Back to roast it is....!
First off, I'm a long time lurker on this forum and a first time poster. This is not exactly the way I'd imagine I'd make my first post, but right is right and wrong is wrong.
I was the shooter that first became aware that the suspected shooter was using illegal equipment. It was Day 2, Stage 7, when I learned of this. I was one of the last shooters of Stage 7 and Squad 11 was well arrived to shoot Stage 7 after me. As I was waiting to shoot my stage, I overheard the suspect shooter mention to an "RO" (Yes, you heard me right, an RO) that he will need to hold his "RED DOT" a certain amount of perceived inches high, when engaging the head-shot Larues at known distances.
I thought this statement was odd as I recalled my fellow friends in my division clearly told me earlier this year that electronic optics were again not authorized in HML. I didn't actually see the suspect's rifle at this time to verify that he was using an electronic red dot sight. End of story for Day 2...
After Day 2 ended and my friends and I are back at the hotel and stuffing our face, I mention the odd statement I heard as I wanted to verify that electronic 1x red dot sights were not allowed in the new HML rules. My friends and I didn't immediately explode into anger and decided we'll just see if the suspected shooter did indeed have a equipment misunderstanding. We all thought this highly-skilled, and sponsored shooter simply joked about something he didn't have, or that I heard him wrong.
Day 3... As we open the morning shooting on Stage 2, yours truly is too curious to concentrate on anything else other than if the suspect individual was indeed in equipment violation territory. So I walk to Stage 1 to watch suspect shooter. As the suspected individual's turn on Stage 1 approached, I observed him retrieve his rifle from his drag bag that was on a table. Sure enough, I see an Aimpoint Comp M4 on top of his rifle. I then walk back to my friends and advise what I had just witnessed.
One of the HML shooters overheard our conversation, and agreed that electronic sights were not legal in HML. He was also a very accomplished shooter in the division and said to us, "Hmmm, I know XXXXX pretty well.... I will go and talk to him." So our diplomat walks over to the Stage 1 and then returns to tell us that he spoke with the shooter. The response told by this shooter to us was, "XXXXX said that he had no idea that it was illegal, but he will take care of it."
So we were all satisfied at this point. We felt that any competitor, especially one that is a shooter of this caliber, would never risk his reputation, integrity, and his honor as a top competitor by not doing the right thing. We felt no need to make the issue known to any ROs or the match director.
I then heard at the awards banquet that the suspected shooter still accepted the divisional title, but did not pick the obvious first place prize at the prize table.
Hearing the actions of this individual just really made me lose all respect for him. Yes, he is a very skilled shooter and I am pretty certain he still would have won the title even with iron sights. However, his character is one that isn't even close to par with his shooting ability. I understand there is a certain expectation of top sponsored shooters to do well and bring home wins for their sponsors, but at what point does that include compromising one's own morals and integrity. I simply don't get it.
As for the ROs, I can't really place any blame on them. HML is the smallest division and probably the least interested in all of 3 gun. So I'd imagine most, if not all of the RO's were in the dark on the equipment rule change. All of the ROs worked hard at this match and I believe the only goals on their mind was to get everyone safely through their stage and make sure they ran their stage professionally and effectively. It wasn't about catching anyone trying to use equipment that wasn't legal in their division.
Bottom line, this thread isn't about how rules should be enforced or how ROs need to do a better job. It's about that if there is no integrity in our sport, why even bother to compete in the first place? An earlier poster said it right about Lance Armstrong... Look where he ended up...
