Timer hit by live round during unload affecting stage time

[CHA-LEE]

Here is the situation. This past weekend I was ROing a shooter. He shoots the stage and I am keeping the timer biased towards the shooter and can see the time incrementing with every shot in my peripheral vision. He finishes the run without any issues and prepares to unload. I come up on his right and issue the range command “If you are finished, Unload and show clear”. I have the timer in my right hand and I can still see the stage time on the clock in my peripheral vision. The shooter racks the slide to eject the live round and it flips out then strikes the timer and I see the time increase on the timer because it “Picked Up” the physical impact of the hit by the live round. Since this happened multiple seconds after his last audible recorded shot during his stage run it was easy for me to use the Review function on the timer to determine the true overall stage time.

I know that you are not suppose to use the timers review function to determine extra shots or misses due to not enough shots and stuff like that. But this was a completely different situation that was truthfully induced by me by having the timer too close to the shooter/gun during the Unload process. For this club match both me and the other RO agreed that we would use the second to last recorded time on the timer as the stage time because. This was mainly supported by me keeping the timer in my peripheral vision while he was shooting the stage and I could see the time advancing and I also witnessed the live round striking the timer which advanced the time artificially. So I believe the correct call was made for the shooter.

When I tried looking up an exact example of this failure mode in the rule book I couldn’t find a solid recommendation for a course of action to make a definitive call. Rule 4.6.1 talks about this falling into a Range Equipment Failure due to the “electronically operated equipment” statement which I believe the Timer its self would fall under. But there is no specific recommendation for a solution if the shooter is able to successfully complete the COF, which he did. The live round/timer issue happened after I issued the “If you are finished, Unload and show clear command” which the shooter obviously performed triggering the whole issue.

I know the long term solution for me as an RO is to keep the timer well away from being interfered with during and after the COF run so an accurate time can be recorded. But is there a different call that should have been made in this specific situation?

[mactiger]

You made the right call here. As long as you can get a valid time, and you could, the round hitting the timer is not a problem, and that holds true for any level match. Don't over think these issues--a little common sense goes a long way sometimes.

Troy

[Nik Habicht]

I know the long term solution for me as an RO is to keep the timer well away from being interfered with during and after the COF run so an accurate time can be recorded.

Good call. From experience -- don't be too quick to hide the timer behind your back, sometimes there's an additional shot, and you may not pick it up at that point.....

If you can determine an accurate time, you're golden....

[Schutzenmeister]

We've even gone so far as to look at the split times on our timers when shooting indoors. In particlar, Open guns can cause enough of an echo to register multiple times on the timer. When we see a aplit of .06 or .07 on the last shot, we KNOW something is up. (Very few shooters in the world can do that, and certainly NO ONE at our local club!) We use the review function to find the correct shot time to record on the score sheet.

The RO is required to record the shooter's attempt accurately. If the timer "malfunctions," but an accurate time can still be determined, that time should be recorded and no reshoot issued. (That's a round-about explanation of what I read in 9.10.1.)

[BritinUSA]

I've noticed in IPSC matches (overseas) that the RO always places the timer behind their back during the Unload portion so that there is no chance of a stray round hitting it. Once the shooter has holstered then the RO calls the time.

[chbrow10]

Similar thing happened to me once. There was another squad in the next bay and the timer picked up shots form that squad. I knew that he had fired X shots, and looked at the timer when he was done, so when the timer had more shots and more time, I knew something was up. But since I counted shots and glanced at the timer, I knew I had it.

[Nik Habicht]

I've noticed in IPSC matches (overseas) that the RO always places the timer behind their back during the Unload portion so that there is no chance of a stray round hitting it. Once the shooter has holstered then the RO calls the time.

I've gotten burned on that when the shooter removed the mag, noticed a standing popper and shot it down.....

It was a smoking time, probably even with the late shot, but unfortunately turned into a reshoot due to RO failure....

The shooter took it better than I did....

[splashdown]

When the final shots are around the corner of a wall or through a port, I hold the timer so I can see the time for the last shots. On one occasion an ejected case hit the timer on the last shot and I saw it record the brass impact. I did the same thing. Scrolled through to the prior shot to record the official time, first announcing to the shooter and scoring RO what had happened. As Troy said, common sense solutions.