can a competitor run their own clock?

[Glock26Toter]

I was recently at a match that had a stage where you stopped your own time. The start signal was the normal audible, but after you completed the stage the procedure was to unload your gun, put it down and then hit a set of buttons to stop the timer.

The stage was thrown out and became an optional stage. (side match) I shot it and it was kind of fun. Very strange to finish shooting and still have a bunch of things to do prior to actually completing the course of fire. Most people that I saw run it had a big time hesitation about what do to after that last target was done.

So then the discussion started as to what the ruling was that got the stage tossed.

Most people thought it was because the last shot fired has to indicate the stop time.

I looked in the rules and the only thing I found was that the official time clock had to be run by an RO and couldn't be run by a competitor.

Just thought I would see what someone else thought or found as to what the technical reason was for the stage issue.

[jester121]

9.2.2 for Comstock, which that stage was.

[pkm]

Yea, 9.2.2 was what they told us when we got to the stage as well. I ended up not running it because of how 10.3.5 was being applied but it looked like a fun stage. It was fun to watch a shooter hurry up and unload their gun, drop it in the box and hit the stop buttons and start looking at the targets only to realize five seconds later you had to take your hands off the buttons for the timer to stop..

[Jakobi]

I take your comment regarding 10.3.5 to mean that they were disqualifying people from the whole match if they DQ'd in the side match, correct? Or was the opposite happening (DQ in main match but allowed to shoot side match)?

[pkm]

No, and I understand why they ruled the way they did. For all but a couple of squads the side match was going on during the match. I happened to be one of the few who would have finished the match (shot last stage) then shot the side match. Per the rules a DQ in the side match wouldn't have caused a main match DQ but since most competitors shot the side match during the match they said any DQ during the side match would be a main match DQ since it was running at the same time as the main. I wasn't in the running for anything but didn't want to risk it.

[MrVvrroomm]

It was fun, for a novelty stage

[Wild Gene]

Don't they start their own time on 3Gun Nation? Anyway, the clock is not physically held by the competitor, they are just completing a task that is part of the stage, like picking up your gun or going through a door. Just putting some action in the stage. Not even a very physical task.

[Onagoth]

Why would anyone want competitors to unload their gun on the clock?

[thermobollocks]

Why would anyone want competitors to unload their gun on the clock?

3-gun does it more out of practical necessity, I imagine to avoid stuff like hot re-slinging.

Pistol, yeah, it doesn't make much sense. Maybe a club with some 3-gunners in it wants to practice abandonment? But that really doesn't fit in with the goals of USPSA in my admittedly limited judgment.

[Powder Monkey]

That stage was all about remembering a completely unfamiliar finish. Some shooters pressed the two buttons, then waited several seconds before remembering to release them.

[JayWord]

Why would anyone want competitors to unload their gun on the clock?

Excellent question! Seems to negate the need for a shot timer. Maybe we want to go back to stop watches and whistles like in the old days. To require a handgun shooter to unload under the clock which is outside their normal skill sets is asking for a safety issue. Multi-gun shooters get used to this and still have issues, 90+% of our normal shooters have never done this.

IMHO.

Jay