[Ohioguy]

Shot my second match today.

On my first stage, I entered the box, did my normal thing, loaded and made ready. Beep sounded, drew pistol, one bang, then click. Racked slide, pulled trigger agin, click.

On the load and make ready command, I inserted a magazine, stripped a round off theat mag, dropped it, and put it in my front pocket. I then holstered the gun. I did not insert a fresh mag, hence the one shot at the buzzer.

Lesson learned. I need to work on a pre-start ritual. I realize now that the stage starts before you even pull the trigger...

[JimmyZip]

The things we learn .

There are more to come. I have found that my first year of this sport was really about finding ways to keep Murphy from showing up at the match with me.
Still is funny to hear it happen to others though.
JZ

[MTBfarms]

Do not feel bad at all. I have a whole list of forgetfulness over the years.
Left barny mag in the gun to start. (one round)
No mags in the mag pouches.
Empty mags in mag pouches.

It is best to get into a routine and stick with it. IMO.

[Sarge]

It sucks huh? But that is an easy thing to keep from happening again. Just give it time and you will develop a ritual like the others said. The trick is to not get carried away with that either like the thread going on now about preshot routines. Some get long and complicated. So far the only ritual I have come up with is that I never shoot a stage without all my mags on my belt and check that each one is there at the make ready. If I am missing so much as one I get a loaded one on there. I guess this is my way of knowing all my mags are loaded and ready. I started this because went to the line once with no mags on my belt.

[calishootr]

pre-stage routines, get in the habit of doing em!!!!! it settles the nerves, and for me, touching various things, i know that im ready, ie...the magwell onthe inside of my arm, lets me know the gun is there, little indicators like that will help you as you progress, and yeeeessss we have all done it, back in the days of single stack 38 supers and 45's, it was at western states as i recall, the chrono stage was before the standards, so they pull a mag and chrono the gun, so on the standards we got to the part where we do 6 reload and do 6....well on the reload gun goes 'click' hmmm....cuz i stuck a mag in it that only had 6 rounds, notthe full 10....
to some it may look goofy, but pre-stage routines are the wayto go...

[boz1911]

The prestage routine will eliminate stuff like that. The problem may occur on unusual start positons though, even with a routine. Make sure to take an extra few seconds to double check everything when it's different, like a loaded gun on a shelf for example.

[RaymondMillbrae]

Funny thread.

I have also done some funny stuff in the past, but no one has ever filmed me doing it. (Thank goodness).

Ha ha ha.

Here is a clip of my shooting buddy forgetting something during a stage. See if you can figure-out what he forgot to do, BEFORE the video reveals it?

WOOPS VIDEO

In Christ: Raymond

PS: I am now making it a habit to video tape all my stages.