Brother King, SASS #69031

I can't even remember the last time I commented on this forum, but it was when the moderators banned Phantom. Prior to that I spent much of my day on various issues SASS related. 7 top 10 EOT; 6 top 10 WR; MW Regional; CO State; 4 top 10 CaCha all in....all in. This thread, for me, most closely represents the main reason that my time is now spent in other shooting sports. I simply found myself bored to tears w/ targets this stale and SASS having become a weapons handling contest. That's not the truth- that's my opinion. 10/10/4 if you move you're the Devil of the Unsafe hisself. Then I jumped out of a tower on a zipline while blasting targets on a 250 yard course; shot rifle on a dead run to a barricade for 100,200,500 yds and loaded 30 shotgun as fast as I could run through the woods. I sucked. I sucked so bad that it was embarrassing. Plus, at 60+ not only was I running out of time to NOT suck, but I was the oldest competitor out of 300. So for the last 4 yrs exactly, I have spent that same energy and oodles more time & money (one stage can be 50-60 rifle, 30+ pistol &/or 10-50 shotgun)... mainly to not suck. Because I have absolutely no chance in hell of being even a top 25% unless 50 guys & gals DQ. We all show up for our own reason: mine is to beat my last stage. Mine is to remember not to forget that the smallest mistakes can become huge train wrecks. Mine is to operate complicated weapons systems under stress of performance. Mine is to hit that 500yd target w/o going to war on it & burning time. Mine is to clean the pistol steel at 70 to 10 yards w/ plates, spinners, swingers, KD's & do it w/o too many make ups. There are many things I miss about SASS, most of those "things" have names, they're friends and I don't get to see them as often as I'd like anymore. Of course, now I have more friends that I would miss as well. My point is only that people come and go in all forms of entertainment often for purely personal reasons. IMV the World competition should be a test of all facets of the sport, not just a test of weapons manipulation. Making it the equivalent of a kid's soccer game where we all get to play, all get a trophy and all get to party, drink koolaide & cookies also runs the risk of boring the living daylights out of those who appreciate a mano a mano contest that also involves accuracy of the weapons themselves. That "ding" on a 70 yd pistol steel or flasher on a 500 yd rifle or clay after 15 shotgun is as satisfying as it is frustrating to miss. If you're overwhelmed by the frustration rather than motivated to practice more then no one can help you. The times comparison could have been due as well to movement as anything....because let's face it: if you are bummed out because targets were WAY out there at 6 yds & slammed your trunk in anger because the RIFLE target was 12 or the shotgun was not straight then frankly you just weren't ready for a World/National competition. We all know there is no target too close to miss; no scenario too simple to shoot a "P"; no gun too well-worked to jam, but to say that these things are the only criteria is a bit short-sighted. You may lose as many or more whose interest in shooting is a bit more of a challenge in other ways. My further observation is that this argument has happened after every. single. SASS. event. ever. My old Jewish mentor was fond of saying, "Those that go see God. The rest have to take their word for it." Congratulations to all who attended. See you next year. Brother King

In Classic Cowboy shooting big bore, hammered double, and duelist the effects of a miss or train wreck can be astronomical. A rifle jam on a 25 sec stage that becomes a 45 sec stage, as HH observes when it happens on a relatively fast stage at a major match, a CCowboy may suddenly pick up 100-300 RP's and it may change the placement 5-10 places. Now that the WBAS has ironed some of the bugs out of that system it may be time to back test it into SASS to see what the results might be.