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Looking for ideas: What are your favorite stages?


Roddy556

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I mentioned it in the rules sub forum that I am trying to restart a local IDPA club. Many of the old stage designs from a few years ago have outdated designs such as tactical sequence. 

What have been some of your favorite and least favorite stage designs? I am looking for ideas that are quick to set up, not too confusing for new shooters, but still challenging. 

Not just entire stages but what elements did you like or were done well. No shoots, props (hoping to include a flashlight stage but with the lights on for safety), etc. What makes a stage less fun?

Thanks in advance!

Edited by Roddy556
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you have contradictory goals for a single stage in my opinion. quick to set up/not to confusing/still challenging are not really all the same.

maybe make a stage around a certain theme. then pick 4-6 of those themes and then everyone can get a flavor of what they like or don't like.

-fast and close shots

-tight no shoots

-distance

-shooting on the move

-strong and week hand. ect ect

you get the idea. like a lot of people, i keep every match booklet from every match I've been to. see if you know someone else who's done the same and just page through them and see what you like.

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Hey rowdyb you are right I am asking for a lot. I am mostly just fishing for ideas.

One thing I remember we did when I used to shoot IDPA is have a stage we would shoot freestyle then shoot again strong hand, then weak hand. A shooter would shoot a few stages one after the other. Or we would shoot the same string multiple times on one stage but with different hands. That allowed for more shooting but got a bit repetitive.

The range I will have available is a smaller indoor facility. Being able to reuse props helps speed up stage setup and make the most of what we have. 

As for challenging/not too confusing I was thinking of things of shooting on the move. Hard to do but easy to understand. 

I really appreciate the feedback. I have some stage designs I am going to review. I would really like someone to say "Oh wow that was neat!" with a few sheets of plywood and other basic items.

Tight no shoots, I like that. I was thinking if you to slice the pie or even just move to shoot around them it would force shooters to be careful but the stage could still flow well.

Edited by Roddy556
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to me, things that happen organically or from my choice are more enjoyable that things i'm forced to do. with enough experience you can tell when someone is trying to be "tricky" and force me as a shooter to do something. again, these are all just my opinions and not idpa law. hahahahaha.

as far as making stages work twice to save set up time and speed turn over build stages that can be shot left to right or front to back and then reverse their start positions. design the stage right and this makes them feel entirely different.

small things that seem to add fun and variety to new shooters in my opinion are -unloaded starts -gun in the box starts -seated starts -holding something in strong or weak hand whole time shooting required

you might not be able to shoot steel indoors so think about using a stomp box to activate moving targets inside. that should really up the fun/intersting quotient if you're trying to get people to like it and stay in it.

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A fun stage I set up at a practice this year was one of my favorites I have shot.
Some of it doesn't work perfectly with IDPA, hell, not sure if it's even a legal IDPA stage. But here it goes. I am GUESSING at the yardages as we just set it up without a plan.

At the end of the bay, 4 poppers.

At 5,7,10 and 12 yards put a paper target on each side, guessing about 7-10 yards apart at the 5 yard targets, and opening up just enough that you can see all the targets at 20 yards... maybe less if you have a narrow bay.

Starting position is at the 5 yard line.
Shoot 2 rounds into each paper target (you will be walking backwards), you can not engage the steel until you are behind the 15 yard line.
For added fun, limit mags to 6 rounds (5+1 starting).

For me it was the most fun to shoot when I had a bunch of mags with 2-4 rounds in it... but that wouldn't be IDPA legal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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i shot a local indoor match for a few years.  the MD would have 3-4 stages set up and then after those were shot, the next stage would be shooting stages 1-4 combined.  doubled the round count and made it real fun.

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Great ideas guys. I really like the idea of combining multiple stages to make another stage.

I am going to try to do a zombie/Walking Dead stage that I saw on another site. It involved a submachine gun but I think dry firing an AR will work too. It had no shoots surrounded by targets with headshots only. Means lots of moving and weird angles.

Also thinking I can imitate a car jacking with a table and chair and a box of some sort to simulate shooting from a car then getting out and taking cover.

This is all indoor so props and space is limited but we will do the best with what we have!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here is one of my stage designs. I know it has some undesirable things like a mandatory reload but I was hoping to break the shooter's concentration momentarily. 

This stage only need two walls for props so it is simple in the respect but it has two target banks, a no shoot, movement, and a bit of thinking. So it's tricky but simple to set up I though.

Screenshot_2016-12-20-05-41-07-1.png

I am a little leary about putting targets uprange of the backstop. The range measures about 6x20 yards and I am just worried someone will get a weird angle and shoot the wall. It would add a lot flexibility in state design though.

Edited by Roddy556
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Here are some of the Standards stages and a basic Scenario stage. I'm very open to criticism if anyone sees any issues.

I'm wondering if a three round stage is too short. How do people feel about that? It's more about picking up and loading your gun so I thought it would work. I may make the first target very close and put another one further back. 

Edit* Stage 5 should be 3-3-3

Screenshot_2016-12-20-05-41-55-1.png

Edited by Roddy556
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Here is one I thought might be a bit hokey or corny. The idea is you're supposed to be on a train car and need to hold onto the rails (overturned table legs, either the front or the back ones) to lean out to shoot down the length of the "train." This forces the shooter to shoot WHO and SHO without mandating it specifically. It also forces the shooter to either do a tactical reload while transitioning between target banks or shoot to slide lock and then come back behind the wall to do an emergency reload.

I understand it's a bit of a stretch to have people imagine the entire scenario so I am not sure anyone will like it.

This stage unfortunately repeats the two banks of three targets setup but its different than the other stage and will be shot differently. 

Screenshot_2016-12-20-08-52-30-1.png

Edited by Roddy556
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We have great IDPA club in Las Cruces, NM.  The MD are pretty keen on challenging all levels of shooters.  We have been having some fun with some sort of activator that will be usually at some level of slide lock emergency reload and the shooter can reload quickly and engage the disappearing target (Drop turner, Max trap, etc) before it disappears.  Many shooters are being surprised they can make the shots with a little pressure.

 

pat

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My local club had a stage setup called "NY Reload" where shooters has to run an 18 shot COF with a house built out.  Inside you had to dump your pistol on a barrel and grab a Ruger GP-100 (already loaded) and engage the last three targets in tactical priority.  Lots of fun and great humor to watch auto shooters and their baffled looks when firing DA.

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Also using a car as a prop or shooting location is always great fun.  Shot a match where I was put in the trunk to begin, then backseat engaging targets through front and rear windows, tons of options if your creative.

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1 hour ago, Peterock said:

Also using a car as a prop or shooting location is always great fun.  Shot a match where I was put in the trunk to begin, then backseat engaging targets through front and rear windows, tons of options if your creative.

Well the door to the range is only 30" wide so I don't think we will squeeze a car in! At the outdoor range when it warms up that would be fun though.

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  • 8 months later...

When I design stages I usually think of one item, and design the stage around that. It could be a prop, or a target array, a part of a scenario. Example, I did a stage where you were stuck in traffic and a caught between two carloads of rival gang bangers in the cars next to you. I had four targets in two arrays and each target had portions blacked out as hard cover, (the car doors or roof columns. This made for reduced zero scoring zones on most of the targets but each zone was reduced differently, either partially blocked on side, or top or bottom.

 

Another time we had a tree fall down in one of our bays so I wanted to hang some targets from the tree, upside down, and that's how Barrels of Monkeys stage was created. I had "baboons" invade your African safari camp and at the end of the stage you had to shoot the last two thru a barrel with the bottom cut out for a nice "Thump" sound.

 

Last night I used a new prop, that gave me the stage idea. We have a nighttime shoot coming up in two months and I wanted to test an idea. We shoot the night match with flashlights. My daughters work gave away some swag gifts that are little plastic boxes that look like a wall light switch. The box has a plastic cover and leds in it. When you turn on the switch the lights come on. I mounted these on a barricade at almost eye level near the edge of the barricade we were shooting around. We turned off most the range lights. Shooting the stage you had to turn on the light as you arrived at the shooting position before shooting around the barricade. This meant that you were shooting at low light targets with a bright LED light between you and the target so it was messing with your night vision.

 

I hate the simple scenarios like, "shoot the bad guys" although I admit I have been lazy at times if I am in a hurry. One of my favorite scenarios was from last years Michigan State Match. "Your daughter tells you there are monsters in her closet. When you go to check, sure enough, there ARE monsters in the closet!" I laughed when the SO read it.

 

 

 

 

 

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not sure if i remember it perfectly, but one real simple stage i liked was 3 cones or barrels set up in a triangle, maybe 10' apart.  then three targets against the berm, spaced out a little.  you had to put two in each of them during each leg of the triangle, on the move.  then i think a 2nd string going in the opposite direction.

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  • 6 months later...

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