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PistolPJL

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Everything posted by PistolPJL

  1. Am I the first to learn that Hodgdon is now selling powder direct to consumers?
  2. Any decision to hold a state match in 2018? If so, dates set yet? Thanks.
  3. I heard a rumor if you joined the Rio Solado range, you got preferential treatment. Can't confirm, and if true, doubt anyone would admit it.
  4. I have been the MD for our local matches for several years now, and stage design has always been a task considering all the reasons brought up in this thread. Another consideration is participation in set up. I don't have the luxury of a large crew available any time before match day, so it needs to be simple enough and, conversely, exciting enough to be accomplished with 3 to 6 people in roughly 2 to 2 and a half hours, match day. Those factors being considered, and my own sanity to be protected, I have come upon a formula for every match for the last two years. One speed course ( approx. 17 rds.) A steel course ( usually Steel Challenge 5 plate type ). A classifier so that people who may want to start competing in ICORE don't have to fret over getting classified in a hurry, A field course in the range of 25 to 31 rounds. And finally the dreaded Far & Near stage. Since it is the stage that makes or breaks just about everyone in either the IRC or a monthly match, I believe in practicing it all year. We get anywhere from 15 to 28 people per match. My stats guy might have a better overall average, but I don't pay attention to that. My philosophy, if you want to call it that, is, I put on a match I would want to shoot. Is it fun for me? Since I am the one making the effort, and no one else really wants to do the commitment, nor responsibility, it only makes sense to me to have this attitude. After 20+ some odd years participating in ICORE, from the first IRC till now, and seeing all the changes, that have both moved the organization forward, and those that have been the constant anchor holding it back, I find this thread about the 6 shot neutral/friendly discussion quite amusing. My personal belief is that anyone who isn't a Josh, or Jerry or maybe a handful of other revo shooters ( fill in the name of your favorite ) and has the idea that if the course of fire keeps the playing feel level, they will win the match, is ludicrous. If winning was my reason to keep at this for long, I would have stopped about 16 years ago. The way I see it is, you pick your niche and play in it. Whether it be open, limited or classic. I have always based my performance on a few fellow shooters who I compete with regularly and are close to me in all the factors: age, health, division, etc. Yes it is nice to win, but it isn't the reason to compete. It is the people you compete with. It is the fun of running with a bunch of people with the same love of the game. I help with another match which is called "Speed Gun". It is a speed verses points game, likened, I'm told to the old smoke 'em matches of many years ago. We use mainly stages left over from the weeks previous IDPA match. We then add enough targets to go from the rule limiting 18 rounds of IDPA , and boost them to a 27 to 32 round stage. There are divisions for just about any handgun you can think of. There is usually a little "kink" in each stage to make the shooter think, have to aim a bit more carefully, or move to get to at least one or more targets; just enough to keep it "speed", but put a little hitch in their giddy up. The point being, we get a few people who shoot revo's there, either IDPA oriented or ICORE oriented. Everyone to a person says they don't care if it isn't 6 or 7 or 8 round neutral, it is just fun. We give them a problem, and they figure out how to solve it with what they brought. They don't complain that some guy is using a tricked race 38 super with a 28 round magazine. They aren't competing against him. My whole point in this discussion is there is a lot of worry over keeping it neutral and not enough of about how to encourage new participation. The biggest factor when new shooters come to my match, is their first exposure to Far & Near. Most have no idea of what their firearm can do at fifty yards. They are just flinging the rounds out there and hope to do better at the closer ranges. I constantly have to explain to them, it's gonna take a lot of time and/or practice, before they will feel confident or, for that matter, even comfortable, shooting this stage. So they do come back and try again, knowing the problem wasn't necessarily their shooting abilities, but rather the stage difficulty and not being better prepared to tackle it. If we could poll all the shooters who shot the IRC once, and never came back, I'll bet F & N was big factor. I'm not saying get rid of it or change it, but we have face the fact, of what it does to a shooter who shoots it for the first time, I think ICORE has to do more educate and prepare new shooters on what the sport is all about. We need to advertise the sport more. We need to try to get the media, be it print, internet, or TV out to our matches more. We have to remember, ours is a very unique and somewhat precarious organization, in that it is all volunteer. I have seen more than a dozen ideas discussed on how to attract new shooters, and nearly the same amount of reasons tossed in to discourage those ideas. We are our biggest holdup in growing. I wish I had the light bulb idea to close this post, but I don't. I just wanted to add a bit of my thoughts and the majority of these points hold true with the ICORE shooters I compete with.
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