Florida: Monster Match

[dirtypool40]

Eric..Congrats on the win!

Thanks Bro, make your reservations for next year, and check out the other thread I just started. Maybe you can take a week off and make both!!!

[XD Niner]

Sharyn, yes, that was me that compliemented you on your video efforts on our behalf and left his own camera on all night and drained the battery. I had a great time on R&R as well as all the other stages. I can't believe how many shooters seemed more concerned with handling the wet, gooey, squishy, disgusting eyeballs than shooting the stage. This was one of the best start distractions I've ever seen. Thank God I didn't grab one of the mice which were reportedly even more clingy. Kudos to you and Target for coming up with the eyeballs.

I also learned to persevere in this match. Even though I zeroed the one stage, I did pretty well overall for a "lowly C Class" Open shooter. The funny thing was that I was having so much fun that I didn't really pay any attention to how well I was doing on each stage. Each one was a classic in it's own way.

Jeff D., I'm glad that we were able to realign your back on Deja Woo. I'm sure that Smitty put that stage in there just to avoid you having to go to the chiropractor. Congrats on your division win.

Dirtypool, it was great talking with you at lunch on Saturday and seeing your new Limited gun in its infancy. Venry, you do good work man!

Bigadaboom, you are a class act. You just need to be a bit more competitive my friend.

Smitty, Wadette and crew, once again thank you from the bottom of my heart for a terrific weekend. I can't wait to see how you outdo yourselves next year.

[Sharyn]

Many thanks to Charles aka RO on Stage 9 aka baa aka Needs My A Card Limited Shooter... he provided some great video footage. THANK YOU!!!

Here are a couple... first is Charles, the RO of this stage (Stage 9/I Want My Mummy) tearing the stage apart! Second is yours truly shooting Pet Cemetery (minus the beginning and the end, not caught on video). Yes, I shot two Big Sticks dry... ouch.

Charles Stage 9

Sharyn Stage 8

[JeffD]

Jeff D., I'm glad that we were able to realign your back on Deja Woo. I'm sure that Smitty put that stage in there just to avoid you having to go to the chiropractor.

Kent - it was great shooting with you! I'm sorry I didn't include a VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to you for your gracious sharing of your much-envied knee pads for the Deja Woo stage with me and Daniel. He still managed to draw blood!

See you at St. Augustine next month, that is unless they haven't solved that drainage problem!

Best,

Jeff

[baa]

Many thanks to Charles aka RO on Stage 9 aka baa aka Needs My A Card Limited Shooter... he provided some great video footage. THANK YOU!!!

Here are a couple... first is Charles, the RO of this stage (Stage 9/I Want My Mummy) tearing the stage apart! Second is yours truly shooting Pet Cemetery (minus the beginning and the end, not caught on video). Yes, I shot two Big Sticks dry... ouch.

Hey! now now! For the record, I have had a functioning pistol for all of 3 months now. Its amazing how much better you shoot when your gun works for an entire match.

As a RO for the Monster Match, I want to thank Smitty for taking care of his staff and doing an awesome job as a Match Director/Range Master. Your talents are broader than just the shooting part of our game. Thanks to all the stage designers and builders for creating incredible stages. Smitty said it best "The Match IS the stages." Period. Thanks to all the other ROs for giving back to our sport.

Most of all, thanks to all the shooters! You guys were awesome. When I was assigned stage 9, I was honestly worried that it would be a nightmare to reset and would be the match bottleneck. I was completely wrong! Everything ran like clockwork. Awesome shooters! Truly, you guys rocked!

So, now that the match is over- Why didn't anyone leave the Disappearing Targets and cut 10+ seconds off their time? I thought about trying that when I shot the stage on Friday and am now pretty sure that some of the DTs should have been left alone to buy significant time savings and ultimately a higher HF for the stage, after ROing 130+ shooters and watching the results. If I could shoot it again, I would definitely go that route.

Thanks again all!

And Sharyn and Chris, I am working on my A-card (and hopefully my M-card!) Show a little love!

Edited October 23, 2007 by baa

[AA-Wolf]

So, now that the match is over- Why didn't anyone leave the Disappearing Targets and cut 10+ seconds off their time? I thought about trying that when I shot the stage on Friday and am now pretty sure that some of the DTs should have been left alone to buy significant time savings and ultimately a higher HF for the stage, after ROing 130+ shooters and watching the results. If I could shoot it again, I would definitely go that route.

Here is why:

I shot that in 36.89 with 229 points, giving a HF of 6.2. I also have video of me on that stage and agree with saving 10 maybe 11 seconds on the DT's.

So let's take off the 78 points I shot them for, giving me 151 points in 25 seconds (best case of saving 11+ seconds) equaling a HF of 6.04. Better to do the DT's for the points on this one according to my math for me, for others it may be different.

Thanks for your RO'ing on that stage. You did a great job of no re-shoots with my squad!

[cliffwalsh]

I bet you could save more than 11 secs. From the start you could shoot the left popper that switches the left port, run left and shoot the 4 hard cover targets, turn right and shoot the 2 targets in the back on the right through the middle window, run to the middle and shoot the targets in the back on the left, the left activator and swinger and then the 2 steel left in the middle, one step right and you hit the right activator and swinger then run right and finish the right port hard cover targets. You only cross the stage 1 time and never back track.

Something to think about.

What do I know, I shoot revo.....

[Hardball]

BAA, good luck with the M card and higher, I am going to continue to get further into shape and try to compete with you once again.

I actually got home and cut off the portion of my fiber that was hanging and I kinda like that "shorty" look to my front sight now.

Gonna try it out this weekend and see what it does for or against me.

By the way, Jeff D, the Icy Hot is supposed to go on your sore muscles, not your cheekbone. I shoulda yelled "INCOMING!" but couldn't get it out fast enough.

For those of you who don't know, Bigbadaboom, Jeff D, and I went to Wally World Saturday night after dinner to find him the IcyHot back patches. I tried to toss a jar of IcyHot ointment into the basket and BigBadaboom thought I was throwing it at him, tried to deflect it and it hit JeffD in the cheekbone. Coulda been disasterous, but we were laughing like the delinquents that we are. You shoulda been there. As other customers rounded the corner into the aisle, Jeff is holding his eye, I am laughing, Bigbada is laughing and we all go limping off looking like the three broken down musketeers.

So, training now begins for the next monster match. It will take me at least a year to get into any form of shape not to hurt like I did Sunday and yesterday. See ya on the range!

[AA-Wolf]

I bet you could save more than 11 secs. From the start you could shoot the left popper that switches the left port, run left and shoot the 4 hard cover targets, turn right and shoot the 2 targets in the back on the right through the middle window, run to the middle and shoot the targets in the back on the left, the left activator and swinger and then the 2 steel left in the middle, one step right and you hit the right activator and swinger then run right and finish the right port hard cover targets. You only cross the stage 1 time and never back track.

Something to think about.

What do I know, I shoot revo.....

Maybe, but we can walk it through and estimate pretty quick in seconds. Here we go: 2 for the draw and steel, 2 over to the window, 2 for the targets with hard cover, 3 for the swing and the two targets through the window, 2 back to the middle window, 2 for the paper, 2 for the popper and swinger (slow to activate), 1 for the popper/window open time, 2 for the popper swinger (slow to activate), 1 for last popper, 2 to the window, 2 for the targets with hard cover. Total looks like 23 and some change to me, but I know I am not the fastest guy in the field. And I actually gave closer to 12 on my estimate on the above post. So figure saving 13 this way, 151 points by 23.5 seconds equals 6.42HF beating my run by .2 HF... That would do it!

I personally don't think I would try it this way: I had tried the math earlier before I ran and could not see how giving up 80 points over 10 seconds would be worth it, but saving 13 looks like it would have. Again being dog slow like myself is not the best person to go by.

Give me some feedback on how my time estimates look.

[novafla]

This was my first Monster Match and I'll sign up tomorrow for next year if applications and fees will be accepted.

Not enough thanks can be expresed to Shannon and his dedicated crew for putting on this match. Fantastic stage design and match management made this event a great experience and so much fun. The fact that Shannon didn't shoot the match himself speaks to his dedication to make sure it ran smoothly - which it did as he roamed the courses all day, every day, answering every question and dealing with every problem to everyone's satisfaction. (That and his desire to give everyone else a fighting chance! )

I also wanted to thank Derek Janowicz of Millenium Custom for all his work in putting up the Steel Challenge side match with the official Smoke and Hope and 5 To Go stages. It was only $5 per run at both stages and he took time out from his vendor booth to run people who wanted to see what the Steel Challenge is all about. I'm sure everyone who tried it will be at the National Steel Challenge Match in March - Shameless plug --> 2008 US National Steel Championship

Both Shannon and Derek didn't make ANY profit from this weekend's matches, giving 100% shooter pay back after direct match expenses. Shannon even explained to me how the Monster Match is "recognized" by the USPSA since he uses USPSA targets and rules (to the extent possible, given the nature of the match) and thereby paying USPSA their royalty fees as if it were a sanctioned match. How these guys can give so much back to their sport and fellow shooters is simply inspiring.

A big thumbs up to my squad mates on Squad 8 - it was also a great time because of the great people! Venry - a special thanks for letting me try your latest Open masterpiece after the match - I was quite honored and I apologize for the poor performance on the steel stages! I'm ready to mortgage my house when you complete that conversion for the M&P

Again, GREAT JOB to Shannon, Derek, Waddette and all their support staff, and thanks for your contributions to the shooting sports!

ETA: Please support those who support our sport, the great vendors that showed up at the Monster Match and generously contributed to the prize table: Red Dot Shooting and Docter Optics USA

Jeff

I hope I'm not too late to add my THANK YOU for a wonderful, fun, exciting, and challenging match. I had a great time as did everyone on Squad 5. They were all serious shooters, but the fun and good time we had showed on everyone's face. We all followed the rules, no one complained about a thing (there was nothing to complain about), and just loved it.

We recognize the hard work done by ALL. Shannon is a very dedicated and committed Section Coordinator and put himself out to put this match on for us. Wydette also great job. All the ROs great job.

Charles and Elizabeth WOW what a hard stage to work and boy did they run and run and run.

Speaking for the old fat guys, we were really stretched but loved it.

Keep up the good work, with god willing, we Super Seniors will be back for another one.

THANK YOU AGAIN.

[cliffwalsh]

It looked to me to be pretty close to a wash, so why run back and forth across the stage twice and get your heart pounding just to have to shoot targets at the end that are a zones and head shots.

[Bigbadaboom]

So, now that the match is over- Why didn't anyone leave the Disappearing Targets and cut 10+ seconds off their time? I thought about trying that when I shot the stage on Friday and am now pretty sure that some of the DTs should have been left alone to buy significant time savings and ultimately a higher HF for the stage, after ROing 130+ shooters and watching the results. If I could shoot it again, I would definitely go that route.

Thanks again all!

And Sharyn and Chris, I am working on my A-card (and hopefully my M-card!) Show a little love!

I can't speak for anyone else but I'm just not able to prep a stage with intentional MIKES no matter where it will place me. I also believe it is bad stage design to make it where leaving a target gains an advantage. I do not believe that any of the stages at the Monster match where badly designed so maybe this is why nobody left the no-penalty targets.

[L9X25]

Had the target arrays been reversed, with the partial targets as the disappearing targets, I think it would have been worthwhile to forget them. With the wide open, and close, targets being the disappearing targets, I think that they were the easiest and fastest points on the stage. They were closer together than the hard targets (less running) and were far faster points. I do not see how they could lower the hit factor.

[Hardball]

It is my belief that you couldn't ignore the 80 points.

10 seconds or not, and it wouldn't have been 10 seconds, you would lose far too much ground.

If we both shoot it in 30 seconds and I have 80 points on you, well, you ge the point(s), or don't. Wait, dang, confusion......

Anywho, as Daniel called out, it is a test of who has the fuzzies to try it. Intentionally prepping mikes into your stage is suicidal to those who wish to be competitive. I can count on one hand the competitors (none of em were the big boys) who intentionally skipped the disappearing targets on stage one, Ghost Town. There were literally three people throughout both days that intentionally skipped them.

I figured I would shoot them just because I watched the big boys shoot em. Alpha charlie, alpha charlie. Now could I believe that I did it? Hell no. Then again, I had already screwed up the stage with a close up mike and running it at half speed due to the previous two days of ass kicking that I had taken. We shall see. Physical limitations or not, I am gonna start trying to pick up the comeptitiveness again and get back to it. Just for this one match next year. Had a blast...or was it 600 of em...

Edited October 24, 2007 by Hardball

[SmittyFL]

Thanks for the kind words. It took a bunch of help from a bunch of folks to pull it off. Final updates on the website along with the steel results.

Plaques and checks will go out this week. Thanks for supporting the match.

[baa]

I said some of the disappearing targets, not all of them! Here is my theory- On the draw, you go the the right port and take the steel which trips the right swinger, the two deep targets and the 4 close DTs. You then reload and drive in to the middle port and shoot the deep left targets, the 4 steel and the two swingers. At this point you have bypassed the left four DTs and left 40 points. You have also saved time there as well as saving time as you do not have to wait and shoot through both center windows (you can bypass the right center window- As the stage winners for both limited and open did on Saturday.) You then shoot the two sets of HC targets. I truly believe I could have saved close to 10 seconds going this route. I shot the stage in 40 seconds and had a 4.67 HF (I had 2 mikes.) If I had shot the stage in 30 seconds, subtracting that additional 40 points (and I am assuming I still have 2 mikes) my HF would be 5.03.

Thats the theory anyway. I wish I could have shot the stage again after the match and found out if I was right on this. Its all about HF. Your not planning in mikes when you bypass disappearing targets. Its all about points per second. I did bypass the two DTs on stage 1 and did pretty well on that stage. The time it took to hit that activator pad, shoot the two DTs (which are fast and you cannot count on getting 4 alphas) was not worth it, in my opinion, given that I could drive in on the other targets and save a lot of time. I did pretty good on stage 1 with that strategy.

Bypassing DTs and saving time is not the same as programming mikes. It's valid stage strategy.

And this is why the 2007 Monster match rocked! The fact we had some many different options on different stages is great. How may matches have stages which have this many options, all of which are valid and have good points. The stages were awesome and gave the shooters a lot of possibilities, allowing us to show creativity in our shooting; a trait so often missing from stages where there is like 1 real way to shoot.

[Keith Dilworth]

Charles,

Just use my FUBARed attempt and replace the mikes with D's and run the numbers.

[Bigbadaboom]

Open = 7.1382

Limited = 5.7175

Production = 5.1527

There are the H.H.F.'s for stage #9 and I know for a fact that the Production winner shot the D.T.'s. Just think about what he may have done if his back hadn't been screwed up.

Where I come from if a target disappears you chase it down and shoot it.

[dirtypool40]

To be fair, you could run mine and subtract 5 seconds (for dropping a mag out of the box and going to retrieve it)

[AA-Wolf]

baa,

I figure if you use the approach you stated the top others ran it with and skip the second set of DT's and use Dean's run (30.68 seconds) minus the 40 points and subtract 5+ seconds (which I believe is max seeing he used the time cutting style you described) you get a time of 25 seconds with points coming in at 179 for a HF of 7.16. Oddly, with him taking the 4 DT's he won the stage with a 7.138 HF. Possibly would have helped the slow guys (like myself) but by the looks of it not the high speed low drag guys. I personally don't see that stage going faster then 25 seconds leaving the second set, but as we all know never say never!

Eric, if it takes you 5 seconds to retrieve a mag I WOULD be surprised!

[Kevin Kline]

Open = 7.1382

Limited = 5.7175

Production = 5.1527

There are the H.H.F.'s for stage #9 and I know for a fact that the Production winner shot the D.T.'s. Just think about what he may have done if his back hadn't been screwed up.

Where I come from if a target disappears you chase it down and shoot it.

I shot it in 2 seconds faster than Jeff, but had a mike on the hard cover. If I hadn't had the mike, I would have had a 5.19 HF and I shot the DT. That was a lot of points to drop. Plus, I was figuring it was pretty fun to run back and forth and hose!

[SmittyFL]

If I hadn't had the mike, I would have had a 5.19 HF and

If my Aunt had balls she'd be my Uncle.

[Kevin Kline]

If I hadn't had the mike, I would have had a 5.19 HF and

If my Aunt had balls she'd be my Uncle.

Shannon,

keep your personal family matters out of this. Plus, if my Aunt had balls, she'd be thrown out of the family. Point is, before Shannon so rudely discussed his family tree, it was very doable w/out skipping the DT's.

[SmittyFL]

I'm from West Virginia; it's not really a tree so much......more like one of them there telephony poles.

[Kevin Kline]

Yep, you're right, I completely forgot where you're from. From now on, I'll put a disclaimer in there for you. Sorry for the confusion.