01/21/2024
A quick PSA: Don't allow Experience to breed Carelessness.
Earlier today I stopped at a local indoor range to function-check a new slide with a few different brands of ammo, including some reloads. Everything was going fine, I was getting some good data to compare, until I ran into a malfunction with the reloads. Due to a primer that wasn't fully seated in the casing, the slide failed to go into battery and became stuck. I made a few attempts to clear it, but I realized I would need to get better leverage, so as not to give the RSO cause for concern, I let him know what was going on. He offered to give it a try, and immediately had his hand in front of the muzzle and was wrestling with the pistol. He took it to the workshop in the back of the facility and was able to clear it, but the complete lack of safe handling left me very concerned.
On my way out of the range, I let the staff member at the counter know what happened. His response was "don't worry, he's very experienced" and "you pretty much have to put your hand in front of the barrel to clear that, I would have done the same thing." I paid my bill and left, deciding that was the last I would visit that particular range. I'm sure his experience would have been a comfort as he dealt with a bullet wound through his palm.
Many of us have spent our entire lives in the presence of fi****ms. I've met people who allow there experience to cause them to ignore safe handling practices. They justify this unsafe behavior by saying "don't worry, I'm experienced", but they're doing things that experience tells us is a bad idea. Never let yourself become so comfortable that you become complacent.
