Null N. Void

Limbsaver covered by a butt cover.

I would suggest that you shoot fast enough to have one or two misses per match. More misses than that, you're over running your headlights. Clean every match means your not trying to go faster. If you have the miss or two in a local match, you can generally slow down a bit and shoot clean any time you want to. You shoot the game however you enjoy it. If clean is your thing, that's great. If one match a month is your thing, that's great. However you like it, come out, enjoy the shooting and the people. If you want to move up in the standings. there's only one way to get faster and have less misses, and that's practice, practice and practice. It takes work.

I look at this like the dropped round rule. After all the warnings and hand wringing the effect of the rule on safety was nothing. We have plenty of rules regarding keeping control of the guns, and I wouldn't change them. Most of the dropped rounds ended up on a prop, and the shooter picked them up and continued. I've never seen a problem with it. We have plenty of rules on sweeping which no one is suggesting we change. We have plenty of rules on how live rounds in the chamber should be handled. Again, no one suggesting we change those. We treat every firearm as if it were loaded, as you state. I just think that at the start of the stage, if we can ensure the hammer is down on an empty chamber, then safety is not compromised, the shooter is happy, and the TO doesn't have to DQ anybody.

If the chamber is empty, then having the hammer fall on it when the rifle is pointed in a safe direction doesn't make it any different than lowering the hammer at the loading table, SO LONG AS THE CHAMBER IS EMPTY! The real problem is if there is a round in the chamber. If the shooter jacks out a round on the first levering, it's a SDQ. If the rifle goes bang when the hammer is dropped, it's a SDQ. In both of these cases, the unsafe act has already occurred and we already, and will with the proposed rule, penalize it. This is one of the reasons for carrying the guns vertically to the line and not sweeping anyone just in case there is a round in the chamber. Once the round is in the chamber and we're moving we have an issue. We don't want movement with a live round in the chamber and the hammer down. That's what the rules concentrate on doing. We have made moving with a cocked hammer on an empty chamber an administrative penalty. The gun can't go bang. I think the SDQ for a rifle that is safe is too severe.

If the stage is unsafe but it was not realized that it was unsafe until the hazard knocked someone over, then it should be a do over for the person that fell, in my opinion. I think this is a MD judgement and doesn't need a rule change. The only other issue is should the first shooters be given a re-shoot because the prop had been changed.

Enjoyed it! Do it again next year!

The range that I am a member of uses gravel between 1.5 inch thick walls made of wood. It uses 6x6 timbers (I think) sunk vertically into the ground to support the horizontal boards. It's about 8 inches of gravel between the boards. I tested it for cowboy with 200 grain 45 colts loads out of a rifle and nothing happened other than the holes in the boards..

I look at Stats. If I see a stage that had many misses and P's, I'll not write a stage like that. I think everybody knows shooters that want to shoot a clean match each and every match and shoot slow enough to do that. If they are tripped up by a P trap, they are not happy. It's usually not the target distance that trips them up, it's usually confusing stages. I realize there's different perceptions and enjoyment factors. I just lean towards a bit easier than harder for the middle of the pack shooters.

In DDD post above, FAIR is the operative word, in my opinion. Everybody likes variety, but not at the expense of perceived fairness. It's a balancing act. Shooters who want to shoot clean should be given the chance to do it. When you see a new shooter shoot their first clean match, the joy on their face is obvious. The best shooters will win regardless of how you set it up, but you can take away the joy of the match for the average shooter if it's too hard. Since I've been in this sport, I've never heard "That match was too easy". I've heard that it was "Too hard" at least once a year.

The old Navy/ Big Corporation rule is 100 "Attaboy (or girl)" is worth one "Aw S##t". You could have 9 great stages and have one that is perceived as being unfair, and the word will get out that the match sucked. If you have 2 bad stages, you've a problem because the match reputation has been damaged. I always reviewed the match. If there was a stage on my local matches that had more than 2 P's, it was retired forever and I would think through what made it that hard. I look at everything I write as how does the 30 second per stage shooter think about it. Regardless of how hard or easy the stage is, the good shooters will be be fastest. That's why they are good shooters. Close, far, small, big, confusing, simple, they win because they work hard. You can have plenty of variety without making it a memory contest. For many of the shooters that go for a clean match and then gets confused because of a complicated stage, what have you done? The same people win, and the middle of the pack shooter is denied his/her clean match. I would encourage experienced shooters to try to remember what it was like when we first started. Think about what it was like for a new gunfighter. Make sure we keep it fun. I'll have fun no matter how the targets are set up. I'll have more fun if it's not a memory exercise.

I shoot 32 in the pistols and 357 on the rifle. I have separate loops for both. Most of the time it's for rifle reloads which are every other match or so. I was running the timer once when the shooter had a Failure to Fire on one pistol. He reloaded and save a clean match. After that, I keep both handy.

We always work it out.

Yes I did. Made it to the semifinals with the help of a bye. Lighthorse Pete got to his SG first and it was over from there. I do all right, but there was no way to catch up to the guy who did the '97 speed match in 1.8 seconds. I still had a ball! Santa Fe River Stan won the shootoff beating Lighthorse Pete. He also won the match. What a performance! Just a pleasure to see him shoot like that!

Hey Nunn! How you doing? I hope this means we'll see you at the match. NNV