TargetTalk

Maybe I am a bit thick, but reading the ISSF rules I am not sure how to interpret the following scenario:

Scenario:
Halfway through a prone position series, competitor places a .22 cartridge into the breech of his rifle, pushing it most of the way in with his finger.
On closing the bolt the cartridge (an Eley Tenex) fires safely into the grass halfway down the range - no target hit.
Competitor was closing the bolt so no hand/finger on or near the trigger.
Weapon was clean, bolt, extractors etc all appeared fine - following 30+ rounds fired with no problems.
Malfunction or shooter preventable? As I interpret the rules, this dictates if you would get to take the shot again?

Possible causes? Weak case? Dirt in chamber, bolt, pin or extractor that cleared itself?

Was there a firing pin dent in the case? If so, too bad. Minus 10 points.

If there wasn't it may still be a miss. Since all shots not hitting the competitors target are misses.

Thin head? He or she is lucky they didn't drop the silly round before they shot it;>)

Closing the bolt "aggressively" on a gun with the trigger engagement set too finely can cause the firing pin to "follow down" and cour cause the shot to fire.

Personally, I have never seen any ammunition do what you describe without shooter help. Doesn't mean it couldn't. Just I have never seen it. The rule on ammunition malfunction only really deals with a failure to fire since the shooter can replace the round.

Once the bullet leaves the barrel through the muzzle it counts. The best you could hope for would be to be given the chance to shoot a provisional shot at the end of your "normal" 60 shots and have the Jury examine the "offending" cartridge case and hope they are in an extremely generous mood.

Regardless, at this point I think it is a miss.

This usually only happens when the shooter closes the bolt too aggressively in which case it is definitely their fault -10. Even if it was an equipment malfunction it is their own responsibility to have working equipment so again -10.

Marcus wrote:Was there a firing pin dent in the case? If so, too bad. Minus 10 points.

If there wasn't it may still be a miss. Since all shots not hitting the competitors target are misses.

Thin head? He or she is lucky they didn't drop the silly round before they shot it;>)

Closing the bolt "aggressively" on a gun with the trigger engagement set too finely can cause the firing pin to "follow down" and cour cause the shot to fire.

Personally, I have never seen any ammunition do what you describe without shooter help. Doesn't mean it couldn't. Just I have never seen it. The rule on ammunition malfunction only really deals with a failure to fire since the shooter can replace the round.

Once the bullet leaves the barrel through the muzzle it counts. The best you could hope for would be to be given the chance to shoot a provisional shot at the end of your "normal" 60 shots and have the Jury examine the "offending" cartridge case and hope they are in an extremely generous mood.

Regardless, at this point I think it is a miss.

The discussion was about the same.
The bolt closure appeared to be normal, not violent.
Tenex is a quality cartridge - unlikely to be defective.
However, there was no firing pin dent in the cartridge - it had a faint mark only.
As the remaining rounds were fired ok it was inconclusive one way or the other, thus me posting the question on here.

Interesting question, but it opens up a whole can of worms;

Questions;

Was the 'malfunction' witnessed by the RO ?
Did the shooter declare it as a malfunction (and not touch the weapon) ?
Was the rim dented in any way (firing pin mark) ?

All of the above then lead on to solutions or further possible actions

Assuming the shooter declares the malfunction, in the correct manner, then the RO inspects the weapon and case. If there was an apparent strike then the RO can insist the shooter stops on a range safety ruling. If the case had no dents then ditto - does the shooter have a faulty batch of ammo ? In either case the shooter would (may) need to get either the gun checked or the ammo - don't know if they be permitted to resume if they got the problem solved (in time).

As to that being an allowable malfunction, I don't know - would I think depend on the reasonings, but I haven't read the appropriate rules in enough detail.

Rob.

Ron has this pretty much covered.

I'm assuming the shooter has indicated to the R.O. that the shot has discharged. Any firing of the shot is pretty much a non-allowable malfunction and would be counted as a miss. Whether the shooter would be allowed to continue (on safety grounds) would be a matter for the R.O. / jury after examination of the rifle.

It's really only in the case where a round has failed to fire, due to faulty ammunition or a failure of the firing pin etc. that would be counted as an allowable malfunction and the shooter would be given a maximum of 15 mins to repair or replace a rifle.

Either way, there is no deduction of points. The miss is penalty enough!

Interesting moral issue, though. If the competition was being run on paper targets, then it's unlikely that the missed shot was registered anywhere.... up to the shooter to declare.