The April match at the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club (ARPC) was typified by unseasonable WONDERFUL weather in the Pacific NorthWet!
It has taken me a week and more to sift through the videos that I filmed there, and I apologize for the delay. But for me, it was worth the wait.
(The scores from the match may be found here.)
For this match, I chose to illustrate the videos with the "Rock Opera" music of Andrew Lloyd Wright, and thus it is only fitting that Stage 1 of the match be represented by Mark "The Rock" shooting the stage named "Don't Be A Rookie", with "Music Of The Night" (from Phantom Of The Opera) in the background.
Stage 2 "Peeping Mike": is little bit controversial.
First, the stage featured 2 plates -- one on each side of the starting position -- which were demonstrably 10 yards from the closest legal shooting position. But due to the arrangement of the bay, were less than 10 yards from the closest viewpoint of the observers. The consequence of which is that bounce-back bullets sometimes hit observers. I was hit twice: once on the ring-finger of my right hand, when I was working as the Score-Keeper and I inadvertently was standing to the right of the Range Officer. I was hit and again later, when I was watching from a position slightly behind and to the right of the then-officiating score-keeper. Someone started stacking up bullets which had been bounced from the right-hand plate. The last time I noticed, there were eight bullets lined up on the stage counter. I can't say that all of them had ricocheted from the right-hand plate during the time when our squad was shooting.
This is a cautionary note: steel targets must not only be placed at least 10 yards from the shooter, but also at least ten yards from the nearest position where the observers (other squad-members) might position themselves.
The second controversy is that The Hobo Brasser (the second shooter in this video) scored two misses on the farthest-downrange, farthest-right target. In the video, this is the last target he engages. Note that the targets were placed immediately adjacent to two stacked plastic barrels, which typically "eat bullets". The shooter claimed that "the gun didn't move between shots", and the video seems to confirm his assertion. I offer no further comment on this point.
This stage is scored by the music "Tell Me On A Sunday", by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Stage 3: "Outpost"
This was a wonderful 'field course' with only a few options for when and where you would engage individual targets, but with two moving targets (both initiated by knocking down Pepper Poppers) there was plenty of room for individuality.
Note that there were some problems, at least in our squad, because the awkward angles between the Pepper Poppers and the moving targets (bobbers) which they initiated were sometimes compromised. We didn't always set them up correctly when resetting the stage between competitors, so there were a few reshoots.
Still, it was a well designed stage and it allowed the better -- or more experienced -- shooters to choose the best place to engage moving targets, according to their individual strengths. Because one bobber was inconveniently sited behind plastic barrels, some of the newer shooters succumbed to the temptation to engage the first bobber from the "guard shack". Well, they will learn better eventually.
The choreography is "Take That Look Off Your Face" (From "Tell me On Sunday").
Stage 4: "Take Your Choice"
This was the Classifier stage. Sorry, I don't have the nomenclature immediately available.
The shooter is "Gerry-With-A-G", and if nothing else the video serves to demonstrate how often the shooter is overwhelmed by the number of 'interested parties' who swarm about the shooting position.
Stage 5: "Speedy Six"
Moving to the East Range, this stage featured the IPSC "Classic target" (aka "Stop Sign Targets"). Some of the competitors found this particularly challenging, because they were not accustomed to engaging this target design and were therefore very vocal about not knowing where the A-zone was.
In fact, this stage emphasized the dichotomy between IPSC and USPSA competition. IPSC rules assume the "Classic" target will be used, and therefore there is a rule which forbids the target from being tilted or canted beyond a specified point (ninety degrees) because it is not obvious from the outline of the target "which end is up". One target here ( on the right-hand side of the bay, the closest target) was tilted ninety degrees, and we decided to reposition the target so that it was intuitively obvious which end is up. This is important because the A-zone is not symmetrical; it tends to favor the "up" end of the target. Consequently, we delayed the match to reposition the target so that the "up" end of the target was "up" from our point of view.
True, by USPSA rules this was not mandatory. We just did it to make it more 'obvious' to the shooter where the A-zone could be found.
The video features The Hobo Brasser, because there was some confusion in the heat of competition exactly what happened.
And the video is accompanied by the Andrew Lloyd Webber song "Mr. Mestopheles" from "Cats", because ... well, it was one of the few 'lively' tunes left in the selection available to me by virtue of having downloaded a single ALW "the best of" album. Still, I think it works out well.
(Sorry if this doesn't view correctly. Technical problem, I'm working on it.)
(UPDATE: Technical problem fixed, thanks to the magic of "waiting for the video to actually finish loading to the website".)
Stage 6: "What's the Deal"
... and something of a Memory Course. It was possible, and advisable, to engage all targets from two positions. The juxtaposition of targets and shooting ports, with vision barriers and no-shoots abounding. (I hit a no-shoot on one of the far targets).
The music is the overture from "Jesus Christ SuperStar", one of my favorite ALW songs.
The stage ... is something of a Memory Course. It was possible, and advisable, to engage all targets from two positions. The juxtaposition of targets and shooting ports, with vision barriers and no-shoots abounding. That may not be the 'smartest' or 'best' technique for this stage, but for even the shooters limited to 10 shots it worked out very well.
We had fun at this match, both because of the wider variety of course designs provided by Match Director Mike McCarter, but also because the stages took advantage of the HUGE variety of stage/bay dimensions available at Albany Rifle and Pistol Club.
Thanks, Mac, for a very good match.
(NOTE: It took 3 hours to process the videos and compose this article.)
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