Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L

Thank you for continuing to post your travels here! I love reading about the different clubs, and their matches, and about the surrounding battlefields and parks you visit. Holli and I just returned from the VA State BP Championship, Smoke on the Mattaponi, in West Point, VA. When we headed out of town, we went south through Yorktown and drove right past the Revolutionary War Museum in Yorktown, VA, and I immediately thought of you. I had no idea it was even there until I saw it. Next year, I think I will add a visit to that museum to the schedule! Keep safe on the road and hopefully we can catch up again at the VA State Championship!

Pretty clever. I got it in about a minute, but won't spoil it for others. Only hint is that the second set of numbers are fours not sevens.

Awesome! 10 Jedi's in one place at the same time... I can FEEL the force!

Thank you one and all. It has been a dream of mine to be included in this select group of individuals for a long, long, time, and to be honest, I never thought I would make it. I truly appreciate the induction into the Jedi's and will wear my pin with honor. I might have to add it to my Tag Line and show off a little bit! Thank you Double Tap Taylor, the Jedi Council, and all the other Jedi's for this incredible honor. Dogmeat Dad

Additional Comment... After shooting all of Day 1 clean and the first stage of Day 2 clean, and having run half the Posse through Stage 4, (our 8th stage of the match) I was feeling good. When called to the line, I had the scenario down, know which direction to start on left, shoot 10 Rifle, then shoot 5 Pistol, Move to Right, shoot 5 Pistol, grab Shotgun, shoot 2 shotgun, move left, shoot 2 shotgun, and Don't cock the hammer for that 6th shot until stopped at the left position. I thought I was golden. Get settled at the firing line, check my shotgun shells, state my line, Buzzer, grab my rifle, and........Blast the first three RIFLE rounds into the first PISTOL targets! About halfway through the 2nd shot I realized my error, but the old lizard brain didn't catch on until after the 3rd round was fired. At this point I believe I shouted "That Was Stupid" to the RO and swung my rifle up and finished the rifle Rounds on the RIFLE targets! First pistol went fine, had a miss with the second pistol (I think it was the first round at the new position) because my brain was still trying to figure out what had happened. What flashed through my mind was... Needless to say, much discussion ensued afterwards. Was it a P, a miss and a P, or just misses? I confirmed for the TO that the correct answer was 4 misses, 1 for the legitimate pistol miss and 3 misses for the rifle rounds placed perfectly on the pistol target. Now, had I restarted on the "First Rifle Target" instead of the 4th rifle target when I corrected the brain fart, then I would have also earned a P. That sure would have been an interesting discussion for sure! I did finish the match clean. Note to self...When staging the Rifle, point it at the first RIFLE target, not the first PISTOL target! P.S. I think we should petition the RO Committee to change the rules and give the Posse Leaders a mulligan allowing them to reshoot one stage... Just kidding, but dang it would have been nice at this match, however I probably would have dropped a gun and been Match DQ'd!

Barb, Harlot, and the entire El Posse Grande crew, THANK YOU FOR A GREAT MATCH! Holli and I had a great time at the match and enjoyed everyone on our Posse. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and although we were a bit short on numbers, everyone pitched in to keep us running. I want to give special mention to Dependable Dave suffered numerous rifle problems and although he decided to stop shooting, he came back on Day 2 to pitch in and do Posse Chores. Cowboy Spirit !00%! Great Time, great folks, and Good Lord willing, we hope to be back again next year. Dogmeat & Holli...

Man, that totally sucks, but I am really glad that the house didn't get smacked and no one was hurt. Things are repairable/replaceable, people not so much. Glad you and Kay are OK. Hopefully, they will be able to get the truck fixed quickly so you can get back on the road hauling that camper to your next SASS match!

Thanks. I was just about to post that I found that. The issue I was having was that for the very first match (Default named My First Match) it only allowed Hit Factor and it was unchangeable. When I created a brand new match, that gave me all of the other options, including SASS. I built Last Weeks match into the iPad, then added two of the shooters, and fumbled my way through entering the scores. Had a few issues with hitting Enter before checking the scores and struggled to delete them, and eventually figured out how to just delete the whole match. Important Note to those who are just starting out with this...When they let you put in a number for Strings, enter 1, not 24 for the number of shots.... I suspect I have a steep learning curve ahead of me for this software. It is definitely NOT structured for SASS, but it has most of what we need in there. I will keep playing with it in the off hours, but I suspect I am going to be forced to pay for at least a 1 month subscription to CAS Scoring just so I can get through the MD State Match next month without any NEW problems... Thanks for all the help!

That's what I thought I was doing but I will check again later. It's possible I need to establish an account first before all the options appear, something I have yet to do. It wasn't given any options that I saw, but this is my first rodeo with this software. Was that an Android phone or Apple phone you were using? Just curious... I will try it again this afternoon after my morning excursions. Thanks for the assistance.

So, this morning in a fit of insanity (or maybe an epiphany of clarity...) I downloaded Pratiscore2 onto my iPad. No issues there, got it started a running OK, and figured I would play around with it some and try to build a match, and possibly enter the scores manually for last weekends match just to see what would happen and what kind of reports I could generate. All good, until I had to select a Match Type. Maybe I did something wrong, but I can't get the software to let me select anything for Match Type other than the default Hit Factor. Is there a decent "Practiscore 2 For Dummies" out there anywhere?

My understanding is that Practiscore is basically paid for by various industry partners. By that I mean gun manufacturers, probably IPSC, IPDA, etc that want a consistent platform for their scoring, so basically it's paid for by advertisers. Will there ever be a fee? Maybe some day, but there are a lot of dollars being spent on the IPSC, IPDA, 3-Gun, etc matches, not to mention the guys selling the guns, so I expect there is plenty of money for this to be free for a while. The SASS program is OK, it does the job, but it was designed more as a complete match management system (Reserving Camping spots, printing banquet tickets, registering shooters, etc.) and although it interfaces with tablets, it was not a trivial process and required another software package to run on the tablets that then would transfer the data to the SASS program form compiling and printing. It did the job, but if all you want is scoring, then it was not the best choice for that. For CAS, the two big programs are Practiscore and CAS Scoring. CAS Scoring is written in Europe, and although I don't know the specifics, there is some prohibition about using Andriod devices (I think they just hate Google) so it's only available on Apple Devices. I did look at both Practiscore and CAS Scoring before making my selection a few years ago, and between the two CAS Scoring is slightly better suited to Cowboy Action Shooting, but Practiscore is more than capable, and if they add a few tweaks, they would cover everything CAS Scoring does. Practiscore seemed to have a slightly longer learning curve (for the Match Setup stuff) but the scoring aspect of the program was almost the same. Again, just my $0.02, Cowboy Action is now a niche market shooting sport, at least when compared to the shooter numbers at IDPA, IPSC, Steel Challenge, etc matches. Our best hope is that we can get a company like Practiscore to add a few tweaks to their software so we can hitch a ride on the back of the larger shooting sports.

Yes it does. We just used that combination at the DE State Championship a week ago. Seemed to work very well.

I get it (Not Starbucks, I still brew my coffee at home at less than $1.00/cup. I also realize that in the big scheme of things it's not a huge amount of money, but what galls me was the way in which this was implemented. No notice, auto-upgrade on the iPad, and now my software doesn't work and I don't find out about it until I have already started the match but can't enter times? That's disrespectful to everyone that has been using their software, and marketing it to other clubs for free. We went with this software because I know of a lot of other clubs that were using it, and even though Apple products and I have a Hate/Hate relationship (all the way back to the first LISA computer) I spent the $$$ to buy iPads. Taught a training course at our club, trained a lot of folks, and spread the word to other clubs. Now this? Not a way to build a lasting business relationship, that's for sure. What happens next year? Will they bump the price up again and hold my match hostage until I pay? I don't know, and that's the problem. Just poor form, all around, and in a business environment if you lose my trust, I don't buy from you again, period. I will always remember something that I was told a few decades ago... The Hardest Costumer To Win, Is The One You Just Lost! They have lost my trust, and although I may have to pay the fee for the short term, it is going to take a lot to convince me not to change to another scoring program. Just my $0.02 and that won't even pay for 1 Day of this software rental....

Thanks for letting me know. I will likely follow suit for this year for the same reason, but the off season this winter will be a time of reflection. Travel safe and have a great trip to Georgia. Shoot Well and get'em all! Dogmeat

That makes it a little bit easier to swallow, but just a little bit. I have done a tiny bit of reading about Practiscore and I am leaning towards migrating in that direction, but that will take some time. The ability to run on Android Tablets, the "Industry Support" of the Practiscore software and it's maintenance, means that it is unlikely to result in a "Surprise" fee in the future. Still a lot to sort out, and time is something I am in very short supply of at the moment, so I may be forced to bite the bullet for the short term, but I'm Not Happy!

As a follow-up, if anyone actually pays the subscription/extortion fee, I have a question. Does the program give you any additional new features or is it basically the same features that existed previously in version 1.54 with a few bug fixes and minor enhancements?

Got burned by that today myself at our monthly match in Damascus, MD. We had to resort to our old paper scorecards and our 25 year old DOS program "Scorecard". If this had been discovered next month when we were hosting the MD State Match, I would have been beyond livid. While I personally don't fault anyone for attempting to capitalize on their work effort, this was a pretty lousy way to go about doing it. It is a nice program, with some good features, but there are also a lot of holes and things it should do that it does not. Not sure what I am going to do going forward. Definitely going to look at Practiscore before I drop $$$ on a subscription. I may be forced to do a 1 Month subscription just to get through the State Match, but I will not be happy about it at all. I need a lot more information about what the costs will be (per tablet vs per club vs per user and the method of determining that) before I will plop down ANY $$$ for this. I dislike Software subscriptions with a passion, and springing this on folks in this manner, folks who have invested time and effort to learn the program, not to mention $$$ on iPads when Andriod tablets are so cheap, is not a good way to build a good long term business relationship with their customer base. If they had done a better job of notifying folks, and if the costs were half of what they are charging, it would almost have been a no-brainer, almost. Just as a point of reference, the SASS Scoring Software was running $100.00 per year to keep current, but you could skip years and the program would still run if you didn't need the software updates. And it did a LOT more than this program does (not that we used most of it) but it didn't run on tablets either. I suspect this will turn a lot of potential (and many current) customers away. Not sure this was a smart move on their part at all. Just my $0.02 and it's worth exactly what you paid for it! Dogmeat

I was born and have lived my entire life in Montgomery County, MD. (OK, I was actually born just across the line in DC, but they tore the hospital down shortly thereafter, so you can't prove it! ) I have watched it go from a collection of smallish towns surrounded by farms into an interconnected sprawl of townhouses, condos, large homes on postage stamp size lots, and the latest brainchild, Retail on the ground floor, and condos above. We went from Dairy farms, hay and corn fields, and orchards, to "Tax Cattle" (i.e. the tax paying inhabitants) and retail. Lots of reasons, most too political for this forum, but needless to say the quality of life has been on the decline for a long time, at least for those of us who remember the old days. This area tends to be very transient with folks transferring in for work and then transferring out when their job moves or the next administration inhabits Washington so there is no collective historical memory of How Things Used To Be, because History is only 4-8 years deep for most folks. (Dang, I'm starting to sound like a grouchy old curmudgeon! I Finally Made It! ) Once my Mom's estate is settled, she passed at the end of 2023, I will be seriously looking to GTFO of this area but I have a lifetime of ties to the area, and the kids and grand-kids live here, so that idea may just be wishful thinking on my part! In the meantime, I escape when I can to play Cowboy wherever I can, and dream of riding off into the sunset!

Finally got a chance to sit down at my computer and scan through the photos. Old Man Winter managed to take a LOT of GREAT photos during the match, especially of us BP shooters. Now, if we could all take up a collection and buy him a new lens that takes 20 lbs OFF instead of adding them on, that would be AWESOME! (OK, I'm the one that needs to take them off, but still, a magic lens that did that would be awesome! ) Holli & I had a great time at the Bushwhack, and our stay in Laurens was fantastic. There is something about small towns in the South where it just seems like the pressure generated in the pressure cooker called Washington DC and the surrounding areas just seems to dissipate. I look forward to heading back that way again soon. This match is definitely on our "Go Back To" match list. Not sure how the new dates will play into our schedule for 2026, but we will definitely try to work it in to the mix.

I think the best part of this travel blog is that you are building a travel plan for Holli and I when she finally retires!

What is even better was a local Donuttery (Is that even a word? ) that we had here in Maryland for decades before the Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donut shops moved in. My dad used to drive us over there on Sunday after church (assuming we three boys behaved) and get a dozen Honey Glazed donuts as they called them, fresh out of the machine. You could watch them being made, it was awesome. Those things would touch your tongue and melt in your mouth, and the sugar high was incredible. They were located directly on the way to my College classes and more than once I would stop and buy a half dozen to get me through a cram session and a final! I was severely distraught when they closed. I'm surprised I ever graduated!

At Thurmont, they have had some stationary shotgun targets where the bases are about 12" up with a tall target they sit at about 18"-24" up. At VA State last year, they had a very unique "One Of A Kind" shotgun target that was about 4-5' tall. Totally awesome target! Checkout the YouTube video linked below. Cody Maverick @ VA State 2024 The second Stationary Target not used on that stage had an activator and you shot that which dropped the cross-guard and then you shot the stationary targets (the train signal lights). Checkout the YouTube video linked below, starting at about the 27:00min mark. Adventures with P.C. Wabash Looking forward to whatever "New Thing" they come up with this year.

One of these days Holli and I will make Heluva Rukus! My wife's family is from the Rensselaer/Troy area and we used to visit her grandmother a couple times a year when she was still living. She had a place on Saratoga Lake too when we were younger. Had no idea this match was that close to her. Dang missed opportunities! One of these days...

I'd be careful of too much "MD SWAG" on your truck. Down there, they consider us Marylander's Yankees, even though we are south of the Mason Dixon Line! I'd like to check out your truck a little more next time we meet up. I was interested when they were first announced, but I like to give new technology a chance to have the bugs shaken out a bit before I buy into it. As a retired SATCOM engineer, I don't trust new tech any farther than I can throw it and your truck definitely has some gravity to it! See You In VA!

Thanks for the Pictures! Now I just need to look up the Posse List and see I can remember who's who! The match was like 3 days ago, and I'll be lucky if I remember I was even there! Great meeting you, shooting with you, and having a chance to talk about off the range. The People of SASS are the best reason to be in SASS and one of the main reasons we travel to away matches. So many Old Friends just waiting for us to meet for the first time! Travel Safe my friend and we will see you in PA!