Non-standard Range Commands...

[Duane Thomas]

I have a question. Just out of curiousity. Does it really matter if the RO says, "Shooter Ready?" instead of "Are you ready?"

[Ron Ankeny]

Duane:

I am not talking about something as simple as, "Shooter ready?" I am talking about commands like, "LAMR", followed by, "Shooter is ready, beep".

To answer your question, it matters to Jay Wordon. During the range portion of our RO class, Jay wouldn't pass those students who used "Shooter Ready" or "Slide forward, hammer down."

[ErikW]

Duane, yes, because as previously mentioned you don't know what to expect next. "Shooter is Standing By." "Stand by and I'll try to start this timer." You don't even know if he's gonna give any form of a Standby command; you might just get the beep.

And it matters because people "learn" by watching and listening to others.

[JFD]

My problem with "Shooter Ready?" is that 50% of the time it's a statement, not a question. "Shooter Ready" and "Standby" are separated by a time period that might not be measurable.

However, due to a recent experience, I've downgraded simple improper range commands slightly. I was shooting last at the first stage of an outlaw match and had improper range commands given to me by not only the RO, but the scorer as well. They sort of alternated between themselves, but with no pattern that I could tell. I was getting commands from beside me and behind me. It wierded me out to the point where I had to turn around and have an unpleasant discussion with both of them. I guess I was loading mags or something and hadn't paid attention to what they were doing prior to me shooting.

I was ROing the 2nd stage when this same scorer (not shooting that day)gives the 1st shooter the LAMR command. I almost punched him in his face for being so stupid. One of those moments when you know the day's fun is OVER. He was instantly demoted and verbally abused. Things like this make me really appreciate USPSA, even if "do you understand the course of fire" slips in there.

[scooterj]

Acouple years ago when the SHOT Show was in New Orleans, we had a few shooters from Austria and Italy shoot our local match. They didn't speak or understand english very well and I'm sure our cajun accents threw them for a loop. If anything other than proper commands were given, they turned around with puzzled looks on their faces. When the proper commands were issued, no one could tell that there was a language barrier.