Reloads on the Clock

[wsimpso1]

OK, in Appendix Two, Reloads, page 41, "HQ urges course designers to draft scenario courses that do not require tac-reloads or reloads with retention to be performed "on the clock".

Appendix Five, Course Design Rationale, page 50, "Tactical reloads and reloads with retention are intended for use during lulls in the action and should not be required on the clock"

To do this, I would expect that the shooter would have engaged targets, is behind cover or heading for it, the RO stops the action, records the time, commands the shooter to perform Tac-Reload or RWR, "Stand-By", Beeep, and you finish the stage. This would allow an off-th-clock reload with retained ammo per the urgings of HQ. Beside the way I described to expect it, does anyone have any other ways it could be implemented?

Is anybody actually running CoF this way? I do not see it here in SE Michigan, and have been expecting it. It seems to me that all of the CoF designers and MD's are ignoring this direction from HQ.

Can anybody explain to us why the direction of HQ on this topic is being ignored?

Billski

[Joe4d]

In my mind requiring is when the MD specifies an exact time or place to do a RWR, nothing wrong with making 12+ round stages all on the clock but leaving it to the shooter to decide when and how to reload with in the rules, which is pretty much how my club does it. Welcome to IDPA, and all it's quirks, putting a should or urge in a rule book is a waste of ink either make it a rule or delete it, verbs like "WILL" and WILL NOT, CAN and CAN NOT, DO and DO NOT would go along way in cleaning up the inconsitencies that drive people crazy in IDPA. Can you imagine the ten commandments, "Thou are strongly urged not to kill", Thou shouldnt steal, not much of a commandment that way. About the only hard and fast rule about IDPA is to ask during the walk through what you can and cannot do, and dont get to hung up on tactics or what another club does just take each stage for what it is.

[revchuck]

As Joe pointed out, most stages are "any IDPA-legal reload". I have shot stages at major matches where there are strings within a stage, separated by a TR/RWR. There's usually a mark on a barricade or something similar against which you place your muzzle to indicate you're ready to procede with the next string after topping off.

[Joe4d]

Another thought IDPA doesnt even follow there own Urging, the classifier has on the clock RWR's, now figure out that one.

[revchuck]

Another thought IDPA doesnt even follow there own Urging, the classifier has on the clock RWR's, now figure out that one.

The classifier was designed in 1996. The current rule book, which is the first to discourage on-the-clock TRs/RWRs, came out in 2005.

If the classifier were re-designed to omit the mandatory TRs/RWRs, few tears would be shed...at least on my part.

[wsimpso1]

Thanks for the responses. Oh, I know that IDPA rules are a little loose sometimes, and that the advice to take RWR/TL off of the clock is just that - advice.

I was just wondering about the whole concept of taking RWR/TR off of the clock. If you think that it is a good idea, etc.

My thoughts were that we do RWR/Tac-Loads where it suits us better than slide lock reloads, and that nothing is required that way. Then last night I shot the Classifier and remembered the Tac Load in it, which got me thinking...

Well, Revchuk has seen RWR/TL taken off of the clock, so somebody has read the rulebook and decided that it is a good idea.

So does anybody have any idea why it does not happen more often? MD's are not usually shy...

Billski

[Jim Watson]

It's more work for the SO and scorekeeper. You have to get the first string time down and restart the shooter after a Lull-Load. And you shouldn't take too long about it, a Lull is not a Time Out. If you miss that number, you have to reshoot.

[Mike P]

I don't know why MDs are ignoring the directives from headquarters or if they are, but I see nothing wrong with leaving the reloads on the clock, any kind of "legal" reload that is.

Tactics or no tactics, if tacload/rwr is one of the approved methods of reoading your piece then it follows that it is a skill that should be "tested" within the rules of the sport. If you take them off of the clock folks won't practice them and will drag their asses getting ready for the next string.

I say if the COF requires a reload, leave it up to the shooter which type and where as long as the rest of the applicable rules are followed.

Another "suggestion" might be that if you aren't going to time it and make it worthwhile to develop your skill at it, then just leave it out.

Mike