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Perfect posse size


Ringer

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I like to see posse sizes of 15 for monthly matches and 17 for bigger matches, but that can easily vary based on the experience level of the posse members.  We generally use 13 as the minimum and rarely let it get above 20.

 

The tradeoff seems to be between having enough workers and making the amount of time each posse spends on a stage too long.  Small posse's with new or inexperienced shooters can be just as big of a bottle neck as an oversized posse, but a posse of experienced shooters can be 20+ and still get done quickly.  Well, assuming they don't have too many of us BP shooters in the mix! :lol:

 

When I set posse sizes, I try to take the experience level of the shooters into account when setting up the posses, and have no issue with setting them up with different sizes accordingly.  Balance is the key to avoiding problems, in my book anyway.

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What they said.

 

(With an experienced and WORKING crew, a posse of 10 can work great.  But that is not really the norm.  But at matches with multiple posses, a fast and efficient posse is not normally required since others will normally be just a little slower)

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Again...don't shoot me...

I always thought it would be a good idea to add a question to all apps for shoots.

What is your average stage time?

My 'average' falls around 38. sec per stage.

I have friends who used to shoot that 80. sec and 100. sec was average.

When I look at it I shoot 1.5 people...they shot 2-3 ppl...

In my mind, the 3 of us on the same posse of 15 ppl was 'time wise' like having 18 ppl.

Does that make sense???

(Giggles used to call me and ask if I was familiar with so-n-so...and would posse them to balance 'time')

It is frustrating when a posse who is 'on time' or within a shooter or two, to have the posse behind start crowding, because they were faster shooters.

 

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Let's see, the perfect posse?  

[ ( # of shooters x male/female) x BP shooters / age catagories / style catagories) ] x [ elevation of match/ temp.  x walking dist ] equals.....yea....... perfect!  :rolleyes:

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I went to a local shoot some time ago and they had 3 bays working.  The posse I was on had only 8 shooters and one of them was shooting Cap & Ball revolvers so most of his non shooting time was spent reloading.  This was not a good situation as it did not give us sufficient time to restock our loading blocks and also do spotting, picking, timing & unloading table.  I think that 12 is a more workable number. 

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After 19 years in this game, I have firmly established myself at the top of the bottom 1/3.  My goal for the next 10 years is to break into the bottom of the middle 1/3!  ;)

 

Who knows, maybe if I actually practiced, I could make it to the bottom of the top 1/2.  Who am I kidding, that sounds like work and I already have WAY too much of that!  :D

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I think you should actually be looking at the number of people who are going to work on the posse, scoring, spotting, timing and picking up brass.   I'd rather shoot on a posse of 10 workers than 20 dead weights.

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I agree on the 15-16 monthly and 19-20 for the biggies.  I find it nice to have a dedicated scorekeeper or two, possibly even a non-shooting spouse who knows the game and knows ,or quickly learns, the shooters.

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20 is too many, 10 not enough! Naturally, out monthly matches average 20 shooters! We have people complain if we split at 20. We have people complain if we don’t split at 20. Grrrrrr

 

in the hot summer months I like to split, as a 20 person posse just takes longer than 2 10s. Get done by noon before it gets too hot. Key is to balance the posses between TOs, workers and shirkers. 

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When we have 18 to 22 ish shooters for our monthly we do one posse but split it in half. One 1/2 shoots the other 1/2 works. Then flip. 9 to 11 people on a posse means everyone is doing something. No time for breaks or gabbing.

 

20 on a big shoot with no brass pick up works really well.

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During the height of the pandemic our club offered mask- required and mask-optional posses in our monthly matches in an effort to keep as many members as possible shooting.  With overall reduced participation, we sometimes had only 5 or 6 on a posse.  It was probably not optimum, but it did work out OK.  With so few shooters to get through, posse chores did not have to be done so quickly.   Slowing things down didn't matter so much.  We made it work, just like 5 friends practicing together.   

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7 minutes ago, Dusty Devil Dale said:

During the height of the pandemic our club offered mask- required and mask-optional posses in our monthly matches in an effort to keep as many members as possible shooting.  With overall reduced participation, we sometimes had only 5 or 6 on a posse.  It was probably not optimum, but it did work out OK.  With so few shooters to get through, posse chores did not have to be done so quickly.   Slowing things down didn't matter so much.  We made it work, just like 5 friends practicing together.   

Topic Title: Perfect posse size

 

;)

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18 just in case u have someone that can't or won't work. Sitting at the unloading table isn't working if u have a small posse ! Unfortunately I had to shame someone into helping last week instead of just watching everyone shoot. 

Hells Comin 

P.s Phantom be nice- see if that works for the 2nd time. 

 

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My opinion (as a greenhorn);  the split needs to happen at 20, and it should be that simple.   21+ and you're at the range all darned day.   Less than 10 only works if there's a single posse (and you're taking your time).

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17-22

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13-17 for a monthly and 15-18 for a large match.

 

Yes, a posse can get by with as few as 10 IF there are people who can and will work.  The key is to identify who's doing what and when before the first bullet goes downrange, especially as a TO/RO.

 

We had 10 on a posse at our monthly last weekend, which included one new-to-CAS shooter and one mobility challenged.  Myself and one other person traded off as TO and when we weren't running the timer, loading, shooting, or unloading - we were spotting, shagging brass AND resetting targets.  This was still more enjoyable than shooting on a posse of 20+ (for me).

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5 minutes ago, Chief Rick said:

13-17 for a monthly and 15-18 for a large match.

 

Yes, a posse can get by with as few as 10 IF there are people who can and will work.  The key is to identify who's doing what and when before the first bullet goes downrange, especially as a TO/RO.

 

We had 10 on a posse at our monthly last weekend, which included one new-to-CAS shooter and one mobility challenged.  Myself and one other person traded off as TO and when we weren't running the timer, loading, shooting, or unloading - we were spotting, shagging brass AND resetting targets.  This was still more enjoyable than shooting on a posse of 20+ (for me).

 

I gotta second this.   I guess it boils down to what the "perfect posse size" question's goal is.   Is it just an academic question, wondering about a "perfect world" size (to which my answer would be 15), or is it a real world question wanting to know at which point a posse should be divided (in which case my answer is a firm 20, unless there are cap-and-ball shooters involved).

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1 hour ago, Phantom, SASS #54973 said:
1 hour ago, Phantom, SASS #54973 said:

Topic TitlePerfect posse size

Sorry for being one of the many slightly off topic posts here.  I didn't realize the scrutiny was quite so tight (or so necessary) 

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48 minutes ago, Mister Badly said:

Minimum 12. Maximum 20. We had a small posse of maybe 18 at Black Gold and it went very well. We were always waiting on the posse ahead of us and everyone was pitching in. 

 

Wouldn't a 12 minimum require a 23 maximum?   Or to flip it, a 20 maximum would require a 10 minimum.

 

EDIT:  due to "confused" emoticon:   If 12 is the minimum, you would have to have 24 people to split into two minimum posse's.  With 23, you'd have one posse with 11 putting you under minimum.  

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Like many here I have been privileged to serve as PM at both WR and EOT. My WR posse’s were 20-22 and EOT was 20. They set stage time at 45 minutes and it averages about two minutes per shooter beep to beep. Have only held up one wave as an earlier posse misread instructions and had to reshoot for 10 shooters but normally that size works well and seems to have good flow. IMHO. 
locally we only get 18-20 for a monthly so split into 2x10 with 20 or go slow with 1x18. I prefer about 15 as I am a social butterfly and like to gab a bit. :rolleyes:

Gateway Kid
 

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