Once more into the breach
I was trained to fire to slidelock and not count your shots.
*IDPA standard.
I was trained to drop an empty mag and forget about it.
*IDPA standard, IF the chamber is empty, see your previous point.
If a magazine was partially loaded, but had to be ejected, I was trained to hold it in the weak hand....stowing it away only if there was a lull in the action.
*Ah-HA. The IDPA concept of the tactical reload and retaining a partial magazine is that it is FOR the lull in the action and no other time.
When I was told to stow a mag in my pocket in the middle of firing, it very nearly knocked me for a loop and I still can't find a logical reason for it.
*The only excuse I can think of for a tactical reload on the clock "in the middle of firing" is to apply stress. It isn't a combat tactic, it is a skill test under pressure. Learn to do the sleight of hand and move on.
Every time I read about a "Reload with Retention" in a gunrag, the guy is holding it in his weak hand and continueing to fire. I never assumed the IDPA would do differently? Especially when 'defensive' is part of the name.
*The gunrags don't write our rules. Some of the writers might be qualified to recommend technique, but a lot of them are not.
*Further, I think retaining that magazine and a few rounds is more a military than a civilian issue. In combat you might be a long way from spare magazines and ammo, and shouldn't throw away bullets or drop mags in the mud. Early Glock magazines not dropping free was not an accident or an error. But if one of US has to defend himself against a crook, it is not likely to be a sustained firefight like the movies and he is going home in a squad car and his gun and ammo go to the evidence clerk, so the need is a lot less. But I still do it when called on, and say nothing about it.
From my perspective, one I think is still unbiased, I can see a lot of weird things in the rulebook. For example, why do I have to use the thumbreak on my duty rig when nobody is being penalized for failure to use cover or slice the pie?
*That is just plain WRONG, and you are within your rights to criticize it and feel screwed over. A call of "Cover" not followed by an immediate move behind cover, and failure to engage in Tactical Priority (LGB code for coptalk "slice the pie") are both Procedural Errors and should be penalized.
SC is a right to carry state and covering garments should be mandatory on at least one stage per match just so you can get better at drawing as you carry. Not requiring an overshirt because "it's sooo hot" is just another way of gaming because these people are using open-topped rigs that give them the fastest draw possible short of a dropgun race outfit. You're slowing me down by forcing the thumbsnap issue, but you're not slowing them down by forcing the clothing issue. Patently unfair.
*Correct again. I don't do that stuff and I don't let it go on my range. On the other hand, the only LEO who regularly shoots with us practices HARD and can get a gun out of a Level III faster than anybody I have seen and about as fast as an old fart like me can pull it from a concealment rig.
Again, though, I don't mind as this is how I carry and this is how I want to get good. If you want to cheat yourself with a false sense of ability, that's your choice.
*Not everybody is practicing their gunslinging at a match. Many are just hobbyists who see no connection between any form of competition and self defense. Others don't look like much, but anybody who can pull a gun out of a holster and fire it in the general direction of a threat is way ahead of the pack.
On the issue of the rulebook itself, my problem is simply with the writing. Having written in a semi-professional capacity in the past, and studied the written word for personal enjoyment, it really burns me up to see bad grammar in an official document. My company's rulebook is full of run-on sentences, grammatical and typographical errors and redundancies that leave you literally shaking your head. It's more of a pet peave than anything else.
*Agreed. And it need not be that way. About two or three years ago there was a technical manual writer who offered to rewrite the rulebook free gratis for nothing, just to scratch his itch. I don't think HQ even bothered to reply.
But, after all is said and done, I'm having a lot of fun going to these matches.
*There is one sure way to improvement of the conduct of IDPA short of rewriting the rules to try to suit everybody.... put in a year to learn the ropes and then offer to write, set up, and run a stage at your club's match.
*I gotta quit these debates. I am getting too depressed to write the match for Saturday.
*I'm done.
