I witnessed an accidental discharge at the match yesterday

shot in an indoor USPSA match at my local club yesterday.

One of the shooters had an accidental discharge. He's new to action type shooting, and got a little ahead of himself and was trying to move and release a magazine at the same time while his finger was in the trigger-guard, and he put a round into one of the prop walls used as part of the stage design.

This resulted in an instant match DQ. He was quite mortified. However, to his great credit, he had a good attitude about the whole event, took it as a learning experience, and stayed for the rest of the match and helped paste targets.

(I guess a few of the guys worked with him a little bit after the match was over)

New shooters often try to go too fast before they're ready. Sometimes this results in an accidental discharge. In this case, there were no negative results because he had good muzzle discipline and kept pointed in down range, even though he did manage to shoot a wall . . .

(He was using 115 grn hollowpoint ammo in a Springfield XD. After some searching, his bullet was found lying on the floor. The hollow point cavity was plugged with particle board and the bullet did not expand or deform in any way)

Make sure that your basic safety & marksmanship & gun handling skills are reasonably well developed before you attempt to shoot IPSC/USPSA or IDPA type matches.

Safety is a major concern. Some people get way too nervous at their first few matches and forget about keeping their finger off the trigger unless on target and ready to fire, and keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times. Another issue is courses that involve movement, or opening doors or windows. Be careful not to sweep yourself with the muzzle when opening doors.

Make sure your basic skills are strong before you try to shoot in a match OR forget about trying to be fast, and just focus on being safe, accurate and smooth.

formal training can be a good thing . . . sometimes

One of the shooters in my pistol club is a young guy (just turned 21) who is athletic and coordinated and naturally "fast" HOWEVER he hasn't been shooting very long, and doesn't practice basics enough. When he come to a match, he's faster than h*** but he can't hit anything. For certain he jerks and bashes on the trigger, and I suspect that he sometimes forgets to look at the front sight. After watching him shoot a match a few months ago, I noticed that he also squeezes his whole hand while firing ("milking") rather that moving the trigger finger independently as a unit. I don't think he does that all the time, but only when he's trying to go really fast.

What he needs to do is a basic shooting course like MAG 20 (what used to be called "stressfire") or Gunsite 150. But he doesn't see it that way, and would instead rather try to find a competition oriented class to go to . . . which I think may not correct his problems.

Now I am NOT necessarily suggesting that he has to spend lots of money flying out to Arizona or someplace to go to an expensive shooting class. But I think some degree of formal and structured training is a good thing for any shooter, as long as the training is competently delivered and relevant to the goals that the shooter is trying to accomplish.

There are LOTS of sources of training out there. Lots of good instructors, and lots of instructors who aren't so good. You have to do your research before you spend your money. But attending a good class when circumstances permit can greatly accelerate your learning curve.

(I've been going to a class a year since 1980. I really enjoy it and it's made me a better shooter. In 2013 I hope to go to a Gunsite 150 pistol class down in Boone County, Indiana.)

the advantages of formal training

Several months ago I made a comment in a post in the "Competitive Shooting" subforum on THE FIRING LINE about the potential benefits of formal training for new shooters, particularly shooters planning to compete in USPSA/IPSC and IDPA matches.

This unleashed quite a fire storm from people who didn't think formal training was necessary or useful and questioned my motives for suggesting such a thing.

This response was a surprise to me -- I've seen lots of good discussion on THE FIRING LINE but this one went sideways quickly . . .

About once a year I see somebody get DQ'd from a match for safety reasons.

The most common DQ I have observed is in an instance where somebody inadvertantly sweeps their support hand with the muzzle while the support hand is opening a door or a port in a window or something. Sometimes that's the competitor being in too much of a hurry, and other times IMHO it's a result of poor course design.

The last time I saw somebody DQ'd for an accidential discharge, it was a new shooter attempting to go WAY too fast on a classifier stage. He ended up shooting a conex that formed one of the walls of that shooting bay.