DKorn

Throw your favorite 9mm comp on there, but don’t expect much change in dot movement. I’d personally go for the loudest comp I could find to help the timer pick up the shots more easily.

I run 4.1 grains of 231 under a 125 grain blue bullet out of my Walther Q5. OAL 1.125. Last time I chronoed it ranged from 129.25 to 132.6 PF.

I listen to his podcast an unhealthy amount, if there is such a thing.

I’d have the shooter unload at either, but that’s just my preference. Last major I RO’d (couple weekends ago) we had a similar situation. I was on the tablet and noticed an unpasted target right after the timer RO said make ready. Don’t know how I saw it, sun must’ve caught it just right. Anyway, I said stop, he had the shooter unload and show clear and then looked at me. I told him about the target, we dealt with it, and then we started over from make ready. I think any time that you’re going to do something unusual after giving the make ready command, you should have the shooter unload and show clear and start over from make ready. It prevents far more potential problems than it causes. I can think of a lot of scenarios leading to unsafe situations, potential DQs, or stupid arguments that are completely eliminated by having the shooter unload and show clear. Remember that as long as you’re between make ready and range is clear, everything that happens is “during the COF”. Also, take a look at part of 8.3.8 Range is Clear. “Once the declaration is made, officials and competitors may move forward to score, patch, reset targets, etc.”

Match mode you don’t control speed. You shoot as fast as you can see good enough sight pictures (“see what you need to see”) and make up any hits that you call as worse than alphas or close charlies. Everything that isn’t shooting you do as fast as you can. More importantly, you analyze, strategize, memorize, and visualize your stage plan so that it becomes subconscious. Then, you give your conscious mind one job (watch the sights and evaluate each shot as acceptable or unacceptable based on the sights as they begin to lift in recoil, and decide whether to fire a makeup) and let everything else happen subconsciously. This ensures that you get the best you’re capable of based on your training - your subconscious level of skill.

If it’s the first squad, why wouldn’t he let you fix it? That’s not a lot of shooters to have to reshoot even if he decides it affects the stage. Unless it was the first squad not counting staff day... then it could be a bit of a pain.

Accuracy mode means your only goal is improving accuracy. This could be group shooting, or it could be something you use when you’re working on a type of target, positioning, or distance that’s new to you or that you find difficult. Your goal is to improve your accuracy and the time doesn’t matter - don’t even use a timer! Speed mode means your only goal is improving speed. This means pushing yourself faster than you’ve gone before and finding ways to do everything quicker, sooner, and faster. Accuracy doesn’t matter and isn’t judged, you only care about improving speed. This doesn’t mean you’re just waving the gun around, but it means that dropping points is OK as long as you’re making speed gains. Let’s say the fastest you’ve ever done a draw to an alpha is 1.1 seconds. If you do a 1.0 and it’s a charlie, and your goal is speed, then that’s an improvement. What about a .8 and a delta? Or a .7 and a mike? If you’ve never done a sub second draw, those are huge gains, and worth ignoring accuracy for a bit. The key thing about these 2 modes is that they are ONLY for practice. Not matches. The only mode you should take to matches is... match mode!

Most likely outcome is that a few barrel stacks get added to block view of the targets that are past the 180. If the RM decides that this doesn’t change the competitive equity of the stage because the barrels don’t affect the views of any targets that are at safe angles, then the stage continues with the modifications. If it does change the stage in a way that affects competitive equity, then people are going to have to reshoot it. If it’s a bunch of people or a multi day match, it’s gonna get tossed. In the case I saw, nobody complained about the target being available from beyond the 180 (the shooter did later, but not that day), but if someone had, he was only the second shooter of the first day of the match, so we could’ve easily fixed the stage, reshot one shooter, and moved on. I still see lots of matches that don’t adhere to 2.1.4 very well, even some level 2 matches. Take a look at the stage starting at 1:07 here (not my video, but I also shot and staffed this match):

Talk to the RM (or MD if at a level 1 match and the MD is also acting as RM). If that doesn’t get you anywhere, there’s an official incident report form that you fill out with the MD/RM and have them submit to NROI. NROI will then determine what disciplinary action (if any) is necessary.

A friend of mine was DQ’d last year because of a stage that had this kind of issue. We were chatting with an RMI who’s local to us and he said that unfortunately you probably wouldn’t get the DQ overturned (11.1.2 - “Challenges to the construction or layout of the course, safety, or shooting conditions may not be submitted after the competitor attempts the course of fire”), but as the RM he would require that the stage be fixed OR tossed.

Very good point that the typical zero may not require any significant hold out to reasonable distances. Once technique I’ve heard about a couple times on the 3 Gun Show is to make large adjustments on subsequent shots instead of slowly walking your shots in. Let’s say you hold center of the target and miss 3” left of the target. Many shooters would incorrectly adjust 3 inches to the right, thinking “I missed by 3 inches so I adjust by 3 inches.” What’s incorrect here is that you didn’t miss by 3 inches, you missed your point of aim by 3 inches plus half the diameter of the target. Assuming that the shot felt and looked good (you didn’t yank it off target), adjust by a large amount- fire your next shot holding on the right edge of the target, or (if you can be precise enough) 3” right of that.

1- Make sure your rifle is zeroed at a known distance. 2- Ideally, know the characteristics of the round you’re shooting and how it behaves from your rifle. Pretty much, to do it right you need a chrono, although you can get reasonably close with someone else’s data from a similar barrel. 3- Using #1 and 2, know your hold overs for distance. Either use an app (Strelok is great) or test them yourself. Ideally both. 4- If you figure out anything else, let me know! I’m not great at distance either!

I would say that for a non-gun related modification, it’s not until it’s during the course of fire because 6.2.5.1 specifically says during the course of fire. Item 21 doesn’t, but it specifically says gun modifications. Those (and manually decocking to half cock) are the only rules that mention moving a competitor to Open.

For minor you should be ok with 5 + a start mag. On the very rare stage where you’re worried about running out, tuck 1 more mag in your back pocket.

I would say that in this case, because the compensator is part of the gun, he is moved to Open under Appendix D4/D7 Item 21, just like if they found his gun to be illegal for the division at chrono. The difference here is that it’s a modification to his gun rather than an issue with his belt gear.

I think it depends on exactly what you practice and when you train to get on the trigger. If your finger doesn’t even go on the trigger until you’re pointed downrange and have both hands on the gun, you’re not at much risk of having the gun go off so early that it’s unsafe. I think in general it’s not worth it to prep the trigger too early, but on really close targets, or in training to see how early you could get the shot off, it might make sense.

Wrist height has nothing to do with hands relaxed at sides... but keep in mind that appendix E3 is only relevant when the start position is “hands relaxed at sides”. A lot of stage designers don’t like the issues that have happened with “hands relaxed at sides” in the past, so some people are specifying “wrists below belt” in the WSB.

I ran 5 on my belt and load my first mag out of my pocket at make ready, just like if I’m shooting production. However, I also usually shot minor when I shot single stack. If you’re shooting major and only have 8 round mags, 5 is cutting it a bit tight on unloaded starts but should be doable.

As long as you don’t get on the trigger until the gun is absolutely in a safe direction, I can’t see how it could result in a DQ. Get on it too much earlier, on the other hand, and you definitely could send yourself home early. Remember, if someone cooks one off early into the dirt below a target, under USPSA rules that is not an AD, it’s a miss, assuming they don’t make it up. If the round hits within 10 feet of the shooter and the target is further away, then it’s an AD and a DQ.

The only rules I can find that mention bumping someone to Open are: 6.2.5.1, which specifically talks about failing to satisfy division requirements during the COF. Appendix D4 Item 21, which specifically states that the competitor must be able to point to the rule that authorizes a modification to their gun. Appendix D4 Special conditions 1, which states that manually lowering the hammer to half cock is not allowed in production. These last 2 also have equivalents in the CO appendix. So, although I remember being taught in the RO class that putting a magazine on a magnet at any time will result in a bump to Open from Production, I can’t find a rule to justify it. How can we as ROs expect competitors to follow unwritten rules, and how can we justify enforcing them? Isn’t the point of the new “evergreen” rulebook that there are no more separate rulings or interpretations?

Agreed. Or a banner with some kind of built in stand that can be staked down somewhere outside the shooting area near the stage.

Depends on who owns the banners, I would think. If they’re loaned by a sponsor to the match and no representative of the sponsor is on site, would you cut holes in a banner you don’t own?

The banner on the right here probably doesn’t affect the stage, since it’s in a spot no competitor would ever need to go during the stage (no new targets were available from that end of the wall).

I think best practice going forward will definitely be to locate sponsor banners with the thought already in mind of “what if we have to take these down for some reason?” Outside the stage works well, although sometimes it might not be an option (either because there’s no good spot or because the sponsor really wants their banner to be in pictures and video of people on the stage). If you have to put it on the stage, there’s usually places where they don’t make a significant difference to the stage.

I have a couple questions. How many stages were affected? Was this a case of banners being damaged or blowing off, and/or banners being taken off when they were imminently going to cause other issues, like walls blowing over? Or, were a few blowing off and then someone made the decision to pull all the banners?