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Handgun Competition Rules

Malfunctions

Malfunctions can and do occur from time to time while shooting. Make sure that you take the necessary time to properly prepare your ammo and firearm, and it will greatly reduce your chances of experiencing malfunctions.

There are three common malfunctions that occur to a pistol and they are:

  1. Failure to feed.
  2. Stove-pipe jam.
  3. Double feed.

Knowing how to clear them quickly will allow the competitor to continue shooting the exercise. It is strongly recommend that you keep your trigger finger outside of the trigger guard when you are clearing any malfunction.

Failure to feed

Failure to feed is commonly caused by not inserting a magazine properly into the firearm.

The competitor attempts to fire a second shot, the only thing that occurs when the trigger is pressed is that the hammer falls and makes a click. With the magazine not seated properly, the slide has failed to pick up the next round out of the magazine.

The following method is used to resolve this problem:

  • Move your trigger finger outside of the trigger guard.
  • Release your weak hand grip from the firearm.
  • Push the magazine back into the firearm with your weak hand.
  • Pull the slide back.
  • Your weak hand reacquires it’s grip on the firearm.
  • You begin to reacquire the target.
  • Your trigger finger moves to the trigger.
Stove Pipe

The competitor will see an empty case sticking in the way of the sight picture.

The following method is used to resolve this problem:

  • Remove your trigger finger from within the trigger guard.
  • Release your weak hand grip from the firearm.
  • To clear the stovepipe, the weak hand sweeps over the top of the slide.
  • Note: This almost always feeds the next round from the magazine. If the next round has not been picked up from the magazine, you may be required to rack the slide.
 
Double Feed

A double feed can be observed when two cartridges competing for equal space in the breech.

To clear a double feed, the following method is used:

  • Lock the slide back.
  • Drop the magazine.
  • Work the slide to get rid of the cartridge or cartridges causing the malfunction.
  • Insert a fully loaded magazine.
  • Work the slide to strip a cartridge off of the magazine.