Fast Enuff

Thanks for doing the video Jedi! That was great to see. We work hard at this unique match every year and it's so nice to see it presented on video. The jail bars were spaced a little close, it was pretty much the one and only "different / tricky" thing we put in the match as kind of a homage to old-school stages. The stages have to be designed to flow quickly to get 8 of them done in one day. I try to change up the unique element each year to keep it fresh. I knew people would ask about the rifle thing. It's a consequence of an incident from long ago (way over a decade, before I started). The resulting deal with the range was to check the rifles twice, once under direct TO supervision and again per normal SASS procedure to make sure the rifle's mag tube is empty and any stuck rounds have two chances to be dislodged. You get used to it and it becomes second nature. We don't expect guests to remember and just remind everyone "show clear on rifle, ok, Guns to unloading table." At least with the newer SASS rule allowing a rifle with a lever that closes during a stage to be shown clear for a "no call" at the end of a stage works very well with our existing procedure. What we are doing is close to the same process so not totally unfamiliar to current rules.

That plays now. Thanks! If anyone is still having trouble with it, it's a Facebook video and all adblockers need to be off for that to work. That's AWESOME by the way. I've been thinking black lights and good quality glow paint would make an awesome night shoot, and it looks like it does!

That video isn't playing for me on the wire, can you post a link to it?

No. We went through those years where everyone was trying to integrate WB into SASS matches. We did it at our range for quite a while. It caused issues with scoring, it caused issues with shooters, it caused issues with time picking brass, it caused issues with TO training and rules. And don't forget this as well: Those of us who shoot on major shooting ranges... we have permission to shoot our sport per the rules in the SASS book which are all based on single action firearms. The moment we add semi-automatic pistols we will suddenly have our range's board and safety officers looking at all the pistol reload muzzle directions and will likely force changes to our loading and unloading table policies because of the way they want ammo and loading handled by semi auto firearms with magazines. It opens an epic can of worms and will get SASS looked at just as hard as USPSA and modern 3 gun matches at host ranges. Some ranges can integrate it at will with no issue, but some can not. It's far from an easy universal change.

That's interesting. So the reasons were connected.

Because IF you had the shells arranged in that manner and IF you then also secured the bandoleer to your gunbelt you would effectively have a fully functional rigid shotgun belt above your belly button with no "downside" to the setup and everyone would get one to wear the shells up closer to the gun and get around the belly button rule.

The basic premise of the cone could be greatly simplified and not even drastically change the rules we have now. Just give the shooter command of the ground around their own feet and be done with it. Keep the current rules we already have that everyone is used to: 1) First major motion must be downrange if drawing, or returning to leather if holstering. (in other words you may not just move position to position with the gun out for further use with it pointed at the ground outside the 170.) 2) Don't sweep anyone. SDQ/MDQ per existing rules. 3) You can't sweep yourself. (as in you can not get a penalty for pointng a gun at yourself) The change would be to just go ahead and allow the gun to point at the ground around the shooter while drawing or returning to leather, but leaving all penalties for sweeping anyone firmly in place: 1) Don't sweep the TO or ANYONE. SDQ/MDQ per existing rules. We don't need much else. The rules ALREADY dictate you ONLY get to move the firearm out of the 170 for the purposes of drawing or returning to leather. This simplifies the calls down to what we already have been doing at matches that DOES work: Calling sweeping or gross violations of safe gun handling. If the shooter has to make a bunch of stabs at the holster but the gun is under control and safely pointed down and no one is getting swept then no problem. If the shooter stabs the holster and has a major fail where the gun barrel slides off to some huge angle, just CALL it... which is what happens now and when it gets to that point I've never seen a shooter contest it. They've either broken the rule of first major motion to or from leather or swept someone or committed unsafe gun handling. Take your pick but we don't have a big problem with these calls. Where we do have a big problem are the situations we end up in now where just one person, frequently standing too far forward on the firing line, thinks they see something slightly out of whack and starts asking what to call which annoys the shooter and everyone else because these calls are supposed to be a SDQ and is either "they did it or they didn't" and even the person calling has a hard time being sure, or just doesn't want to be "that guy" especially over something where it's a technical angle violation and no one got swept. Let's take the minutia out of it and make it far less opinion based and move the calls to more obvious results.

Those still using ACES on old Apple devices are having better luck in general. We started out on ipods a long time ago with it. Worked good. Then went Android with larger screen tablets. The android version worked "ok" for us for quite a few years but it's still got quirks that just don't go away, even with completely wiping everything out and starting over with a new shooter database. Android ACES has random problems with the overall list not working at all especially with larger matches (reproduced it at more than 1 club). It also has frequent sync issues when trying to use multiple devices (apple version was far better for this). Lastly it's output for printing isn't as good. We recently switched to Practiscore on android and it's far, far more stable and better formatting for printing. No real issues to speak of right now. With ACES now being entirely abandoned for several years, I would not expend any time or resources getting it working unless you are already using it on old Apple devices. Since you can no longer easily purchase Apple devices with a version of iOS that will run ACES, this isn't worth the effort to get working if you don't already own everything and are trying to keep it going. Just start with Practiscore and go from there. It'll save massive frustration later.

Seen some similar things done. The stencils have to be quick and easy. Two layers, 3 tops and not have alignment matter much. Some clubs around here have a few to make targets look like painted easter eggs or christmas ornaments. Some stylized cowboy hat stencils or "mad dog" faces might be interesting and quick to put on at the beginning of the day.

Gun like that would likely be fine for anyone who just wants to plink out in the back pasture or carry it for a light deer gun. Maybe for BP Silhouette if it shoots straight. It appears to have a tang peep sight on it already which could make it more desirable for that.

Yes, the club will have to change soon. Better to do it now before being forced into it when no devices can be found that will run aces. Practiscore IS what aces rolled into. And it will run on your ipads. Aces was great and had a lot going for it but its unstable as heck on android now and only still works at all on old ios devices. Practiscore is getting consistent updates since it handles most of the major shooting sports. If you can run aces you can run practiscore they seem to be closely related as the menus and functions have similar style and layout. You just have to learn the differences in match setup. We switched a while back. It was worth it in the end. Practiscore is way more resistant to crashes, does less weird stuff to matches and does a better job outputting for printing.

Nope. Mentioned above, it is time to make the switch to Practiscore.

titanium firing pin? No. Lightened firing pin extensions are common and one of the main purposes of them is to reduce the possibility of an OOB.

We have been using 1/4 AR500 for years now in cowboy matches. I think it has been more than 4 years of monthly matches and annuals and a few of them are finally starting to bow just a little. No cratering issues at all. Still a lot of life left in them. Very light to move and very affordable compared to thicker sheets.