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Popper Covering a Target and Calibration


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I ran into a situation this weekend in a match under 3GN rules that I'd like to get your thoughts on. A set of poppers was set in front of some smaller steel plates with the intention of the shooter knocking down the poppers before engaging the plates. One of the poppers was out of calibration, and after hitting it twice without having it fall, I initially went to move on with the rest of the stage. I realized, though, that I had to knock it down to engage the plate behind it, so I hit it a third time, it fell slowly, and I finished up the stage . We had a discussion about it with the match director after the stage. Of course, under 3GN rules, when a popper is out of calibration, a challenge can only result in being awarded the hit on the popper that didn't fall, but no re-shoot can be given. In this case, though, I couldn't effectively finish the course of fire without reengaging the popper, which then eliminates any chance to challenge a calibration. The match director pointed out that I could have left the standing popper, retreated back up range about 10 yards and to one extreme side of the shooting area, and then tried to slip a bullet around the popper to one edge of the smaller target that was then partially exposed, and then finish the course of fire. 

 

So my options under 3GN rules were essentially (1) hit the out-of-calibration popper until it falls and suck it up (probably the better option), or (2) completely change my stage plan and shoot essentially a different course of fire to enable a chance at a challenge to be awarded the five second credit for the popper - neither option is really very attractive.

 

While I think the rules were applied correctly in this case, I think the error was in the stage design. After thinking about this more,  I've come to believe that under 3GN rules, the stage designer should avoid requiring a popper to fall to then enable the engagement of other targets, or else there really is no fair way to apply a calibration challenge. I am curious if any of you have run into this before, and if you agree that this would be a best practice with the 3GN rule set. Thoughts?

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