Hearing and attention to detail can be very selective. We older guys can remember the distinctive sound of the empty Garand MI clip as it exits the breech. During the WWII pacific campaigns the Japanese became aware of what this sound meant. Upon hearing it from their immediate front they would attempt to kill a Marine before he could reload. Being resourceful, the Leathernecks would use an empty clip to make that sound, and wait for the enterprising son of Nippon to show himself; whereupon he would be dispatched by the still loaded Garand in the Marine's hands. Payback is a b---h. While on the firing line in a match I have seen someone experience a hang fire, and try two or three times to pull the trigger instead of waiting. Range safety officers always watched for this, as it was likely the poor soul would turn away from the line with the weapon pointed in some very unsafe directions. My two great uncles fought at Antietam, in the Cornfield, and survived. Descriptions of that action refer to the continuous roar of rifle fire, and to Union troops falling in rows, like the corn they fought in. Either a soldier's training insured he did the right thing, or he was unlikely to be effective, or alive at the end of the battle. One of my great uncles was wounded twice. The first time in some sort of skirmish around Lynchburg, when he was hit in the left arm, and the second time at Spottsylvania in May 1864, in the left shoulder. This ball passed through his shoulder, shattered the left scapula, and exited near the spine at waist level. This was his million dollar wound, as it got him sent home to recover. Trouble was, he was captured and sent to Camp Douglas. So far as I know he was right handed, so he left arm and shoulder would have been closest to the enemy in action. Stan