trigger guard.

I've done a lot of malfunction clearing drills and can do them pretty darn fast - to the point where I don't really have to think much about it. The issue, as I see it, is that nowhere in this training was any kind of training to react to a squib as opposed to a failure-to-fire (something I had a lot of problems with before I got my primers seated properly).

So, at this point, my reflexes are almost too good for my own good. If you train to do something automatically, how do you adjust to the unexpected?

[CHA-LEE]

Good question. I don't know if this is the right answer, but for me if I have a malfunction that isn’t a run of the mill misfeed or something like that, I immediately stop and investigate the issue. It’s just a single stage in the match right? No single stage is worth the potential of getting injured by blindly continuing on. That and once you have a malfunction during a stage, the run is pretty much toast from a competitive standpoint anyway so who cares if you just stop and safely inspect the situation? For whatever reason the few times where I have had a strange malfunction during a stage run I instantly stopped on my own and was glad I did once I found out what the malfunction was.

Another point of this is that really, your gear shouldn’t be jamming or failing at all. If it does fail its usually best to stop and see how it is jammed/failed so troubleshooting the issue is that much easier. If you get some kind of jam/failure during the stage run but clear it quickly it will be a lot harder to troubleshoot why it happened. For a club match, I will almost always give it a simple rerack of the slide and if that does not solve the issue I will stop and check it out to see how and why it failed. Now for a larger match like a State, Area, or National level event you have to do whatever you have to do in order to get it running again. But all failures should be kept in a failed state at least long enough to see what the actual failure mode is to determine if it is safe to proceed. If you blindly clear the jam you will no know what the real problem was until it does it again. You have to figure it out sooner or later so just take care of it right there and then instead of waiting for it to screw up on you during an important match.

[badchad]

The first squib I had (and had in a match) I tried to load another round on top of it and shoot it several times. Fortunately it didn’t chamber. I had just finished up loading a few thousand rounds with a loose powder thingy on my 650, none of which I could trust. So that ammo all became practice ammo and by the time I was done shooting it up I was pretty good at recognizing and pounding out squibs.

So I suppose you could load up some squibs on purpose and mix them up with your practice only ammo so you can recognize the sound/feeling. I think that would work from a training perspective, but I’m not sure how safe it would be. But I don’t know, it sounds like you reacted appropriately and with this memorable event you will probably be better able to recognize it in the future already.

[Doublehaul]

Graham Smith, on May 18 2009, 12:48 PM, said:

If you train to do something automatically, how do you adjust to the unexpected?

It's really situational awareness. Knowing your gun, knowing the situation, just being fine tuned. While too much practice can burn someone out physically and mentally, I don't think you can actually practice a skill too often. But it does take away from the other skills you may need.

[RegRob]

Graham Smith, on May 18 2009, 09:48 PM, said:

I've done a lot of malfunction clearing drills and can do them pretty darn fast - to the point where I don't really have to think much about it. The

Do you intentionally create malfunctions to be able to do clearing drills, or do you often actually have malfunctions?

I do a lot of drills myself, and shoot 52 weeks a year, but I never do clearing drills. I don't see a reason to, I make sure my gun always work. Maybe this isn't the answer you're looking for, but maybe the clearing drill problem is a symptom, rather than the illness. If the same thing happened to me, I would probably stop in confusion :-)

Rob

[Jake Di Vita]

Quote

If you train to do something automatically, how do you adjust to the unexpected?

Two part answer....#1 is you should never do something "automatically" - that is a good illustration of why, #2 you adjust to the unexpected by being aware.

[Gallow]

Jake Di Vita, on Jun 11 2009, 06:26 AM, said:

Quote

If you train to do something automatically, how do you adjust to the unexpected?

Two part answer....#1 is you should never do something "automatically" - that is a good illustration of why, #2 you adjust to the unexpected by being aware.

Great advice, Jake. It's true, but it's like the artist said to his painting students: "To paint perfect paintings, first make yourself perfect, then paint naturally."

[John Dunn]

I was at a training course recently and had a round go off in my AR that sounded like a poof instead of a bang and the gun shortstroked, didn't even eject the round let alone pick up a new one. The instructor was yelling, "Tap, Rack, Assess" while I cleared the gun (very sooty case) and broke it open and pulled the BCG to check for a bore obstruction. The barrel was clear, but I think I could have thrown it faster than it was launched. The instructor was looking at me like I had two heads until I explained I was checking for a squib. Be observant, listen to your inner voice, especially when it screams, "STOP!"