Do folks still count their shots?

I am trying not to in Bullseye Pistol Competition. I only want to concentrate on sight alignment and trigger pull. Having a count down clicker going as I am shooting takes away mental resources from the activity in hand. A 45 watt brain only provides a limited amount of illumination. Gotta keep that light bulb as bright as possible on the task at hand. Which is sight alignment, and trigger pull.

Last year I acquired this Ruger MKI 22lr pistol and had it drilled and tapped for an optical sight. Collectors, have a nice cry at my estate sale!



it is an early 60's target version of the Ruger MKI which means it has a factory tuned trigger.



Now the thing about the MKI is that it does not have a bolt stop. So, during rapid and timed fire, if I am not counting, I don't know if I have fired my five rounds or not. Which means, when I pull the trigger on an empty chamber, I can see if I am flinching or not! I am hoping this will help me reduce the flinch reflex, as that flinch is the primary reason I am not shooting at a higher class. The flinch does get worse with the 45. It gets worse for everyone, no one shoots a 45 as well as the 22 lr.

The first serious shooting I ever did was NRA Bullseye. Every string is five shots. So it became natural. Then after some time, Police Pistol Combat was my most favored game. All strings are six shots. In the middle I became involved with non-associated pistol shooting. Courses of fire not announced in advance; most stages within limits of gun, and emphasis on hits. Often not a full load of hits to make.
In that last and my later life as a lawman, keeping track of rounds fired and when a reload is vital were important considerations. So keeping track of rounds fired became second nature.

However, age and life has me a bit less than sharp these days.

No. Bad idea. If you're training to deal with real-world threats, one shoots to stop the actions of the subject. Double taps, center of mass, assess. One may have to shoot to slide-lock or an empty cylinder. Assess. Subject down, no need to fire additional shots.

So, are we talking on the square range only?

'Cause, counting number of rounds fired... Sigh. Sometimes a contentious topic. On the square range, maybe. More power to ya. Those who've been in combat in the military know that's why tracers were created. In law enforcement, if one's been in a for-real gunfight, I've met only a couple of guys who claimed they knew exactly how many rounds they'd fired. But I also remember situations where guys thought they'd fired numerous rounds, but hadn't shot hardly any... and other guys who initially said they'd fired only a couple or three... but shot through their entire mags. And were surprised when they saw their bolts locked open...

It depends. Am I mag dumping? No.

Am I shooting for accuracy and competition? Perhaps.

Am I showing off to my mormon friend who just got into guns? Absolutely.

Only when defensive training with semis. I try to have my last round in the chamber as I switch mags, keeps from having to rack it or work slide release depending on last round hold open feature or not.

Ric said:

I’m not that tactical
I haven’t tried competing, but I see most shooters reload before slide lock

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Depends on the sport. In IDPA you're not allowed to drop a magazine with rounds in it, so it's a "reload with retention", which is slower than a slide lock. Common practice is to count your rounds VS TGTs, expend extra on a more challenging target, and reload from slide lock while moving to the next engagement.

I'm not a competitive shooter but I've always counted my rounds at the range. I can't say why, I just do even with a 30 round mag in the AR.

I recently got into shooting a flintlock and can't seem to get past one with that round count.

Yes I have i have a subconscious counter. Not so much on my autos, but on my revolvers..."that ought be it.....click".

Then there's the superhero power to come out of my pocket with 6 fresh ones.

In my rimfires I like to use a snap cap or a No. 6 drywall screw anchor as the last round, so if I lose count...

I've been known to do it in training. When its real? Not so much. It's common to find several half-full magazines in your kit after a mission. When in doubt, reload.

Only some rimfires are damaged from a dry fire (usually rimfire revolver are most susceptible) and even most of those will tolerate the occasion dry fire. Some rimfires are designed to be dry fire. You can dry fire a 10/22 all day and never hurt it. When I was competing with a Winchester 52T it got dry fired a lot in training. Do a little research a lot of modern rimfire firearms are designed to tolerate a fair amount of dry firing.

When competing, I know exactly where I am going to reload, to the point I have put old cardboard targets in the mud before I have shot muddy stages for my mags to fall on vs into the mud. No need or time to count as I am just acting out the “script” or executing a plan that was conceived ahead of time.

That said, while I am shooting the stage I am not counting down or up. Just shooting the stage as I “programmed” it into my head. If I had to make up a shot it has never been “shot number 14”. Just the shot that broke where it didn’t need to go.

That said, I do count some when shooting in general, and often when loading mags.

Got into the habit of reloading with one hot in the chamber for defensive training. The trick when doing the counting at least to me, is remembering which firearm you are using. Revolvers are easy but double stack vs single stack can be rather annoying.

I am a firm believer that when it all goes to heck you will revert back to your repetitive training and muscle memory.

I count as I load five in revolvers and don’t want to dry fire the 6th. In my black powder I load 6 but still count for the same reason. In auto loaders it’s force of habit but even in those I’ll only load five as Ammo is typically sold in boxes of even numbers, 50 or 100.

I don't do it or teach it and I'm not aware of any tactical instructors who do. Most people aren't going to count under stress.

230RN said:

I still mentally count my shots. I started that a long time ago, Don't know where the idea came from, but it was back in the day of six-and-seven round handguns and (usually) six or eight round mags and clips.

...BANG! ("Four.")....BANG! ("Five.")...BANG! ("Six.")...

I'm wondering if folks still bother with that, considering many standard magazines nowadays are 16 or 17 shots or more.

Terry

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Why does Hickok45 always go BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG CLICK when he shoots revolvers? I may not be able to hit an 80 yard gong with a snub, but at least I can count up to 5.

Like @Slamfire, I do most of my small-bore semi-auto practice with a Ruger Mark 1 Target Model.
This has taught me to count shots with this pistol.
Larger caliber semi-autos tell me when I'm running low by the change in the pistol's balance.
I guess that my hands became more sensitive than most folks when I was blinded for most of a year.

Need to know how many pieces of brass your hunting for, right?

For handguns and non-detachable magazine rifles & shotguns, yes. For my AR's, no. I'm proficient in slide-lock reloads with them.

I count'em ... just a long-ingrained habit.

I think for our training the idea of counting was if you're in a sustained firefight, in a lull, if you know the mag in the gun is low, you do a tactical reload to a full mag. You never wanted to wind up with an empty gun and have to do a combat reload.

We were also taught not to put the partially used mag back in our mag holder, so as not to be confused with a full mag. The partial mag got stuck in our belt to be used as a last resort.

Fortunately, I never had to use that training for real. Happily, forty years on the job without a shot fired in anger, on or off duty. But I still count...

In Canada our restrictive gun laws mean handguns are limited to 10 rounds and semiauto centerfire rifles are limited to only 5 rounds so yeah, you bet I count my rounds.