ROing with BDH and JW

[ErikW]

I worked the USPSA 3 gun nationals, my first time serving as a range officer at a nationals, with chief range officer Jay Worden and RO Brian Hanna, aka forum member BDH. What a couple of pros. We had a nasty all-three-guns stage that looked to be a problem, which is probably why the RM put these guys on the stage and added a third, rookie RO to help.

We had our first reshoot on our second squad of the match, when Jay called for tapers and they rushed up and pasted targets before I could score them. Our second and final reshoot was for a shooter-induced safety risk (but not a DQable offense). No range equipment failures, despite the two swingers holding two clays each, two doors, battering ram, three tables, two port doors, and 11 US Poppers. No calibrations. No scoring appeals to the RM. One clear-cut DQ.

For a stage that the average shooter ran in the seventies to eighties, we turned it around in five and a half minutes. This was with placing the pre-loaded shotgun, loading the rifle, and loading and holstering the pistol, running the shooter, then clearing them in reverse order.

Squads came from the previous bay (airplane stage, a big backup) up to two hours late. We didn't send them along back on schedule, but we gained back a portion of the lost time. The average squad was seven shooters and we ran most squads in 40-45 minutes, miraculously ahead of time for the hour designated to run everybody after the stage briefing and five-minute walkthrough.

Jay was looking out for the shooters. He was lenient on the battering ram procedure, trying to save the range equipment to last through the match. When I told him I was going to limit my arguing with shooters pre-loading their shotguns and let them walk to the line with too many rounds loaded after informing them of the consequences, he wouldn't allow it. He would not start a shooter with a shotgun loaded past its division capacity. (The empty-chamber start is the RO's responsibility and the rounds loaded is the shooter's responsibility.)

We drove to the range at sunrise and drove to our motels in the dark.

[mactiger]

Erik, you worked with a couple of good guys there--lucky you.

Must have been a bear trying to check chambers with a flashlight.!?!

Thanks for pitching in!

Troy

[Flexmoney]

I haven't been around Jay yet, but BDH is a pro!!!!

Good job Erik!

[ErikW]

Troy, we didn't have a flashlight and we didn't run another shooter that night after I said I couldn't determine clear rifle chambers and shotgun mags without one.

What was fun was seeing who messed up the most after about the 12th hour. My thing was to say, "Gun clear, hammer down, holster" to a competitor with a rifle.

[BDH]

Of course, I enjoyed working with you! I just wish we had time to do some of the normal staff debrief stuff like dinner (plus maybe a couple of 'cold adult beverages' ) at the end of the day. There is always good dialog and discussion (sometimes heated, but always valuable) during the off range discussions.

You brought a lot of the 'highly classed' shooter perspective to the stage and that did give me a new persepctive (because you see, think, differently than I do).

It WAS funny listening to all of us try to get through the day (I mean... loooonnnnggggg day). Sure, holstering a rifle could be a challenge, but then again, Jay not being able to pronouce HIS last name while reading the walk-thru was a classic!

My favorite EW comment (after our first day) was something like...... 'okay, let me understand this. You guys did this in a Back to Back for a week?'

Well..... yes...........

I hope the blisters on your feet are healing okay!!!

[Skywalker]

My thing was to say, "Gun clear, hammer down, holster" to a competitor with a rifle.

So this is where you ROed!

Gotcha!