Having shot only my 3rd. Wild Bunch match, I have a question.  A shooter shoots his rifle and shotgun without any problems.  The pistol stage is just 10 rounds, and a simple stage.  3 targets, 1 on 1, 1 on 2, and 3 on 3.  The first part goes fine, as does the reload, 1 on 1, 1 on 2....then a malfunction, the shooter clears the problem, and reloads, and shoots 3 on 3, leaving 2 in the gun.  My question is, can the shooter just fire the gun dry into the berm, or does he have to manually clear the gun?  Being left handed, I would have to change hands to lock the slide.  Someone asked, would it be an advantage?  I don't know, but it would be safer, by not changing hands.

The timer has stopped when the 10th round was fired.  The time used to clear the unfired rounds will not be recorded on the timer.  If you shoot them the time will be recorded. (If the pistol had not been the last weapon fired it would be a different story.)

 

Blackfoot

O.K. Lets say the pistol was shot in the middle between the shotgun and rifle, can the shooter clear/empty the gun by firing into the berm?

no must clear manually, if he shoots into berm they would count on clock.

Rafe

Good question!!

 

Being a lefty also, I think my course of action would be to jack the last three out, ground the pistol with the slide locked back with an empty magazine and move on.

 

Blackfoot

I'm also left handed. I would recommend most do as Blackfoot.  I am able to rack the slide with my right hand and lock the slide open with my left, but it is a learned skill. Do NOT fire the extra rounds to clear the pistol. Either drop the mag, and then rack the slide to eject the live round in the chamber and manually lock the slide open and restage or do as Blackfoot suggests. With the empty magazine in the pistol the slide lock is more secure.

I think manually ejecting the extra rounds might be the ticket, but my question has not been answered.  Is it prohibited to shoot the gun dry?    Don't you just like questions like this?

not sure if the answer is yes or no but you are walking a fine line, if a stage calls for 10 rifle 15 pistol and 6 shotgun and you shoot 10-28 and 6 you could get a  “spirit of the game” infraction occurs when a competitor willfully or intentionally disregards the stage instructions in order to obtain a competitive advantage, you would  get the time of the extra rounds fired, possibly assessed a Procedurals are unintentional “mistakes” where the competitor engages the stage in a manner other than the way it is supposed to be shot. Procedurals are scored as ten-second additions to the competitor’s raw time for the stage, no more than one per stage, firing into a berm has some hazards also, if the round goes over the berm it is a match DQ, if you hit a target you get a P for shooting out of sequence, or you could get 3 misses due to expended rounds not hitting a target. Best thing to do drop mag eject chambered round.

Rafe

I thoght I had already answered the question. Do NOT fire the extra rounds to clear the pistol. Minimum penalty would be a Procedural for failing to follow stage instructions plus the added time.

Sounds like the best solution would be to, drop mag. manually eject the chambered round, lock the slide and continue shooting ans have fun.    Works for me.

or, folks having trouble locking back the slide may drop mag, eject round, pick up and insert empty mag, pull slide back.

 

The empty mag would lock the slide.

 

Just another though for folks having trouble getting it to lock without a mag in it for one reason or another.