Specific "Good" Stages

[benos]

Post your favorite good stages in this thread...

be

[2alpha]

The Advanced Military.

HA See who remembers that one.

JJ

[benos]

Ah, I remember, that's the good stuff. Unfortunately age is catching up to me and I can't remember the specifics... Maybe a trivia question...

be

[dirtypool40]

love this thread, hope we generate some interest

I'll recount a couple of my favorite stages, in hopes that the cool ideas used get used again somewhere else.

Last years Area 5 had several...

One was "Drug Bust at Harry's Bar".  I think they shot this at the Lim Nats in like 98.  The stage designer was there at Area5 this year and said this was how he originally intended it.

It was a pretty straight forward large room (20x20') with windows out the back and a door on each side.

Pretty standard mirrored target presentation, with more than one way to shoot it and chances to push things a little.

The part that made it REALLY cool, and this may sound cheesy, but it had a SOUNDTRACK!!!

Yup they had a computer rigged up so when you started the stage there was this sound track of a barroom fight like from an old West Cowboy movie.

It was hillareous!!! Chairs breaking, tinkling piano, screams, gunshots, cussing.  I finished well (2nd) and was laughing my ass off by the end.  

A pretty standard stage made really cool with a little imagination.

[tightloop]

How about:

1.  Adams Practical

2.  Quick & Dirty

3.  Ambi Defense

4.  Speedy V

5.  Double Cross (moving targets)

6.  Cafe Classic

7.  Superman Boogie

8.  Devil's Hole Defense

9.  Los Alamitos

10.Cooper Assault

[ErikW]

2002 USPSA Factory Gun Nationals

Peep Shot:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2002/US_Facto...1_Peep_Shot.pdf

2002 USPSA Race Gun Nationals

Bomb Squad:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2002/US_Race_..._Bomb_Squad.pdf

2002 Infinity Open

Wheel of Fortune:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2002/NV_Infin...Open_Stages.pdf

2001, 2002 Crazy Croc

Jungle run

2001 USPSA Limited Nationals

Around and Through:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2001/US_Limit...ms/l_stage7.pdf

Hallway Shuffle:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2001/US_Limit...s/l_stage15.pdf

Here's to Us:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2001/US_Limit...s/l_stage17.pdf

2001 USPSA Three Gun Nationals

Fall House Cleaning II:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2001/US_3_Gun...stage4_diag.pdf

2000 USPSA Limited Nationals

Doc's Dock:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2000/US_Limit...ams/lstage7.htm

Office Break:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/2000/US_Limit...ams/lstage9.htm

1999 USPSA Limited Nationals

A Barrel of Fun, Ouch House, Slartibartfast's Pride #2, Grep Trouble 2, Twist and Shoot, Will, The Wall, Don Down the Line, On the Waterfront:

http://www.uspsa.org/results/1999/US_Limit...ge_diagrams.pdf

I don't know why I liked the 99 stages so much. Maybe because I was new and fresh and not so jaded? The speed-shootiness of it all?

There are a lot of stages I liked that I can't link to because they were never online.

(Edited by Erik Warren at 1:02 pm on Oct. 29, 2002)

[Bill]

2alpha & tightloop,

You guys have been doing this for a while haven't you?

We used to shoot fixed time standards a lot before they invented timers. Stop watch & whistle. I guess you remember stop plates in assult courses?

Bill Nesbitt

[tightloop]

Bill

Yes, since '78.  I miss watching people blow out their knees on the Cooper Assault!  Was there when Kirk Kirkham lost his gun in the tunnel and could not defend his US title, Fowler won it, Seyfried won it, Shaw won it, Plaxco won it, Saw Robbie and Brian finish 1 & 2, on and on ad nauseum

As they say here in Texas, I been doin' this since Moby Dick was a minnow.

[Guy Neill]

I always liked the Advanced Military.  Not that I did that well at it, but I liked it as a course showing general skill.  I also liked the Triathlon for the variety it offered.

The Cooper Assault claimed more knees after lowering the barricade height than with the older higher barricade.  People simply tried to take it too fast, still turning as they landed.  The higher barricade had them drop to the ground first, then proceed.

In all, there are a lot of good courses, and, perhaps, even more that were not so good.  Still, they have all challenged us as shooters, which was the point.

Guy

[TDean]

Erik, fantastic job at posting your favs!

Guy & 2Alpha, tell us more about "Advanced Military"

Are there any graphic descriptions still around?

What year are we talking about?

[shred]

I thought Bomb Squad from the RGN's blew-- there was no good way to shoot it as a lefty that didn't have you either almost sweeping yourself or shooting weak-hand only.

Note to stage designers:  If you've got a prop I've gotta dink with and/or carry around, make sure it's friendly for righties and lefties.

[tightloop]

TDean

[tightloop]

TDean

Year was 1979

Match Description, Advanced Military

All shots freestyle

Stage 1

Contestant fires 5 rounds at an NRA 50 yd slow fire pistol target from 50 yds.  Hits inside the 8 ring count 10.  Hits outside the 8 ring but inside the 5 ring coung 5.  Hits outside the 5 ring are 0.  Possible 50 points.  15 Seconds

Stage 2

5 rounds at IPSC target from 50 yds. 15 sec time limit. 50 points possible

Stage 3

Fire 1 round at IPSC target from 25 yds.  Repeat 10 times, time is 2.5 sec per shot.  100 points

Stage 4

5 rounds at IPSC target from 10 yds, reload fire 5 more rounds same target.  14 Sec, 100 points

Stage 5

Fire 2 rounds at each of 3 IPSC targets 3 yds apart (edge to edge).  Shooter faces 90 degrees away from targets, either right or left.  Two strings, 2 rounds each target each time, if facing left first string then face right for second string.  4 Seconds per string.  120 points

Stage 6

1 round at IPSC target from 10 yds. Repeat 8 times, time is 1.5 sec per draw/shot.  80 points

Penalty of 10 points for each procedural error or overtime shot.

sounds pretty dull compared to what is shot today, but in '79 it was a pretty good test.

I shot it in March of 1979 with a 5" basically box gun.  Had been shooting 5 months, possible 250 points, fired 185 points, finished 4th out of 31.  John Dixon won it with a 237, Tom Jester was 2nd with 220, Guy Neill was 3rd with 199.  (Guy is our forum member with whom I shot in the early 80's)

Any B shooter should probably clean it now with an open gun as should any L10 or Production  shooter  who is A class or above.

(Edited by tightloop at 11:07 pm on Oct. 29, 2002)

[Guy Neill]

Cooper listed the Advanced Military in his 1974 "Red Book" "Cooper on Handguns" from the publishers of "Guns & Ammo".

I believe it actually dates back to the early years of the Southwest Pistol League, so it could go back to the 1960's.

We commonly and used the League target all the way through.

The Mexican Defense was a course that required a lot of concentration to get the footwork right while shooting.  We sometimes joked it was more of a Mexican hat dance than anything else.

A lot of the old courses were very good at developing basic skills.  A lot of courses today don't combine the same basics, such as long range shooting, but the skill levels, generally, have steadily risen.  In the last couple of years we are seeing a new emphasis on "standards" that was missing for many years.

Guy

[Jeff22]

I started shooting IPSC with the Wisconsin Practical Pistol League in March of 1978.

My first match (with a borrowed gun) was the "Cooper Assault". We had a guy sprain his knee after going over the wall.

In 1981 I got hired as a cop. One of my partners was the founder of our IPSC club and was the Wisconsin Sectional Coordinator for a time.

We ran the "Advanced Military Combat" as a qualification course for the PD a few times. And as a club match.

And the Los Alamitos PPC. We ran that as a club match one time too.

The IPSC club shot the Ambidextrous Defense and several different modifications of the "Quick and Dirty" and several modifications of the "Cooper Assault". And many modifications of "The El Presidente" which I like as a quick stage or a practice course to this day.

The club had a course book from the Southwest Combat Pistol League. I think I made copies of it, but I'm not sure. If I did, I haven't been able to find them in my huge file of stuff. I'd like to find a copy of that now.

I do still have a course book that A Zone publishing did in 1981 or 1982. (It has a blue cover -- can't remember the name of it right now). We used courses out of that for both the IPSC club and the PD through the 80s.

I was able to get a beat up copy of the original 1974 version of Cooper on Handguns (with the red cover) for $50 from amazon.com about 15 years ago. (I already had copies of the 1979 edition (with the black cover) that I bought at the time it came out).

Somebody should certainly reprint the original Cooper on Handguns sometime.

I should go back and read mine again. Lots of interesting information in there, much of which is still relevant.

I'd like to find a bunch of the original IPSC courses from the late 70s and early 80s. I think some of the newer shooters might enjoy shooting them. I know I would.

[Sarge]

Now THIS may be a record for thread revival at 12+ years!

[Nickb45]

Now THIS may be a record for thread revival at 12+ years!

I didn't even notice the dates. I was thinking to myself "this might be a good thread".

[Sarge]

Now THIS may be a record for thread revival at 12+ years!

I didn't even notice the dates. I was thinking to myself "this might be a good thread".

I agree. Kind of interesting to see the transformation of the sport!

[Jeff22]

I found a few old course descriptions last night in my file. I didn't have a chance to look too much.

A number of the old IPSC courses were similar to PPC courses except with multiple targets. In some ways they are very similar to the modern day IDPA classifier (which is another course of fire I really like)

One of the old courses we ran at the club back in the day and also used for the PD was called the "Wilson Rapid Fire".

I looked through Cooper on Handguns last night too. There are some similarities and many differences between the courses of 1974 and the courses of 2015 . . .