Regarding the point at which it is "too late" to award penalties under the following rules:
SHB p.4
SHB p.32
ROC clarification
The highlighted sections in the above quoted rules mean that penalties for those violations may not be assessed retroactively to any previous stages.
ALSO:
If illegal items/equipment have not been noticed by the time the shooter has left the firing line after shooting a stage,
it is too late to assess any penalties for that particular stage.
Corrections must then be made before shooting the next stage.
Same applies to any failure to have the required items for a specific category (e.g. male BW shooter with no spurs).
Any violations noticed after the shooter has cleared all firearms and left the unloading table may not be penalized.