It may not have been quite so fun during the shooting of the stage. We watched as each competitor stepped into the boat for the first time, and every one looked just like a cat trying to coax himself into the water. That first cautious paw -- er, foot -- withdrawn when the flat-bottom boat began rocking on the hard plywood platform, was an almost universal response. Everyone used both hands to brace on the gunwales of the boat and kept most of the body weight there until both feet were inside the boat. Then the experimentation with where to put the feet, where to sit.
Then the shotgun, loaded and placed so it is sitting on a board placed longitudinally on the boat seats. Most found that they could straddle that board, put the butt of the shotgun on the board between their legs, and rest the barrel of the shotgun on the bow of the boat.
A few decided to put both feet on the right side of the board, since they were going to shoot the first eight steel plates on that side. (See the stage setup here at NASSONLINE in PDF format.)
SHOTGUN TARGETS:
Of course, I didn't watch every competitor who shot this stage, but those I did watch all opted to shoot the first 8 targets from the boat, reloading in the boat if necessary to complete the array. Then they exited the boat (under the emphasis of adrenaline, MUCH less cautiously than they had entered) and stood on the dock to reload. One Open shooter, Craig Outzen, opted to reload before and during his exit. Hard to tell if there was any advantage.
Outzen's performance is depicted in the video included below.
Still, the stage procedures allowed engagement of all targets from the dock, and I didn't witness that. In the actual event, it seemed to matter little whether you shot the first eight shotgun targets sitting down or standing up, the boat didn't actually rock much once you became familiar with the balance point. The boat with move with every shot, but it looked easy enough to compensate.
Perhaps that's why this stage was more fun for the spectators than for the competitors.
RIFLE TARGETS:
After placing the shotgun in the box, the competitors retrieved their rifles from the other box on the dock. There were eight cardboard "Metric" targets downrange, and white 'penalty' targets covered most of the shooting area of each target. Although the range to the targets was short of 25 yards, it left only a very small scoreable target area for each shot. I was impressed that (a) there were fewer miss/noshoot penalties recorded, (b) the winner of the Open division won even though he had a ten-point procedural penalty, and (c) the winner of the Tactical division completed the stage in only 0.52 seconds more time (with a higher raw hit factor) than the winner of the Open division.
Division winners for this 160-point stage:
LIMITED: Kyle Nice (58.15 seconds, 156 points)
OPEN: Robert Johnson (45.10 seconds, 150 points - 10 penalty points)
TACTICAL: Carl Carbon (45.62 seconds, 149 points)
The Video:
Featured competitors, in order of appearance -
- David Heyden
- Darrell Humphrey
- Chris Schiatano
- Craig Outzen
- Gordan Balladad
- Carl Schmidt
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