November 10, 2004 found me in an out patient surgical facility awaiting surgery on my (non – dominant) left shoulder for A/C joint decompression. The doctor told me that after the surgery, I would be in a sling for about a day while the shoulder block (local anesthetic to block pain in the shoulder and arm) wore off, then I could get rid of the sling and start "range of motion" exercises. I wondered; would I be able to shoot the last match of the year at our local club at the I.W.L.A. Oxford Lodge in Oxford Ohio?

The match was on Sunday, November 14. By Saturday I had been out of the sling for 24 hours. Practice with my shooting gear quickly (and painfully) told me that I would not be able to fully extend my left arm to shoot (I shoot isosceles style). Further, I would not be able to raise my left arm high enough, nor reach around behind my left hip far enough, to get to the spare magazines. So, I was forced to use my right hand to shoot and retrieve magazines. I could bring my left hand up to my belt buckle but could not reach fully across the front of my body. I had no problem grasping with my left hand so I could hold on to things like magazines.

Since I have had the good fortune to attend many excellent handgun training courses (at Tactical Defense Institute in Ohio - TDI), I wanted to put some of my training to good use. So I decided to shoot the match as a "wounded shooter". I started trying different techniques to see which ones would fit within the confines of the safety requirements of the IDPA match and within the range of motion that I had at the time. I came up with an acceptable level of techniques and decided to go to the match and try them out.

At the match, I contacted the Match Director and the Safety Officer of my squad and explained my condition and requested permission to shoot the match as a wounded shooter. They readily agreed and it was off to the races (or is that throwing lead down range?).

The match was set up in four shooting bays with seven stages. The round count was about 100. The only stage that affected me shooting strong hand only was the first one which required one string to be shot weak hand only. My friends at the club took pity on me and allowed me to shoot this string strong hand only since I was shooting the rest of the match that way. Most of the stages were shot from concealment. Several stages had target ranges of up to 20 yards. There were plenty of "good guys" scattered throughout the "bad guys" and even a "hostage" situation. There was also a stage with a car, where the shooter was in the car at the start buzzer, had to exit the car, and deal with the stage scenario. Various stages were set up for engaging in tactical order, tactical sequence, with reloads and around barricades. It turned out to be a good test of "wounded shooter" skills. I shot the match with my Glock 30, Blade Tech Paddle Holster and Magazine Carrier.

I mentioned that most of the stages were set up drawing from concealment. I was wearing a sweatshirt because of the cooler temperatures of that day. The Hackathorn Rip technique that I learned at TDI was out because my left arm didn’t have the range of motion needed to clear the garment. I used a technique that has been dubbed the "Bowie Sweep", also learned at TDI. It simply involves curling the strong hand fingers inward toward the body, coming up and under the cover garment (or garments; it also works with two different type of garments, say a sweat shirt and a vest), and sweeping the garments up and back over the top of the handgun. At that time, the strong hand simply drops to the handgun and draws. The technique worked very well. The point here was that my injury prevented me from using one technique but I had another at hand. It pays to have plenty of "tools" in your tool box (of skills)!

Re-holstering was a bit of a trick. To re-holster with one hand, I had to catch the cover garment with a "flagged" (or out stretched) thumb or little finger to clear the garment from the holster. I had some trouble with this, especially under the stress of the match for reloads, but nothing that couldn’t be worked out with more practice.

For reloads, whether slide lock or tactical reload, I first holstered the handgun. Then I reached across my body with my right hand, retrieved a fresh magazine and placed the magazine in my left hand. Re-drawing the handgun, I brought the handgun to my belt buckle and swapped the partial magazine for the fresh one when doing the tactical reload. When in slide lock, I simply dropped the magazine to the ground before holstering. From there it was "on with the match". I did not use any of the "catch the sight or the slide on the holster / belt / shoe" techniques because of the potential for poor muzzle direction. These are viable techniques for the real world but not necessarily for the safety considerations required at a club match.

"Face down range, load and make ready" was fairly easy. I retrieved my "charging magazine" with the left hand (my sweatshirt had pockets in the front) and loaded the handgun. Then I removed the charging magazine and stored it in my sweatshirt pocket and retrieved my first fully loaded magazine. I brought the handgun to my belt buckle and loaded the magazine, holstered and re-concealed the handgun. I nodded to the SO that I was ready. The key here was bringing the handgun to my belt buckle since I was having trouble reaching across my body with my left arm. That is, I brought the handgun to the ammo, not the other way around.

Racking the slide was slightly abnormal. Since I still had the use of my left hand, and could grasp with it, I simply brought the handgun to the belt buckle area. I held the slide with my left hand, and pushed the frame forward (instead of pulling the slide back) with enough force to pull the slide out of my left hand.

The match went well although my times were longer than they would have been had I not been "wounded". But it was worth shooting the match this way since it provided practice of techniques that would not normally be practiced. It is one thing to shoot a particular stage "strong hand only" because of the stage description requirement. It is something else to shoot an entire match strong hand only, contending with the related issues of reloads, concealment, re-holstering, etc.

Don’t let a disability prevent you from enjoying shooting matches at your local club or practicing different life saving techniques. Try it sometime at your local club.