R&R Racing Stage 7: Super-Size it!

Those of you who have watched the videos in the previous post may be under the impression that it illustrates the ability of lesser competitors to fail the challenges of new props and targets.

Not at all! Even the very best competitors can screw up a stage, especially when the targets (including those which offer no point-value for hits, such as the door locks on this stage) are entirely new to us.

In the included video, Taran Butler manages a new-definitive example of how to shoot this stage ... if cautiously (which may be the best approach).

Chuck Anderson follows his example, taking his time on the new stuff (and, like Butler, may eschew the extra point-value of the Clay Pidgeon launched by the 'flipper' US Popper) to the advantage of loading one less round in his shotgun.

The whole point of shotgun stages seems to be minimizing reload time. I find this a depressing commentary on shotgun shooting in Multigun, but I guess it's a sad fact of life and the clever competitor recognizes his limitations.

Beven Grams, on the other hand, takes the bit firmly between his teeth and attempts a 'non-standard' approach to breaching the door. While all other competitors backed off so as to give the shot pattern distance to expand, he bravely advances and puts his shotgun muzzle within inches of the breaching bar -- and misses. Three times.

He learns from this sad experience, and used sufficient distance from the second door to breach it with fewer rounds.


Moving from Shotgun to Rifle, Grams moves aggressively to the middle-distance Rifle-target array and shoots the stuffing out of it ... breaking the sticks supporting the cardboard target and blasting all of the tapes off it. (Although, when watching the video, Grams doesn't seem to engage the targets at a much closer distance than did Butler and Anderson.)

When Range Officer Bill Sahlberg is called upon to score the target, he announces:


Is it neutralized? Hell yes!



However, after the stage scoring is completed and it becomes obvious that the IPSC targets must be replaced, he does take Mr. Grams to task to task and shakes a finger at him. (The ever-indomitable Grams doesn't seem very contrite, which seems reasonable to me. And Sahlberg is clearly admonishing Grams in an entirely joking manner.)

Still, Sahlberg is witnessed to counsel a later competitor thus:

"What Beven did? Don't do it!"

The thing to do is to not restrict close-access to targets by fault lines and careful positioning, of course. Sahlberg knows that, Grams knows, that, and we assume that the stage designer knows it. If we're going to allow shooters to move close enough to a target to blast the tapes off and break the supporting sticks, we must be prepared to live with the consequences when it happens.

Watch all three runs at "Breaching Doors" here, and decide for yourself.