I RO’d a match recently and had, what I thought, was a close call.
Generally, experienced shooters are the worst when it comes to this but it IS up to the RO to ensure it’s done properly.
I make sure I say in my safety brief, in a similar fashion as when I did it countless times during ranges in the army, “place the weapon on safe, drop the magazine, lock the slide/bolt to the rear, visually inspect the chamber, release the slide/bolt, place the weapon on semi (if applicable), squeeze trigger while pointed in the appropriate direction.” while monitoring these steps and being a redundancy in the process
This stage involved pistol and rifle shooting, and dumping a hot pistol in a dump bucket, proceeding to rifle portion, then returning upon completion to clear the pistol.
I instruct the shooter to remove the pistol from the bucket and follow the steps I listed above. Most times they try to out run me (this is why I said experienced shooters are the worst because they’ll fly through it) and I’ve been guilty of trying to save time whenever possible and judging people based on their familiarity and expertise with how closely they need to be supervised.
In this particular incident, a very experienced shooter retrieved his pistol and started working the steps to clear it but several things happened and they happened fast. The perfect angle I was standing at as well as the sun over my shoulder hit the chamber of the pistol and I saw brass that hadn’t ejected when the slide was manipulated, the shooter went to reposition his hand to drop the hammer/striker without pointing the pistol back towards the targets or ground/other safe direction. I was already saying “stop stop stop” or some combination of instructions to cease the shooter’s actions because I was CERTAIN there was a round in the chamber that was about to get fired over the tree line towards other stages at the range and not towards a safe impact area.
I told the shooter what I’d seen and what was about to happen and told him to reorient the pistol safely and rack the slide again. Two more times and it didn’t clear the round but on the final time (4th total) the live round was ejected.
It ended fine, but everything in these modern marvels is mechanical and it CAN FAIL. Speeding through safety steps to save a second or two here or there is not worth the risk of what can happen if you do. I’d rather finish at 4:30 instead of 4:15 if everyone is leaving in their POV and not a life flight
To add to what
@Tim said, I do carry an IFAK when I RO that has several additional things to aid in bleed control than what comes in it normally, and I don’t rely on the match providing one because I’m familiar with MY kit and how it’s set up. The only thing they could provide I don’t have is likely a Defib.
