Jim Norman

Heel Position!? I'd be happy if all I had to do was go prone at a 3-gun! Try a squat, in mud under a barricade, uphill. Or a 90 degree roll to your rifle, shooting between slats 1-1/2" apart at poppers at 75 yards with a no-shoot behind them. Someone else said it first; Get down, get a look and get the shot! You want to win, you'll be on your way to the next array while the other guy is still futzing with ankle and heel position. Seriously, being able to get into AND out of a contorted position is probably as or more important than being able to shoot 1/2 minute groups. Most of what we do if you can hit 2-3 minutes you are good to go!

Would someone please show me where in the rules "Obvious Intent" is covered? I have designed a few stages over the last few years, including some at Area Matches. I have served as an RO at area matches as well as co-match director at our club. I have designed stages that I "Thought" should be shot in one manner, but when someone got to the stage saw HOLE in my description and shot it completely different. It did change how everyone's score fell out after that discovery. It is the one area of Freestyle shooting that makes course design tough. You can't say you must do "X" you can say you must shoot from with-in the free fire zone, or with-in the box, you want a shooter to travel a certain path, you pretty much have to block all other pathways. Take as an alternate example to the Cooper Tunnel that started this thread an "L" shaped free fire zone. A shooter can cross out of the zone as long as all targets are engaged from with-in. This may very well reduce the time and substantially alter the outcome, but you really have no choice other than to allow it. I end by saying I was not at the match in question, but given that the events occurred as described, then the RO was wrong and Howard was right. Just my opinion.

I am thinking that with growth of non-IPSC 3-gun and the number of different venues. that there should maybe be an exchage of rules amongst the organizers. This should include scoring methods as well as equipment rules. Potential topics: Divisions? How many? He-Man, Iron Sighted Rifle, Optic Rifle. Should there be an Open division for Pistol or Shotgun? What is allowed as far as equipment in each? Should they even exist? Classification system? Should there be one? How would you work it without a national organization? Could you simply assume USPSA or IDPA classification? Prize structure: Lewis System? Class System, Top down only? Scoring: Time plus like IDPA? Peronally I think this creates a problem. If you have a single time heavy course and one person smokes it, they can win the match even though they trashed half the rest of the stages. Straight hit factor like IPSC/USPSA? Works to a point, but again different stages are valued more than others and it is possible to trash a couple small stages and still win. All stages equal in overall match points? I like this method, you can use time plus or you can use hit factor. Assign an equal value to all stages, say 100 points and use the percentage of the winner as the match points, total them up and you have the match score. All stages and all skills are equally required and weighted. Power factors: How do you score Major/Minor, Minor/Major Rilfe/Pistol? Major Major and Minor minor is easy. is any rifle really "minor" after all, you can use a 75 grain .223 and hit out past 600 yards.

Due to time and money constraints, I have not been out west, but inthe east there is Kyle's Match, now known as the North American 3-gun Championship. I have shot this at least 4 times, THer are a couple ohte one day matches in the east that are or have the potential to be good. NC 3-Gun this year was a new match held in Albermarle, NC generally good stages including a surprise dark house. You can check out the NC Recon as well, I have not been there, but all reports have been that I should have. USPSA 3-gun was more like three one gun matches. Stages were good, I hate to say, that I was not up to them this year, but I wasn't. There were some very interesting stages. Many of the stages are quite similar to IPSC pistol, just opened up, but they are a challenge and if it is in the east, I will likely attend again. For us in the NE North Carolina seems to be the place, problem is its takes Friday and sometimes Monday to do a twoday match. 7 hours each way is a long drive if you leave for home at 8 'o'clock at night.

Mickey, Where is your club? There may be a lot more interest in your match than you know! He-Mail or Iron-Man division is a great way to bring out equipment and shooters that don't normally get to compete on an even footing with al the mouse guns. At Kyle's match there was one person shooting an M1 Garand in the Ironman division! Not a great disadvantage to the M1A at least compared to the disadvantage he'd have against an AR-15! I personally am all in favor of this "New" division. One thing that I'd stress is that if you are also running a mouse gun division, then you should identify the shooters in the Iron-man division. Publish the combined scores as we all want to know haw we did against the all of the others, but identify each individual division as well, even if you don't publish a separate list. This would also stand for a separate Tactical Optics Division. Only other item I'd think about is the scoring differential between the Ironman and the others. The major minor rifle difference is probably a bit short at 1/2 second for a C vs. 1 second in a minor rifle, and I think that those in the Ironman should also get a small bonus for the Pump and the 10 round 45 vs. the .40's and the Auto SGs. I am not sure just how much of a difference, but I think that the real match winner at Kyle's NA 3-gun should have been the Ironman winner, he shot about 85% of Mike Voight's score. That is one awesome shooter!! Kyle, I’m coming back next year with a better .45 and a lot more practice with my SG! Jim