JohnL

At a club level match I always ask if I have any first time shooters. If I do I give them some assistence. Before they shoot the first stage I give them a bit of a walk through on what to expect at LAMR and ULSC, on keeping their finger out of the trigger guard while moving and reloading and on the 180. I tell them I will warn them once if they have their finger on the trigger when they shouldn't and when the get close to the 180. After that they are just another competitor. It's a hard call because we want to encourage new shooters but where and when do you draw the line? Do you only tell them the first time or after the second or third? Do you tell them they had a miss or they forgot to shoot at a target? I still make dumb mistakes on stages but that is on me not the RO.

Jeff, I was wondering what stage to have you RO on Sunday?

I agree with dajarrel. There is a two step process to begininig a course of fire. Readying the gun then preparing yourself to begin. When I give the LAMR command I focus my attention on the firearm as it is prepared and I continue as it is placed in the position required in the course description. When that has happened I watch the competitor as they ready themselves. When they settle into the start position then I know I can give the Standby command. IMHO, it makes sense to recognize the two step process by having a two step command.

Got mine yesterday. My heart stopped for a second since I'm MD for a match next Sunday. Glad to see that the rules won't go into effect till December 1.

Ouch!!! With friends like Pat......

Yep, not the AWB. They still can not tag your bags on the outside.

Patrick has seen me shoot revolver so I guess I won't be on the team.

The AWB and its sunset had no effect on TSA regulations for the transport of firearms.

Whizz, I shoot revolver and it is a blast. You'll get better as you shoot more often. Experience helps to get past the problem of having your plan fall apart when the buzzer goes off.

I broke a primer seater and when I called Dillon they said they would send me one for free. I protested telling them I broke it but they sent me one for free. Smae thing when I lost a set of locator pins. Mike Dillon understands what customer service is about.

We always have the competitor place their hands on their head and the RO remains at their side if someone has to go down range after the LAMR.

I'll' be there Jeff. Can I bring my belt fed shotgun?

Cameron, So, you're saying there was only one entry in Revolver? Just kidding Jeff. Congratulations!!! I bet you're glad I didn't show up.

If you break the 180 you are DQ'd - pure and simple. I don't care if you are right or left handed. The muzzle either crosses the 180 or it does not. The RO can not DQ you for failing to follow the COF procedure that is -10 not a DQ. As Skywalker notes this is a course design issue. If the MD was worried about the 180 there should have been some barrier preventing competitors from engaging the target from that position. It sounds to me as if the RO decided before hand that anyone who fired from that position was going to be DQ'd and he forgot to let the RM in on the secret.

Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn.

Jeff, You're starting to scare me

Jeff & Cameron, Will we be having a wedding shower after the meeting Sunday? Let me know ASAP as I'll need to come up with an appropriate gift.

No, I'm not and I'm not a range nazi either. But, Waldo (a competitor - read the first sentance of the second paragraph) is interfering with the RO including during the Unload, Show Clear). The rules are the same for club level matches as they are for higher levels of competition. They are that way to protect the safety of all involved and to provide an equal oportunity for all of the competitors. If Waldo wants to coach a new shooter that is fine - just do it after the shooter has left the COF so as not to interfere with the RO in the performance of his resonsibilities..

Well, if he didn't heed the requests to stay back I would remind him of 10.4.2 and let him know that he could be facing a Match DQ for unsportsman like behavior. Harsh, perhaps but you have to be able to do your job. He can coach all he wants after the shooter has left the line.

Vince, I recognized a few people in your post.

However we must (and we do), hold our ROs to a higher standard. Again, we don't know the full story and so we can only comment on what has been posted about the incident. We need to keep in mind that a squad is putting its safety into the hands of the RO running the stage. That is a big responsibility to accept. If there is something going on in the life of an RO that would require him or her to take a phone call during a match then that RO should stay home by the phone. We don't have redundant RO's. A lot of bad things could have happened from the time the RO walked away from the line until someone else stepped up. I hope that someone steps up and does whatever is needed to prevent this from happening again.

An RO has as their primary responsibility the safety of the shooter, other competitors and any spectators. You can't meet that responsibility unless your full attention is focused on the gun. It still amazes me just how fast things happen during a competiors run on a COF. We only have one side of the incident but if it happened as told here then maybe this individual should find another sport to officiate; maybe chess.

I was shooting an indoor match and was cleared by the RO and I looked in the chamber but when told hammer down the gun went bang. A round had hung up somehow and chambered when I released the slide. Ka ka occurs even when you think everything is okay, That's why we keep our fingers off the trigger, keep the muzzle down range, assume the gun is loaded and we do not point a gun at something we are not willing to destroy.

Vince, Thanks for the welcome. Yeah, it came as a rather unpleasant suprise. When the action opened it was not obvious that we had a spent round in the chamber and since the extractor was not ejecting the round we were faced with the problem of clearing the rifle before we could even think about how we should deal with how it got there. The one thing I'm sure of as an RO is that I'll never live long enough to see everything. Oh, a pet peve - It still suprises me how few competitors actually look at the chamber when clearing their guns.

It seems simple to me. If the shooter downed two whis first shot there were only two left. He fired two more shots, right? He just missed. The FTE is for not engaging a target not for missing. Bad, initial call and a bad arb decision, IMHO.