Beep

[AdamBirkhimer]

If a shooter does not hear the beep to start the course of fire what happens next?

[Gary Stevens]

Not trying to sound like a smart a$$, but this is covered in the rule book.

[AdamBirkhimer]

Well I guess I will start reading

[Gary Stevens]

That is a good thing. Not all RO's, including me, are correct 100 percent of the time.

It is important that all shooters know the rules to prevent themselves from being the victim of a bad call.

[Wlktheduk]

February 2014 USPSA Handgun Competition Rules, Chapter 8, page 32:
8.3.4 "Start Signal"--The signal for the competitor to begin their attempt at the course of fire. If a competitor fails to react to a start signal, for any reason, the Range Officer will confirm that the competitor is ready to attempt the course of fire, and will resume the range commands from "Are You Ready?".

A certain NROI trainer who I will not name, put it like this: If the shooter doesn't react in a reasonable amount of time to the beep, stop, ask the shooter if they are ready, and start again. Hearing protection can sometimes do too good a job, some timer's have a less-then-loud beep, and some shooters have certain levels of hearing loss