Par Time, Field Course

[konkapot]

Great idea. Shot a couple of those. Love them. 

 

Is there an obligation on the part of the RO to stand in a place so that the shooter can actually hear the second beep?

 

There's no rule that requires this, but strikes me as a "best practices" thing maybe?

 

We wear hearing protection, there's typically gunfire nearby, etc. Par time stages in the past have been classifiers with no movement. 

[THS]

Ron A designed the one at the VA state shoot.    I shot with the RO’s and he made it a point to tell them to be CLOSE to the shooter for the second beep.  
 

I don’t wear double hearing pro nor electronics so I was concerned about hearing the second beep too.  

[konkapot]

There was also one at York recently and NVGC yesterday. I love the idea...just don't want people to fail the hearing test at a shooting match. 

[driver8M3]

The stage I worked at Iron Sights Nationals was a fixed-time stage...with turning targets, so no timer was used at all. That worked very well and allowed us to run four shooters at a time and get through entire squads in about 12 minutes.

With other fixed-time stages the second beep can be an issue, as you note. It is certainly a best practice, basically mandatory, for the RO to be near the shooter for the second beep. However, even if the RO does his/her job correctly, it can still be hard to hear the second beep, particularly if a shot is fired at the exact moment of the second beep. One thing that mitigates problems with not hearing the second beep is that the penalty for overtime shots is just 5 points (it's the only 5-point procedural in USPSA), so if you shoot alphas with your overtime shots we basically just take away the alphas. On turning-target fixed-time stages, like the one I worked at Nationals, there are no overtime penalties.

I have heard that AMG is working on a speaker/bullhorn type of device that can be used in conjunction with their timer for fixed-time stages.

[Schutzenmeister]

43 minutes ago, driver8M3 said:

I have heard that AMG is working on a speaker/bullhorn type of device that can be used in conjunction with their timer for fixed-time stages.

 

 

I rigged one up with a CED timer over 15 years ago ... wasn't exactly rocket surgery to do.

[motosapiens]

it seems self-evident that the RO should make an effort to place the timer where the shooter can hear it. the bigger the stage is the more care that requires.

 

I have worked fixed time field courses at area and national matches. we only had 1 person not hear the beep, and as it turned out that was a timer malfunction. somehow the beep got turned off in between shooters so there wasn't any beep to hear.

 

several people did express concern about being able to hear it, so we made sure to be holding the timer right next to their ear.

 

I think in the real world, the necessity of hearing the end beep somewhat limits the sorts of stages you can do. It's also kind of annoying for the RO to have to stay that close to people shooting obnoxious loud-ass open guns.

[TRPOperator]

We run them at our local from time to time. Although there is no rule. We keep stages designs a little simpler and more open to allow the RO to stay close for the second beep without interference with the shooter.