Seven Shooters You Know
This is a great video, depicting stereotypical GunGame shooters with issues. Thanks to ENDO for presenting a humorous video with a serious message.
(Go to the link, above, to view the video; I don't steal videos from primary sources.)
I've run into most of the characters depicted, over the past years. Mister Clueless is the most common version, but in all candor I have to admit that I expect many of my class participants to be unaware of a lot of the range rules of competition shooting.
That's why they sign up for the course of instruction, and they are all intrinsically motivated. They WANT to learn, because pistol competition is a quagmire of rules, regulations, and a long history of Range Etiquette.
The one character in the video that I cannot forgive is the one who won't share the work. I think we're suppose to hiss when he shows up.
Since it's a "Class-room environment" (actually on the range, but you know ..) there's no excuse for not doing your part. One of the primary lessons in the class, second only to safe gunhandling, is that IPSC/USPSA is a Volunteer Sport.
Everybody works.
Everybody is "special".
Well, everybody is packing.
An armed society is a polite society.
Showing posts with label USPSA video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USPSA video. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Ron Avery, Sight Alignment and Calling Your Shot
When I first started to think that I might want to do a LOT of IPSC/USPSA shooting, I actually invested in a series of video tapes (yes, I am that old) which provided a basic course of "how to do this stuff".
The source: Ron Avery's Three-tape (VHS) called "Secrets of a Professional Shooter".
(It's still reviewed here on VHS, and available here on DVD.)
It helped me a lot, and I was impressed when I watched him shooting Pepper Poppers on the move; I was encouraged because I eventually discovered that I too could do that .... just a lot slower.
Now he's got a quick video out on The Truth About Guns, called "Your Rear Sight Matters, Too".
He's still the master of 'shooting on the move', as far as I'm concerned. And although the content may seem elementary to some viewers, there are pertinent tips about shooting in both a competition and in a self-defense situation.
One element which I thought was underplayed in this very short tutorial was the importance of 'calling your shots'. I'd like to see someone put up a well-edited commentary on that methodology.
When I teach a class I try to stress the importance of 'calling your shot', but the class is too short (only four hours, one of those hours in lecture mode) to really TRAIN people in this important skill. You can tell them "take a mental snapshot of the sight picture when the shot breaks, and replay it". It's better than nothing, but I'm sure there is someone who can produce a professional level video which demonstrates the process.
Still, it's great to see Ron Avery back in the role of Tutor, which he does so well.
Now, if I can dust off the VHS player, I think I'll go re-watch his 3-part video. I know there's still lots of stuff I can learn from Mister Shoot-On-The-Move.
The source: Ron Avery's Three-tape (VHS) called "Secrets of a Professional Shooter".
(It's still reviewed here on VHS, and available here on DVD.)
It helped me a lot, and I was impressed when I watched him shooting Pepper Poppers on the move; I was encouraged because I eventually discovered that I too could do that .... just a lot slower.
Now he's got a quick video out on The Truth About Guns, called "Your Rear Sight Matters, Too".
He's still the master of 'shooting on the move', as far as I'm concerned. And although the content may seem elementary to some viewers, there are pertinent tips about shooting in both a competition and in a self-defense situation.
One element which I thought was underplayed in this very short tutorial was the importance of 'calling your shots'. I'd like to see someone put up a well-edited commentary on that methodology.
When I teach a class I try to stress the importance of 'calling your shot', but the class is too short (only four hours, one of those hours in lecture mode) to really TRAIN people in this important skill. You can tell them "take a mental snapshot of the sight picture when the shot breaks, and replay it". It's better than nothing, but I'm sure there is someone who can produce a professional level video which demonstrates the process.
Still, it's great to see Ron Avery back in the role of Tutor, which he does so well.
Now, if I can dust off the VHS player, I think I'll go re-watch his 3-part video. I know there's still lots of stuff I can learn from Mister Shoot-On-The-Move.
Sunday, September 06, 2015
Cooper Video
Misfires And Light Strikes - Guns are the new Harley Davidson.: *
Thirteen minute video of Jeff Cooper. Worth bookmarking, or downloading, or whatever you wish to do to save the Colonel.
* Tnx for finding the video!
This is where it all began, folks. This is like having video of Moses writing down the Fifteen Ten Commandments. When it comes to practical pistol competitions and defensive firearms training, this is the Magna Carta, “Maybelline” and “View from the Window at Le Gras“, all rolled into one.
Thirteen minute video of Jeff Cooper. Worth bookmarking, or downloading, or whatever you wish to do to save the Colonel.
* Tnx for finding the video!
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Nekulturny Americans
nekulturny is Russian for "uncultured."
So, Russians consider Americans to be nekulturny.
As it happens, many Americans (aka 'them funny-talking Easterners', aka 'Liberals') agree with the Russians.
Here's an example of that attitude, snidely insinuated in this June 17, 2014 article in WAPO.
(H/T: Gunwire.com)
Where gun stores outnumber museums and libraries - The Washington Post:
Completely ignoring the demographics of the crowded Colony States as compared to states which have more room between people and more of them live in rural areas, the implication is Conservatives (most of whom don't live in DC or NYC or Boston or ... whatever megalopolis one might choose to name) really have little interest in either museums for the culture, or libraries for the knowledge.
Which boils down to this: Conservatives are Nekulturny.
Hence, the map which displays the proportion of gun stores to museums and libraries.
Which can be quite dramatically demonstrated in the original article, which you might find especially interesting. If sometimes misleading. For example, in my small community of 40,000 (when the University has its usual 30,000+ students attending during the school year) there are three libraries and three museums. There are zero gun stores in this, the County Seat. However, there is one gun store in a nearby community of about 1,000 permanent population, which has two museums and one library.
However, I do live in Oregon, and ...
Folks don't 'go to town' all that often. But what they can do is step outside their door and hunt or plink at targets any time they want to, and the neighbors won't call the police in blind panic at the sound of gunfire because ... "Hey Maybelle ... sounds like Hank is practing for that SAS match over at Bend next weekend".
Don't mess with Oregon.
Only Americans have been charged of this on Wiki. Please explain this prejudice instead of indulging in DisagreeByDeleting.At the least, please don't deprive us curious Americans of the opportunity to learn a few Russian words.In Russian, it would be nekulturnyj amerikanec, Nekulturny American is Slovak.
As it happens, many Americans (aka 'them funny-talking Easterners', aka 'Liberals') agree with the Russians.
Here's an example of that attitude, snidely insinuated in this June 17, 2014 article in WAPO.
(H/T: Gunwire.com)
Where gun stores outnumber museums and libraries - The Washington Post:
Just last week, a Pew Research Center survey found that liberals are much more attached to their museums than conservatives are: 73 percent of "consistently liberal" Americans say that being near museums and theaters is an important factor in choosing where to live. Only 23 percent of consistently conservative Americans say the same.
Considering that divide, I thought it might be useful to map museums and libraries against an institution that conservatives might be more fond of: gun stores. The inspiration here was Nathan Yau's recent map of where bars outnumber grocery stores. I took the IMLS' museum counts from last week and added to their count of libraries. The idea here is that museums and libraries play similar roles, as institutions of informal learning where students and adults can go to learn more about their communities and the world around them.
Completely ignoring the demographics of the crowded Colony States as compared to states which have more room between people and more of them live in rural areas, the implication is Conservatives (most of whom don't live in DC or NYC or Boston or ... whatever megalopolis one might choose to name) really have little interest in either museums for the culture, or libraries for the knowledge.
Which boils down to this: Conservatives are Nekulturny.
Hence, the map which displays the proportion of gun stores to museums and libraries.
Which can be quite dramatically demonstrated in the original article, which you might find especially interesting. If sometimes misleading. For example, in my small community of 40,000 (when the University has its usual 30,000+ students attending during the school year) there are three libraries and three museums. There are zero gun stores in this, the County Seat. However, there is one gun store in a nearby community of about 1,000 permanent population, which has two museums and one library.
However, I do live in Oregon, and ...
But the most gun-heavy county is in Oregon.Hmmm .... Deschutes County. Located dead center in Oregon. Elevation 3600 feet, annual rainfall TWELVE INCHES; it's high desert country. They have four towns and a bunch of ranches. Population in 2011 less than 160,000 spread over 3000 square miles about 55 people per square mile. There are only four incorporated towns in the entire county. Industries? Tourism and Timber. Culture? One museum, and at least one library.
Gun stores outnumber museums and libraries by nearly seven-to-one in Deschutes County, Ore., giving it the most lopsided ratio in favor of gun stores among counties with at least 10 of each.
Folks don't 'go to town' all that often. But what they can do is step outside their door and hunt or plink at targets any time they want to, and the neighbors won't call the police in blind panic at the sound of gunfire because ... "Hey Maybelle ... sounds like Hank is practing for that SAS match over at Bend next weekend".
Keep in mind that these two quantities aren't diametrically opposed— there's no reason you can't be a fan of both guns and museums (there is in fact a National Firearms Museum run by the NRA in Fairfax, VA.). But viewed in relation to each other guns and museums give some sense of a community's values. As my colleague Emily Badger wrote the other day, we live in places that reflect our values, and many of us are sorting ourselves into communities that share our political views.Yes, Mister Wonkette. We Oregonian may be nekulturny, but at least we're not condescending snots.
Don't mess with Oregon.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
America's Funniest IPSC Videos
"Americans love a winner, and they will not abide a loser"
So said George S. Patton, at least as he was portrayed in the 1970 movie "Patton".
IPSC competition is a little different.
We don't typify a "loser" as everyone else who doesn't win his/her match, division or class. "Winning is nice" .... but we don't care that much when our friends are concerned.
What we love is someone who runs through a stage and exceeds all expectations. They may win First Place, Second Place, or actually win nothing at all. But when a shooter has an exceedingly good run, those of us who know them and how they usually shoot are joyous if only because they have done 'better that usual:.
Here are three videos from several (okay, 6) years ago which are among my favorites.
First is my favorite lady shooter; SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) Smith. The title of the video (Witchy Woman) says it all:
*Yes, I have posted this video here before ...and I probably will again. I trashed this stage, but She .. with a borrowed gun, did just fine. Besides, I loved to watch her shoot.*
Nest is a Junior shooter "Stephan" addressing the challenge of a "Surprise Stage" in the jungles of Dundee. He didn't win anything ... came in rather low in the "Croc Match" (a high-round-count match) in fact. But he rocked his world on this stage, and my friends who were the husband-and-wife team who set up and officiated at this stage counted it among their own personal favorites:
Finally, the man who actually won a very difficult stage in the same Croc Match, Yon Lee showed us how well he could perform by literally dancing through an up-and-back stage.
I'm hoping that someone will watch these videos, and will be encouraged to try IPSC/USPSA competition themselves. It's a great way to meet new friends who like to shoot pistols as much as you do. And, as a bonus .. there will come a time when you do one stage exactly right. With a little bit of luck, someone will be there with a camera to record your triumph.
Or .. you may never win a stage in your entire life.
But you will have a helluva lot of fun!
So said George S. Patton, at least as he was portrayed in the 1970 movie "Patton".
IPSC competition is a little different.
We don't typify a "loser" as everyone else who doesn't win his/her match, division or class. "Winning is nice" .... but we don't care that much when our friends are concerned.
What we love is someone who runs through a stage and exceeds all expectations. They may win First Place, Second Place, or actually win nothing at all. But when a shooter has an exceedingly good run, those of us who know them and how they usually shoot are joyous if only because they have done 'better that usual:.
Here are three videos from several (okay, 6) years ago which are among my favorites.
First is my favorite lady shooter; SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) Smith. The title of the video (Witchy Woman) says it all:
*Yes, I have posted this video here before ...and I probably will again. I trashed this stage, but She .. with a borrowed gun, did just fine. Besides, I loved to watch her shoot.*
Nest is a Junior shooter "Stephan" addressing the challenge of a "Surprise Stage" in the jungles of Dundee. He didn't win anything ... came in rather low in the "Croc Match" (a high-round-count match) in fact. But he rocked his world on this stage, and my friends who were the husband-and-wife team who set up and officiated at this stage counted it among their own personal favorites:
Finally, the man who actually won a very difficult stage in the same Croc Match, Yon Lee showed us how well he could perform by literally dancing through an up-and-back stage.
I'm hoping that someone will watch these videos, and will be encouraged to try IPSC/USPSA competition themselves. It's a great way to meet new friends who like to shoot pistols as much as you do. And, as a bonus .. there will come a time when you do one stage exactly right. With a little bit of luck, someone will be there with a camera to record your triumph.
Or .. you may never win a stage in your entire life.
But you will have a helluva lot of fun!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Unsolicited Advice
LAST weekend (September 11, 2010) I managed to make it to a USPSA match and shot the whole thing! This is my goal at all matches, of course, but you may recall that at the Monster Match the weekend before, I only competed in the first day of the two-day match.
In itself, this match is not particularly exceptional. It was a great club match, I had many (too many!) stages where I almost did it right, I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed shooting with some good people.
But this is what I have learned to expect from a match. Just enough mistakes to keep me from looking like I know what I am doing, and the company of good people making it worth the effort and expense of, basically, "showing up".
I did take a lot of time taking pictures, which is another thing I enjoy.
Well, no. I don't like taking pictures all of the time, because I would rather just watch folks shoot as other people do .. with the naked eye. Trying to film as much as I can is a great distraction, and I only do it for a couple of different reasons.
First, because it I can later give the edited films to the people who are shooting with me on that day, and second because it gives me video to include in the articles I write here.
The first reason is the real purpose.
I learned a long time ago that people don't object to me filming them, even when they screw up because it gives them the opportunity to critically review their own performance.
My own experience, when someone has video-taped my stage runs, is that I can not only see what I did wrong, but I can also see what I do right. That helps me understand both my weaknesses and my strengths, so when I am walking through a stage in the future, I can choose the best way to shoot it by determining whether I can capitalize on my strengths.
And of course, it also shows me the things I need to practice.
As if I ever practice.
One of the better events in this match is that I was squadded with some people who were students at the "Introduction to USPSA" class which I teach.
This is a 3-hour course (often extended for the convenience of the students) which attempts to teach folks who have not competed in USPSA matches what they need to do. We not only teach safety rules, we also teach etiquette, the rules of competition, and what can help your performance. And we strive to make every new shooter the rules of safety, and all of the ways in which they can avoid to violating those rules.
At this match, I was pleased to learn that I had been squadded with several people who had taken that course. They are all good folks, and I like them. So I was especially gratified to see what they had learned after having taken the course, and then getting a couple of matches under their belts.
It's not easy to get started in Practical Shooting, and I've learned that they will often make mistakes .. but they rarely violate the safety rules. At least, those who are obviously paying attention learn that.
Yes, I got to matches with, and I squad with, the people that I teach. I've learned that they have enough problems with just becoming comfortable to the competitive environment. They don't need someone offering unsolicited advice. They will learn to dope out the best way to shoot a stage sooner or later. The important thing is that they shoot safely. All of the other stuff won't be learned until they mess up a stage or two. Or more.
So I don't offer advice. When they want it, they know they can ask. Usually, they don't ask. They want to make this sport their own, or they don't want to continue competing.
All they want, is to shoot. Eventually they will learn ways to shoot which make them more competitive, but the best thing to do is to just ... let them shoot.
Sometime during every class, I make this point to the students:
Usually, unsolicited advice is an annoyance at best, and insulting at worst.
The moral of the story is, if you are one of those "more experienced shooters", you should be reluctant to offer unsolicited advise. Whatever you say will probably be right, but as long as it is not a safety issue, or a clarification of the rules (which they have violated, or might have come very close to violating), the kindest thing you could say to them is "Good job! You shot the stage safely."
I'm sure glad I got that of my chest, and thank you for listening to my unsolicited advice.
Now, I'm including a video from the last ARPC club match, featuring two shooters who have only a few matches experience. I've already sent this video to them, but I want to include it here to show that even relatively 'raw' shooters can do just fine in competition. They may do some things that you think you could help them to do better, but I think it's a really good idea to treat them with the same courtesy and thoughtfulness that you expect others to extend to you.
In other words, consider not bothering them while they're finding their own best way though the competitive jungle.
If I need to be more clear: just shut up and let them rock!
In itself, this match is not particularly exceptional. It was a great club match, I had many (too many!) stages where I almost did it right, I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed shooting with some good people.
But this is what I have learned to expect from a match. Just enough mistakes to keep me from looking like I know what I am doing, and the company of good people making it worth the effort and expense of, basically, "showing up".
I did take a lot of time taking pictures, which is another thing I enjoy.
Well, no. I don't like taking pictures all of the time, because I would rather just watch folks shoot as other people do .. with the naked eye. Trying to film as much as I can is a great distraction, and I only do it for a couple of different reasons.
First, because it I can later give the edited films to the people who are shooting with me on that day, and second because it gives me video to include in the articles I write here.
The first reason is the real purpose.
I learned a long time ago that people don't object to me filming them, even when they screw up because it gives them the opportunity to critically review their own performance.
My own experience, when someone has video-taped my stage runs, is that I can not only see what I did wrong, but I can also see what I do right. That helps me understand both my weaknesses and my strengths, so when I am walking through a stage in the future, I can choose the best way to shoot it by determining whether I can capitalize on my strengths.
And of course, it also shows me the things I need to practice.
As if I ever practice.
One of the better events in this match is that I was squadded with some people who were students at the "Introduction to USPSA" class which I teach.
This is a 3-hour course (often extended for the convenience of the students) which attempts to teach folks who have not competed in USPSA matches what they need to do. We not only teach safety rules, we also teach etiquette, the rules of competition, and what can help your performance. And we strive to make every new shooter the rules of safety, and all of the ways in which they can avoid to violating those rules.
At this match, I was pleased to learn that I had been squadded with several people who had taken that course. They are all good folks, and I like them. So I was especially gratified to see what they had learned after having taken the course, and then getting a couple of matches under their belts.
It's not easy to get started in Practical Shooting, and I've learned that they will often make mistakes .. but they rarely violate the safety rules. At least, those who are obviously paying attention learn that.
Yes, I got to matches with, and I squad with, the people that I teach. I've learned that they have enough problems with just becoming comfortable to the competitive environment. They don't need someone offering unsolicited advice. They will learn to dope out the best way to shoot a stage sooner or later. The important thing is that they shoot safely. All of the other stuff won't be learned until they mess up a stage or two. Or more.
So I don't offer advice. When they want it, they know they can ask. Usually, they don't ask. They want to make this sport their own, or they don't want to continue competing.
All they want, is to shoot. Eventually they will learn ways to shoot which make them more competitive, but the best thing to do is to just ... let them shoot.
Sometime during every class, I make this point to the students:
"When you go to your first class, you need to make it clear to your squad that you are a New Shooter. If asked, they will put your scorecard down at the bottom. That's good, you are new at this and you need to 'go to school' on more experienced shooters.
And sooner or later, one of the more experienced shooters will offer you advice. You should listen to them carefully, smile, and thank them for the advice. Then just go shoot the stage they way that seems best to you."
Usually, unsolicited advice is an annoyance at best, and insulting at worst.
The moral of the story is, if you are one of those "more experienced shooters", you should be reluctant to offer unsolicited advise. Whatever you say will probably be right, but as long as it is not a safety issue, or a clarification of the rules (which they have violated, or might have come very close to violating), the kindest thing you could say to them is "Good job! You shot the stage safely."
I'm sure glad I got that of my chest, and thank you for listening to my unsolicited advice.
Now, I'm including a video from the last ARPC club match, featuring two shooters who have only a few matches experience. I've already sent this video to them, but I want to include it here to show that even relatively 'raw' shooters can do just fine in competition. They may do some things that you think you could help them to do better, but I think it's a really good idea to treat them with the same courtesy and thoughtfulness that you expect others to extend to you.
In other words, consider not bothering them while they're finding their own best way though the competitive jungle.
If I need to be more clear: just shut up and let them rock!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
ARPC in April, 2010
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.)
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.)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Memory Lane - November, 2007 at ARPC
It's Saturday Night, and I'm suppose to be resetting my Dillon XL650 to load .38 Super ammunition. Instead, I'm looking at old videos from IPSC matches past.
I haven't had the pleasure of watching SWMBO shoot for a long time, even longer than I've been shooting in Open Division. Tonite, I'm going to do both. Virtually speaking, of course.
This first video shows SWMBO and John M, when they were both in better health. There is no question that both John and SWMBO are having a good time. Do you realize how difficult it is to shoot well when you're laughing like a crazy woman?
And how often do you see a competitor who is having so much down-home FUN that she grins while she's shooting?
Not very often, and not lately.
The Second Video shows two different approaches to Stage 2 ... the last stage in the match for this squad. It's a very well designed stage, free-form and "shoot 'em as you see 'em". There are as many ways to shoot it as there are people to run the stage.
This third and final video shows SWMBO as she shoots Stage 2. She's doing a great job, but loses track of her ammunition management priorities and ... well, just watch.
Okay, so she made just one tiny mistake. But she sure had fun shooting it! And was she daunted by adding another few seconds to her stage time?
You tell me.
Sometimes, when we're competing at an IPSC match, we become so goal-oriented that we forget what we're there for.
SWMBO never forgets ... she's there to be with her friends and to have a good time. Sure, we're trying to practice our skills and to train for the hypothetical "Big Matches", which are much more demanding. But how many of us expect to compete in -- and win -- a Major Match?
I think SWMBO has the right idea. She always loves the people and the play of competitive shooting.
I've never seen a Grand Master enjoy a day at the range more than SWMBO. Who is to say she's wrong?
Not me!
I haven't had the pleasure of watching SWMBO shoot for a long time, even longer than I've been shooting in Open Division. Tonite, I'm going to do both. Virtually speaking, of course.
This first video shows SWMBO and John M, when they were both in better health. There is no question that both John and SWMBO are having a good time. Do you realize how difficult it is to shoot well when you're laughing like a crazy woman?
And how often do you see a competitor who is having so much down-home FUN that she grins while she's shooting?
Not very often, and not lately.
The Second Video shows two different approaches to Stage 2 ... the last stage in the match for this squad. It's a very well designed stage, free-form and "shoot 'em as you see 'em". There are as many ways to shoot it as there are people to run the stage.
This third and final video shows SWMBO as she shoots Stage 2. She's doing a great job, but loses track of her ammunition management priorities and ... well, just watch.
Okay, so she made just one tiny mistake. But she sure had fun shooting it! And was she daunted by adding another few seconds to her stage time?
You tell me.
Sometimes, when we're competing at an IPSC match, we become so goal-oriented that we forget what we're there for.
SWMBO never forgets ... she's there to be with her friends and to have a good time. Sure, we're trying to practice our skills and to train for the hypothetical "Big Matches", which are much more demanding. But how many of us expect to compete in -- and win -- a Major Match?
I think SWMBO has the right idea. She always loves the people and the play of competitive shooting.
I've never seen a Grand Master enjoy a day at the range more than SWMBO. Who is to say she's wrong?
Not me!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Looking for a new Digital Camera
My HP R967 camera has bit the dust. Died. Given up. Failed to Function.
Whatever description you choose, it is no longer usable. The battery latch mechanism is no longer functional, and it just doesn't work.
This is the third HP camera which I have bought, but which broke for one reason or another.
My first HP (R767) was made unusable by my carrying it in my hip pocket on an extremely hot day. The display screen was electronically (though not physically ... I think) shattered. The viewfinder still works, but I can't see the image I'm recording. Well, it was unable to capture high-density photos .... every picture I took came out a little grainy, and the color was distorted toward the blue end of the spectrum.
The second HP (R867) was drenched when a bottle of water was dumped in the camera bag ... in which the camera was being carried ... during the 2007 Croc Match. After I dried it out, I discovered that videos are all captured in a 'reverse color' format.
This third HP (R967) will no longer hold the battery in place. I can't do a thing with it, it's totally dysfunctional. Too bad; it had some features which I liked (including the ability to zoom while recording videos).
I've wasted a lot of time searching for a replacement compact digital camera on the Internet, and in desperation I'm asking my readers if they can recommend a replacement. It's no good looking for a new camera from Hewlett-Packard. Apparently, HP no longer makes or sells digital cameras of any description.
Here's a list of the features I'm looking for:t
Bottom line: I want a compact digital camera with both still and video (with sound) capabilities that I can afford and will give me some unique options when filming videos.
In other words, I want my old camera, but I can't find one. If you own, or know of a camera which fits all of these criteria, I hope you will let me know.
_____________________________________
UPDATE:
I finally found one on AMAZON - another used HP R967 for under $200. I bought it.
But I'm still disenchanted with HP Digital Cameras. I've gone through too many to be phlegmatic about their durability, and I would rather have something that is a but more robust. This new/used R967 is only a stopgap.
The request still stands: if you are aware of a compact digital camera with the capabilities I've described, please let me know.
I really want a good camera for taking pictures of USPSA matches.
____________________________________
Whatever description you choose, it is no longer usable. The battery latch mechanism is no longer functional, and it just doesn't work.
This is the third HP camera which I have bought, but which broke for one reason or another.
My first HP (R767) was made unusable by my carrying it in my hip pocket on an extremely hot day. The display screen was electronically (though not physically ... I think) shattered. The viewfinder still works, but I can't see the image I'm recording. Well, it was unable to capture high-density photos .... every picture I took came out a little grainy, and the color was distorted toward the blue end of the spectrum.
The second HP (R867) was drenched when a bottle of water was dumped in the camera bag ... in which the camera was being carried ... during the 2007 Croc Match. After I dried it out, I discovered that videos are all captured in a 'reverse color' format.
This third HP (R967) will no longer hold the battery in place. I can't do a thing with it, it's totally dysfunctional. Too bad; it had some features which I liked (including the ability to zoom while recording videos).
I've wasted a lot of time searching for a replacement compact digital camera on the Internet, and in desperation I'm asking my readers if they can recommend a replacement. It's no good looking for a new camera from Hewlett-Packard. Apparently, HP no longer makes or sells digital cameras of any description.
Here's a list of the features I'm looking for:t
- Must not only take still pictures (preferably 10-12 MP density), but also be capable of recording video (motion) with sound.
- Must record videos in MP3 or similar format; I don't want QuickTime videos.
- Price Range: under $400.
- Must be able to zoom while recording Video .
- LCD (or similar) display should be over 2"; would prefer to also have a view-finder but this is not a deal-breaker.
- Still photo options must include delay, should include burst, and should include date/timestamping.
- I don't care much about "face recognition technology", but it should be able to shoot into the sun without color distortion.
- Should have a 'sports' or other stop-motion "high-speed capability to take still photos without blurring the image.
- Highly prefer SD-chip memory capability; I have several of them and replacement, while becoming increasingly inexpensive, would be inconvenient. I already have a battery recharger which is designed for this kind of flat battery. (I would include photos if I had a working camera.)
- Highly prefer "HP R07" rechargeable battery type, because I have several and spare batteries are expensive.
- Zoom lens is, of course, a 'given'.
Bottom line: I want a compact digital camera with both still and video (with sound) capabilities that I can afford and will give me some unique options when filming videos.
In other words, I want my old camera, but I can't find one. If you own, or know of a camera which fits all of these criteria, I hope you will let me know.
_____________________________________
UPDATE:
I finally found one on AMAZON - another used HP R967 for under $200. I bought it.
But I'm still disenchanted with HP Digital Cameras. I've gone through too many to be phlegmatic about their durability, and I would rather have something that is a but more robust. This new/used R967 is only a stopgap.
The request still stands: if you are aware of a compact digital camera with the capabilities I've described, please let me know.
I really want a good camera for taking pictures of USPSA matches.
____________________________________
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Norm!
Portland, Oregon KPTV News on USPSA/IPSC shooting competiton
Dated October 25, 2009, the web-article features People That I know! Norm and (son) Zack Bright, Dave and (daughter) Beck Sirea, show viewers how exciting it is to shoot Practical Pistol competition in the sun.
Just the introduction of a video featuring sunshine and outdoor activities without rain is News here in the Great Pacific NorthWet, and this video has lots of sunshine and shooting.
Emphasis on the family, emphasis on the sheer joy of shooting competitively -- Run & Gun is definitely Good News for us all.
We don't have the download available, so go to the link and watch it for yourself.
We're fortunate to have such photogenic people representing Practical Pistol. More important, it's obvious that they're having fun shooting "Race Guns" beside other handguns which are not as exotic in a fun, family-oriented shooting sport.
I strongly encourage you to go look at the article, and view the video. Heavy traffic on a commercial website (especially here in Blue State Oregon) is probably one of the best ways to demonstrate to the Main Stream Media that we "Support The Sport."
H/T: USPSA
UPDATE:
Also linked through USPSA, a video article about GM Jimmy Reed from Texas
Take a look at a sport that combines target shooting with an obstacle course.It may not be "New news" to us, but Portland (Oregon) television station KPTV has a portrait of USPSA competition up on their website.
Dated October 25, 2009, the web-article features People That I know! Norm and (son) Zack Bright, Dave and (daughter) Beck Sirea, show viewers how exciting it is to shoot Practical Pistol competition in the sun.
Just the introduction of a video featuring sunshine and outdoor activities without rain is News here in the Great Pacific NorthWet, and this video has lots of sunshine and shooting.
Emphasis on the family, emphasis on the sheer joy of shooting competitively -- Run & Gun is definitely Good News for us all.
We don't have the download available, so go to the link and watch it for yourself.
We're fortunate to have such photogenic people representing Practical Pistol. More important, it's obvious that they're having fun shooting "Race Guns" beside other handguns which are not as exotic in a fun, family-oriented shooting sport.
I strongly encourage you to go look at the article, and view the video. Heavy traffic on a commercial website (especially here in Blue State Oregon) is probably one of the best ways to demonstrate to the Main Stream Media that we "Support The Sport."
H/T: USPSA
UPDATE:
Also linked through USPSA, a video article about GM Jimmy Reed from Texas
Monday, October 12, 2009
ARPC October 2009 match: "Thinking 3's"
It was ... nice, getting to a Practical Pistol match when I've missed so many in the past year. The Albany Rifle & Pistol club is about 20 minutes from SWMBO's house, and I arrived before 8am. I was the first shooter to sign in, so I was #1 on the squad sign-in sheet.
That was the first and last time I was #1 at the match.
I had only about 80 rounds of 10mm ammunition to feed the STI Edge GeekGun, so I didnt expect to compete in all the stages. As it turned out, I could only shoot 3 stages before I ended my personal match experience with only eight rounds remaining. The other 3 of 6 stages, I just worked as Range Officer for the squad. I didn't really mind, though. The important thing was being at the match actually participating, and allowing myself to just let the cares of the week float away while I enjoyed the thrill of "Gunsmoke In The Morning".
(Match Scores may be found here.)
As it turned out, I was squadded with the few members of "The Usual Suspects" who still competed on a semi-regular basis: The Hobo Brasser, Whitefish, and Higgie. AJ and KJ no longer show up at matches, Norm and Harold the Barbarian were also conspicuous by their absence. SWMBO is of course, not physically able to shoot because DAMN she has to wear the Oxygen Tank on her back and hasn't the strength to move smartly between shooting locations.
So this was All About Me, and I was content to shoot a few stages, work the rest, and enjoy the company of friends.
Match Director Mike McCarter was his usual devious self; he designed some stages which challenged each and every shooter to steer clear of the Rocks and Shoals of tiny steel targets, targets at long distances, and targets bordered by white "Penalty/No-Shoot" targets. I, personally, tripped up on every challenge, even though I only shot half of the stages.
One of the most challenging stages was "Thinking 3's".
This stage was rigidly constrained by vision barriers which offered the competitor to engage targets at any of five shooting locations. The bad part was that only a few targets were clearly visible from each shooting location. The Good News was that, perhaps due to an oversight or an error in stage construction, it was marginally possible for all targets to be engaged from three shooting locations ... the three the most-uprange .
The bad news was that if you lost track of what targets you had engaged, you were forced to move to more than three shooting locations. Also, the far-right target could be engaged from the near left shooting location, but it was a test of both balance and luck to actually hit the target from that location.
Also, just to make it "more fun", Mac set up the stage so that you had to over-extend your to engage the target. I fell into that trap, because I was so severely off-balance in attempting to engage this target, I was only able to actually hit the target on one of the three shots I attempted.
I realize this sounds terribly obtuse. Fortunately, I have a video showing three shooters on this stage, in cluding one who neglected to shoot is plan. It's worthwhile to note that al three outshot me.
Here's how it looked:
__________________________________
UPDATE: 13-OCT-2009
Evil Bill found a way to shoot the stage from TWO boxes, not three. It appears that the far-left target array, AND the near-left target array (behind stacked barrels) could be engaged from the center shooting location.
What a great way to game the stage!
In the actual event, the need to do multiple reloads (Evil Bill was shooting Single Stack Division ... no more than 8 rounds per magazine) may have slightly undermined the advantage of engaging the last two targets from the center, especially if only D-zone hits were possible. We can't see what the targets looked like from there.
But the point is that it was possible to engage the with a limited amount of movement, and the rest of us (at least in the two squads that I watched) never even noticed the possibility.
That's what makes this sport great. Almost 70 people walked through that stage, and shot it, without noticing that there was a way to minimize movement.
When I teach the Introduction to USPSA class (shooter certification), I emphasize that there are two ways to shoot a stage quickly: strive for accuracy, taken enough time to hit the targets without having to waste time making up misses; and eliminating time spent in unnecessary movement. Evil Bill is one competitor who has obviously learned this lesson well.
____________________________________________________
UPDATE: 14-OCT-2009
Is this The Blog From Hell? I can't go a day without posting another video version of this stage.
I love it!
"Yawn" chipped in with a comment asserting that he visited FOUR of the five possible shooting locations on this stage, and did just fine thank-you-very-much. And it's true, he did. (Video below, see the comments for the link.)
This video included all of the stages in the match. He often videos as many of the stages as he can and then posts them all together on YouTube, for which we-thank-him-very-much.
Looking at the video, you can see that Yawn has identified his shooting strength is speed in movement. Those who claim that "experience and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time" are referred to another viewing of the video.
Not only does he move quickly and expeditiously from one shooting position to another, he has obviously scoped out every stage so he knows exactly where to go and when, for the most efficient solution to the shooting problem. Note that he performs beyond his15-months shooting experience in such matters of knowing when to reload without loss of time. (True, it doesn't always work out perfectly, but it saves him time more often than it does not -- and who among us can claim to perform more reliably?)
As a side note, I think it's a matter of integrity and honesty that he also includes the full video of his first stage, "Ba-da-Bing" in which he suffered an embarrassing "Failure To Feed" jam. Stuff happens to all of us, and I suspect that he cleared the jam as quickly as possible; there was a small glitch with his reload, but he covered most of it by doing a reload on the move between shooting ports. Jams do tend to rattle us for a few seconds, because when you are wired into your plan, it takes a while to get back into The Zone.
Here are the stages in the order he shot them, and the high-points of his performance:
Oh, and when you watch this video, turn your speakers UP. The background scoring reminds me of the introductory scene in "Zulu" (one of the finest reenactments of a military action ever filmed).
Not bad for "C" Limited.
Someone should mention this, so I will: Yawn was StatsMaster at the match. He did all the sign up, all the EZScore crap, and all the data entry of the scores. And he drove around the range picking up the stage score-sheets. He shot the stages between sessions of statistical work. Not all of us can switch from desk-work to performance shooting so seamlessly.
That was the first and last time I was #1 at the match.
I had only about 80 rounds of 10mm ammunition to feed the STI Edge GeekGun, so I didnt expect to compete in all the stages. As it turned out, I could only shoot 3 stages before I ended my personal match experience with only eight rounds remaining. The other 3 of 6 stages, I just worked as Range Officer for the squad. I didn't really mind, though. The important thing was being at the match actually participating, and allowing myself to just let the cares of the week float away while I enjoyed the thrill of "Gunsmoke In The Morning".
(Match Scores may be found here.)
As it turned out, I was squadded with the few members of "The Usual Suspects" who still competed on a semi-regular basis: The Hobo Brasser, Whitefish, and Higgie. AJ and KJ no longer show up at matches, Norm and Harold the Barbarian were also conspicuous by their absence. SWMBO is of course, not physically able to shoot because DAMN she has to wear the Oxygen Tank on her back and hasn't the strength to move smartly between shooting locations.
So this was All About Me, and I was content to shoot a few stages, work the rest, and enjoy the company of friends.
Match Director Mike McCarter was his usual devious self; he designed some stages which challenged each and every shooter to steer clear of the Rocks and Shoals of tiny steel targets, targets at long distances, and targets bordered by white "Penalty/No-Shoot" targets. I, personally, tripped up on every challenge, even though I only shot half of the stages.
One of the most challenging stages was "Thinking 3's".
This stage was rigidly constrained by vision barriers which offered the competitor to engage targets at any of five shooting locations. The bad part was that only a few targets were clearly visible from each shooting location. The Good News was that, perhaps due to an oversight or an error in stage construction, it was marginally possible for all targets to be engaged from three shooting locations ... the three the most-uprange .
The bad news was that if you lost track of what targets you had engaged, you were forced to move to more than three shooting locations. Also, the far-right target could be engaged from the near left shooting location, but it was a test of both balance and luck to actually hit the target from that location.
Also, just to make it "more fun", Mac set up the stage so that you had to over-extend your to engage the target. I fell into that trap, because I was so severely off-balance in attempting to engage this target, I was only able to actually hit the target on one of the three shots I attempted.
I realize this sounds terribly obtuse. Fortunately, I have a video showing three shooters on this stage, in cluding one who neglected to shoot is plan. It's worthwhile to note that al three outshot me.
Here's how it looked:
__________________________________
UPDATE: 13-OCT-2009
Evil Bill found a way to shoot the stage from TWO boxes, not three. It appears that the far-left target array, AND the near-left target array (behind stacked barrels) could be engaged from the center shooting location.
What a great way to game the stage!
In the actual event, the need to do multiple reloads (Evil Bill was shooting Single Stack Division ... no more than 8 rounds per magazine) may have slightly undermined the advantage of engaging the last two targets from the center, especially if only D-zone hits were possible. We can't see what the targets looked like from there.
But the point is that it was possible to engage the with a limited amount of movement, and the rest of us (at least in the two squads that I watched) never even noticed the possibility.
That's what makes this sport great. Almost 70 people walked through that stage, and shot it, without noticing that there was a way to minimize movement.
When I teach the Introduction to USPSA class (shooter certification), I emphasize that there are two ways to shoot a stage quickly: strive for accuracy, taken enough time to hit the targets without having to waste time making up misses; and eliminating time spent in unnecessary movement. Evil Bill is one competitor who has obviously learned this lesson well.
____________________________________________________
UPDATE: 14-OCT-2009
Is this The Blog From Hell? I can't go a day without posting another video version of this stage.
I love it!
"Yawn" chipped in with a comment asserting that he visited FOUR of the five possible shooting locations on this stage, and did just fine thank-you-very-much. And it's true, he did. (Video below, see the comments for the link.)
This video included all of the stages in the match. He often videos as many of the stages as he can and then posts them all together on YouTube, for which we-thank-him-very-much.
Looking at the video, you can see that Yawn has identified his shooting strength is speed in movement. Those who claim that "experience and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time" are referred to another viewing of the video.
Not only does he move quickly and expeditiously from one shooting position to another, he has obviously scoped out every stage so he knows exactly where to go and when, for the most efficient solution to the shooting problem. Note that he performs beyond his15-months shooting experience in such matters of knowing when to reload without loss of time. (True, it doesn't always work out perfectly, but it saves him time more often than it does not -- and who among us can claim to perform more reliably?)
As a side note, I think it's a matter of integrity and honesty that he also includes the full video of his first stage, "Ba-da-Bing" in which he suffered an embarrassing "Failure To Feed" jam. Stuff happens to all of us, and I suspect that he cleared the jam as quickly as possible; there was a small glitch with his reload, but he covered most of it by doing a reload on the move between shooting ports. Jams do tend to rattle us for a few seconds, because when you are wired into your plan, it takes a while to get back into The Zone.
Here are the stages in the order he shot them, and the high-points of his performance:
- Ba-da-Bing - recovery from a jam
- Thinking 3's - quick movement
- Guard Run - literally thinking outside the box and ammo management
- Drum Line - masterly performance on a Memory Stage; great prior planning, and an excellent reload
- 4 Bill Drill - great courage on a sucky Classifier stage
- Double Up - excellent example of "Driving The Gun"
Oh, and when you watch this video, turn your speakers UP. The background scoring reminds me of the introductory scene in "Zulu" (one of the finest reenactments of a military action ever filmed).
Not bad for "C" Limited.
Someone should mention this, so I will: Yawn was StatsMaster at the match. He did all the sign up, all the EZScore crap, and all the data entry of the scores. And he drove around the range picking up the stage score-sheets. He shot the stages between sessions of statistical work. Not all of us can switch from desk-work to performance shooting so seamlessly.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Dundee July 2009 (Stage 4): "Made in the Shade"
The Jungle Run is particularly difficult to film. At the July Dundee club match, I only got one small video clip, which faded out when the camera was unable to focus on the action.
It seems only fitting that this discontinuous video reflect the audio clip from Wolfman Jack's on-air dialogue with a 13-year-old listener.
Ten IPSC targets, 3 steel at the end, The Hobo Brasser runs in the jungle ... no YouTube version available here..
.
It seems only fitting that this discontinuous video reflect the audio clip from Wolfman Jack's on-air dialogue with a 13-year-old listener.
Ten IPSC targets, 3 steel at the end, The Hobo Brasser runs in the jungle ... no YouTube version available here..
.
Dundee July 2009 (Stage 5): V2
The fifth stage of the July, 2009 DUNDEE club match provided lots of ways to err, but most of the competitors handled the shooting problem with a minimum of urps.
There were 4 IPSC "Classic" targets, overlayed with no-shoot "penalty targets", on either side of a stacked-barrel barrier. The stage was symmentrical, each side providing the Classic Target arrays, plus steel "Pepper" targets cunningly arrayed so that the competitor couldn't see a Popper until he/she downed the target in front of it.
Pepper Popper, US Popper. Pepper Popper, US Popper. That was the game plan, but many shooters took the larger "Pepper Poppers" first, to reveal the smaller (and usually farther away ... up to fifty feet) U.S. Poppers.
On this 24 round stage, I personally took the right side and then reloaded with another 17-round magazine, giving me a total of 18 rounds for the 8-round array. I ran out of ammo before I could take down the farthest US Popper and declined to reload to re-engage a small, far-away steel target which I had already shown myself unable to hit at that distance.
Others chose a different approach, and almost everyone beat me at that stage.
If I seem to belittle my squad-members in the accompanying video (available at YouTube here), that's misleading. If fact, most people on my squad performed much better than did I, and I was pleased to record their accomplishments on video.
Of course, I also recorded their faults. Perhaps it's that I have a mean streak, but more likely I wanted to depict the difficulties of this "Evil Bill" stage.
You can see this video on YouTube without the musical background here, but you can also view "the whole thing" (although you cannot download it) below.
There were 4 IPSC "Classic" targets, overlayed with no-shoot "penalty targets", on either side of a stacked-barrel barrier. The stage was symmentrical, each side providing the Classic Target arrays, plus steel "Pepper" targets cunningly arrayed so that the competitor couldn't see a Popper until he/she downed the target in front of it.
Pepper Popper, US Popper. Pepper Popper, US Popper. That was the game plan, but many shooters took the larger "Pepper Poppers" first, to reveal the smaller (and usually farther away ... up to fifty feet) U.S. Poppers.
On this 24 round stage, I personally took the right side and then reloaded with another 17-round magazine, giving me a total of 18 rounds for the 8-round array. I ran out of ammo before I could take down the farthest US Popper and declined to reload to re-engage a small, far-away steel target which I had already shown myself unable to hit at that distance.
Others chose a different approach, and almost everyone beat me at that stage.
If I seem to belittle my squad-members in the accompanying video (available at YouTube here), that's misleading. If fact, most people on my squad performed much better than did I, and I was pleased to record their accomplishments on video.
Of course, I also recorded their faults. Perhaps it's that I have a mean streak, but more likely I wanted to depict the difficulties of this "Evil Bill" stage.
You can see this video on YouTube without the musical background here, but you can also view "the whole thing" (although you cannot download it) below.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
2009 CCS Sectional
Here's something that we will really like.
The Columbia Cascade Section (Area 1) of USPSA held their Sectional Tournament last weekend. SWMBO and I were there for a couple of hours to see our friends off-range, and to watch them shoot on-range.
Here's a vignette of the action.
Bay 11 hosted two stages: first, "Smokin 2" which featured the Texas Star (with only 4 plates, to allow for maximum rounds per position and also made the Star target array ... which made it much easier to set up for the next shooter); and "A Little Fuzzy".
This last stage requires some explanation.
The orange "Snow Fence" soft-cover played heck with Open Shooters. When your sighting deice is a red dot, it tends to get lost in the haze. The only way to overcome this limitation is to turn your red-dot sight all the way up, to maximum intensity.
And yes, if you forget to turn your dot-sight on, you are totally scr3w3d!~
The two stages were intended to be engaged "Back to Back", so after completing 'Smokin 2' Jan turned off her electronic sight.
Much to her embarrassment, instead of waiting for the previous shooter to reshoot she was cycled as the next shooter. She had bagged her pistol, after turning off the dot-sight. When she was ushered up to the firing line instead of the reshoot, she forgot to turn on her sight,.
This may not have been a problem except for the unusual circumstances. She recovered quickly and expediently, turned the c-more sight rheostat up to Maximum Gain (eventually), and look good on video.
Her husband, Mark, didn't face such embarrassing limitations. He beat her on the stage, but if Jan hadn't been distracted, he may have taken 2nd best within their competitive Division.
(NB: I posted this video to YouTube, but I don't doubt that they silenced it because the musical accompaniment was 'non-standard'. No problem, below you can see the full video with all the music.)
By the way,it's worth noting here that the stage designs were of a quality which surpasses the run-of-the-mill "Club Match" stage designs. I understand that it's difficult for one man to conjure up Stage Designs for monthly matches AND create even more challenging stages for a Major Match. But Match Director Mac M. met and exceeded all expectations.
Thanks for a very good match, Mac, and those Happy Few who also provided stage designs for this Sectional Match.
Match Results may be found here.
The Columbia Cascade Section (Area 1) of USPSA held their Sectional Tournament last weekend. SWMBO and I were there for a couple of hours to see our friends off-range, and to watch them shoot on-range.
Here's a vignette of the action.
Bay 11 hosted two stages: first, "Smokin 2" which featured the Texas Star (with only 4 plates, to allow for maximum rounds per position and also made the Star target array ... which made it much easier to set up for the next shooter); and "A Little Fuzzy".
This last stage requires some explanation.
The orange "Snow Fence" soft-cover played heck with Open Shooters. When your sighting deice is a red dot, it tends to get lost in the haze. The only way to overcome this limitation is to turn your red-dot sight all the way up, to maximum intensity.
And yes, if you forget to turn your dot-sight on, you are totally scr3w3d!~
The two stages were intended to be engaged "Back to Back", so after completing 'Smokin 2' Jan turned off her electronic sight.
Much to her embarrassment, instead of waiting for the previous shooter to reshoot she was cycled as the next shooter. She had bagged her pistol, after turning off the dot-sight. When she was ushered up to the firing line instead of the reshoot, she forgot to turn on her sight,.
This may not have been a problem except for the unusual circumstances. She recovered quickly and expediently, turned the c-more sight rheostat up to Maximum Gain (eventually), and look good on video.
Her husband, Mark, didn't face such embarrassing limitations. He beat her on the stage, but if Jan hadn't been distracted, he may have taken 2nd best within their competitive Division.
(NB: I posted this video to YouTube, but I don't doubt that they silenced it because the musical accompaniment was 'non-standard'. No problem, below you can see the full video with all the music.)
By the way,it's worth noting here that the stage designs were of a quality which surpasses the run-of-the-mill "Club Match" stage designs. I understand that it's difficult for one man to conjure up Stage Designs for monthly matches AND create even more challenging stages for a Major Match. But Match Director Mac M. met and exceeded all expectations.
Thanks for a very good match, Mac, and those Happy Few who also provided stage designs for this Sectional Match.
Match Results may be found here.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Web Hosting with VODA
Last night I signed up for a new web-hosting service. Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, domain-name registration, unlimited email accounts under my own domain name, and of course I can build web-pages in my domain.
I doubt I'll soon find a need for all the services they sold me (at not that high a cost), but one thing is certain: I will finally have a place where I can put files on the internet for download by others.
You may have noticed last week that I have become ultimately disgusted with YouTube's policy of removing the sound track of videos if the videos include music which is not on their 'approved' list. (Their 'approved list' is elevator music, not appropriate to the kind of videos I like to build.)
Resisting the impulse to editorialize about how I use the music that I bought, overlaying the sounds of gunfire and range commands, I have been driven to this by the litigious efforts of the Music Industry.
This is a move forward, though, not a passive-aggressive attempt to complain about The Way Things Are.
I like to shoot, I like to make and share videos of people shooting. Within the next week I'll begin uploading scored videos of people shooting, and readers will be able to both see the videos in small format, and then download the full-size video for their own personal collections.
It will take a while before I get all the pieces together, and learn how to use the new software, but today I have more options than I had yesterday.
I think that is A Good Thing.
I doubt I'll soon find a need for all the services they sold me (at not that high a cost), but one thing is certain: I will finally have a place where I can put files on the internet for download by others.
You may have noticed last week that I have become ultimately disgusted with YouTube's policy of removing the sound track of videos if the videos include music which is not on their 'approved' list. (Their 'approved list' is elevator music, not appropriate to the kind of videos I like to build.)
Resisting the impulse to editorialize about how I use the music that I bought, overlaying the sounds of gunfire and range commands, I have been driven to this by the litigious efforts of the Music Industry.
This is a move forward, though, not a passive-aggressive attempt to complain about The Way Things Are.
I like to shoot, I like to make and share videos of people shooting. Within the next week I'll begin uploading scored videos of people shooting, and readers will be able to both see the videos in small format, and then download the full-size video for their own personal collections.
It will take a while before I get all the pieces together, and learn how to use the new software, but today I have more options than I had yesterday.
I think that is A Good Thing.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Dundee Crap Shoot
It's not easy to write about Tim's performance on Stage 6 of the June, 2009 Dundee Points Match.
He did everything right, and it looks good on video (youtube link here). He moved quickly from one shooting position to the next, even though the stage was deliberately designed to tempt the shooter to be hesitant during movement. He was accurate from each shooting position, showing no signs of being out-of-breath or otherwise impaired by his rapid movement between one side of the bay and the other.
Looking good, Tim!
Note that there were no attempts to add music to the video. Just as well, they would have silenced it anyway, the maroons can't avoid the suits presented by music producers.
He did everything right, and it looks good on video (youtube link here). He moved quickly from one shooting position to the next, even though the stage was deliberately designed to tempt the shooter to be hesitant during movement. He was accurate from each shooting position, showing no signs of being out-of-breath or otherwise impaired by his rapid movement between one side of the bay and the other.
Looking good, Tim!
Note that there were no attempts to add music to the video. Just as well, they would have silenced it anyway, the maroons can't avoid the suits presented by music producers.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
All Crossed Up
This is the story of five shooters who shot stage 5 ("All Crossed Up") at the June, 2009 Points Match at Dundee Oregon.
The stage itself was another sperm donation from Evil Bill.
Who else could include Classic "Amoeba Targets", Pepper Poppers, U.S. Poppers, small plates that "Pop Up" a shoot target, nearly as many penalty targets as shoot targets, arrays which could only be seen, let alone engaged, from the very furthest (real word, I looked it up) corner of the legal shooting box, fault lines and vision barriers and barrels, oh my!
All of that effort for Evil Bill to construct his demonic playground.
It's enough to say that the stage, while not exactly a 'memory stage', was enough to make strong men weep, women to batter their men, horses bolt in terror, and small children to have nightmares which will doubtless be passed via genetically damaged DNA unto the seventh generation.
In a word: I liked it.
Starting with an unloaded pistol lying flat ("no props!") on the table, fingers interlaced on top of your beanie, grab the gun and run ... loading the first mag as you go. Some of us managed this more gracefully than others, but when you got to the corner of the railroad-track shooting box, you were permitted to shoot a small plate and two Amoeba targets at the far, downrange opposite corner of the range. This distance was, by actual measurement, approximately 1.5 kilometers away. Or, far enough that the blurry fat front sight on my STI Edge covered the plate entirely. Note to self: if you can't see the plate, you can't hit it. The bullet is still rising, so aim LOW for goodness sake!
After a flurry of shooting and making up misses, screaming like a banshee "I Am So F***ED" (actual fact, you'll see it but you won't hear it in the video), and dodging no-shoots as if you were stepping carefully over an open sewer, you arrive at the other side of the bay to discover that you had another teensy tiny plate to knock down before you are allowed to engage the final Amoeba Target.
The Texas Star was hard, but I mean this Mother of Demons was HARD!
But maybe it was just me. I did actually see my front sight a couple of times. I ignored it, it ignored me. I and my Front Sight have a dysfunctional relationship, and it showed.
Getting back to the Five Shooters, this is who and what you will see in the video:
[Don't bother watching it. YouTube has completely deleted the audio track, including the stage sounds. Instead, scroll down and watch the video embedded by Blogspot. I only left it in here because somebody might want to see a large-format version of the video -- with crappy music dubbed in.]
UPDATE:
YouTube has been emasculated. It won't allow inclusion of an audio track which has not been 'pre-approved'. Most of these tracks (including those labeled "rock") are Elevator Music. Ptfffff! on them.
Okay, I'll include the video with the least-wimpy audio track I could find, something named ... hell, I don't know. Who cares?
Now that you've seen it in big format with wuss music, I'll embed the original (small format ... sorry) version with The Doors doing "Roadhouse Blues".
[This takes forever to upload ... I sincerely hope it downloads faster.]
Anybody actually shown in this video, email me and I'll send you the original (16MB, 5'20")l version, with music to match the action.
What a bunch of maroons. YouTube, you have lost your kewl and I am outta your teensy weensy world for future serious action videos.
The stage itself was another sperm donation from Evil Bill.
Who else could include Classic "Amoeba Targets", Pepper Poppers, U.S. Poppers, small plates that "Pop Up" a shoot target, nearly as many penalty targets as shoot targets, arrays which could only be seen, let alone engaged, from the very furthest (real word, I looked it up) corner of the legal shooting box, fault lines and vision barriers and barrels, oh my!
All of that effort for Evil Bill to construct his demonic playground.
It's enough to say that the stage, while not exactly a 'memory stage', was enough to make strong men weep, women to batter their men, horses bolt in terror, and small children to have nightmares which will doubtless be passed via genetically damaged DNA unto the seventh generation.
In a word: I liked it.
Starting with an unloaded pistol lying flat ("no props!") on the table, fingers interlaced on top of your beanie, grab the gun and run ... loading the first mag as you go. Some of us managed this more gracefully than others, but when you got to the corner of the railroad-track shooting box, you were permitted to shoot a small plate and two Amoeba targets at the far, downrange opposite corner of the range. This distance was, by actual measurement, approximately 1.5 kilometers away. Or, far enough that the blurry fat front sight on my STI Edge covered the plate entirely. Note to self: if you can't see the plate, you can't hit it. The bullet is still rising, so aim LOW for goodness sake!
After a flurry of shooting and making up misses, screaming like a banshee "I Am So F***ED" (actual fact, you'll see it but you won't hear it in the video), and dodging no-shoots as if you were stepping carefully over an open sewer, you arrive at the other side of the bay to discover that you had another teensy tiny plate to knock down before you are allowed to engage the final Amoeba Target.
The Texas Star was hard, but I mean this Mother of Demons was HARD!
But maybe it was just me. I did actually see my front sight a couple of times. I ignored it, it ignored me. I and my Front Sight have a dysfunctional relationship, and it showed.
Getting back to the Five Shooters, this is who and what you will see in the video:
- The Hobo Brasser, with his new 'shorty' open gun which shoots as flat as a carpenter's level. I never liked that man.
- The Geek, shooting the Iron-Sight EDGE in 10mm, experiencing the first ever SQUIB and dropping 5 penalties for one FTE and 4 mikes when it was shown that there were lights on but Nobody Home.
- Dave, doing his best to Make The Geek Look Good with his jam-o-matic singlestack. You may miss the caption in the video, but he ended up with one ... ONE! ... bullet left when he finished this, the last stage in the match for the squad.
- Adam, also shooting Open, with the gun that wouldn't quit and acting like it was just another (Ho Hum) 28 round stage. Again, you'll have to watch the video closer than I did (another guy I never liked ... no problems, what's the fun in that?) but I'm not sure that he even bothered to reload. Okay, he probably did. Once.
- Ken, the new shooter who safely completed his first ever USPSA match. The guy is cold steel, man. Even though he temporarily lost count of his targets, he managed to turn and kill the last diagonal plate-and-popup with the grace of a Princess and the finesse of a bull-dozer. He liked it. He's good. He's hooked. Two Thumbs Up for a newly minted IPSC fanatic.
[Don't bother watching it. YouTube has completely deleted the audio track, including the stage sounds. Instead, scroll down and watch the video embedded by Blogspot. I only left it in here because somebody might want to see a large-format version of the video -- with crappy music dubbed in.]
UPDATE:
YouTube has been emasculated. It won't allow inclusion of an audio track which has not been 'pre-approved'. Most of these tracks (including those labeled "rock") are Elevator Music. Ptfffff! on them.
Okay, I'll include the video with the least-wimpy audio track I could find, something named ... hell, I don't know. Who cares?
Now that you've seen it in big format with wuss music, I'll embed the original (small format ... sorry) version with The Doors doing "Roadhouse Blues".
[This takes forever to upload ... I sincerely hope it downloads faster.]
Anybody actually shown in this video, email me and I'll send you the original (16MB, 5'20")l version, with music to match the action.
What a bunch of maroons. YouTube, you have lost your kewl and I am outta your teensy weensy world for future serious action videos.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Can You Count?
Despite my best intentions to edit and post all 19 of the videos I filmed at last weekend's match at Dundee, I have only been able to compile two of them in one video.
"Can You Count?" (CM 06-03 USPSA Classifier) is a 20-round stage which challenges the participant to draw, shoot and reload quickly. It also requires that the shooter can break the habit of shooting each target only two times -- sometimes, this is the more difficult challenge, because you know we get into a rut.
It's not very exciting to watch this stage, until someone screws it up. That's the signal for your friends to tease you mercilessly ... if they have already shot the stage successfully.
But when you don't perform to your own expectations, and it's because your gun isn't running right, jocularity is not the most welcome response from the Peanut Gallery. (youtube link here)
One thing about this classifier: the stage procedures are flawed.
It's not fatally flawed, it just doesn't make it clear about the penalties for failing to follow the written procedure.
Here's the situation we encountered (not involving the two gentlemen shown in the video).
The course procedures read:
I was keeping score, and the Range Officer asked me what the penalty should be.
"One procedural, for not reloading when he was suppose to" I replied.
Some of the folks in the squad took issue with that call. I reminded them that there was no advantage gained, so only one procedural penalty ... for not strictly abiding by the written stage procedure ... was justifiable.
In return, they quoted the sub-text in the stage procedures:
However, I suggested that they (the dissenting squad members) take the question to the Match Director. In the absence of a Range Master, in a club match the M.D. gets to make these difficult decisions.
They returned from their discussion with the M.D. with the word that it was officially ruled that "per-shot" penalties would be applied.
I didn't agree, and I counseled the 'offending' competitor that he had the right to request arbitration. I said that I would speak on his behalf. He didn't think it was that big a deal, and quietly accepted the additional penalty points.
I don't know if this issue has been addressed by John Amidon, or if a 'ruling' has been published in this kind of situation.
But it kind of ticks me off, you know? I have the strong suspicion that clubs interpret the rules differently.
Not that it makes a big difference; in this kind of quick-and-dirty stage, if you get even one penalty point it pretty much takes you out of the running for a good stage score.
Still, it was a relatively new shooter, and I don't like it when the "Wheels of Justice" grind so exceedingly fine.
Have any of you bumped up against this stage, this vaguely worded procedure?
I would be interested in any comments which discuss the subject. Obviously, I think I'm right. It doesn't make any difference at all to the match, at this late date. But I am ... dissappointed ... at what I perceive to be an injustice.
This is what I do to relax. The competition shooting, I mean. I don't like to argue about the rules, so it makes me turn surly when the rules seem unfairly applied.
Okay, so I do enjoy a lively debate.
Anybody out there think that the "Per-Shot Penalty" should have been applied here?
"Can You Count?" (CM 06-03 USPSA Classifier) is a 20-round stage which challenges the participant to draw, shoot and reload quickly. It also requires that the shooter can break the habit of shooting each target only two times -- sometimes, this is the more difficult challenge, because you know we get into a rut.
It's not very exciting to watch this stage, until someone screws it up. That's the signal for your friends to tease you mercilessly ... if they have already shot the stage successfully.
But when you don't perform to your own expectations, and it's because your gun isn't running right, jocularity is not the most welcome response from the Peanut Gallery. (youtube link here)
One thing about this classifier: the stage procedures are flawed.
It's not fatally flawed, it just doesn't make it clear about the penalties for failing to follow the written procedure.
Here's the situation we encountered (not involving the two gentlemen shown in the video).
The course procedures read:
On signal, from Box A only:One of the squad members got a couple of shots into T2 before he remembered that he was suppose to reload. So he reloaded, and completed the rest of the stage without error.
String 1: Engage T1 with five rounds only. Perform a
mandatory reload and engage T2 with five rounds
only.
String 2: Engage T3 with five rounds only. Perform a
mandatory reload and engage T4 with five rounds
only.
Targets within a string may be engaged in any
order without penalty
I was keeping score, and the Range Officer asked me what the penalty should be.
"One procedural, for not reloading when he was suppose to" I replied.
Some of the folks in the squad took issue with that call. I reminded them that there was no advantage gained, so only one procedural penalty ... for not strictly abiding by the written stage procedure ... was justifiable.
In return, they quoted the sub-text in the stage procedures:
Failure to perform reload is per-shotfired [sic]"Yes", I agreed, "... there is a significant advantage gained if NO reload occurs, especially in a stage with a total elapsed time of something like 10 seconds. But the shooter DID reload. He just didn't reload when he should have. He should only be penalized for not strictly following the stage procedure. The per-shot penalty is invoked ONLY if he didn't reload -- which he did."
penalty.
However, I suggested that they (the dissenting squad members) take the question to the Match Director. In the absence of a Range Master, in a club match the M.D. gets to make these difficult decisions.
They returned from their discussion with the M.D. with the word that it was officially ruled that "per-shot" penalties would be applied.
I didn't agree, and I counseled the 'offending' competitor that he had the right to request arbitration. I said that I would speak on his behalf. He didn't think it was that big a deal, and quietly accepted the additional penalty points.
I don't know if this issue has been addressed by John Amidon, or if a 'ruling' has been published in this kind of situation.
But it kind of ticks me off, you know? I have the strong suspicion that clubs interpret the rules differently.
Not that it makes a big difference; in this kind of quick-and-dirty stage, if you get even one penalty point it pretty much takes you out of the running for a good stage score.
Still, it was a relatively new shooter, and I don't like it when the "Wheels of Justice" grind so exceedingly fine.
Have any of you bumped up against this stage, this vaguely worded procedure?
I would be interested in any comments which discuss the subject. Obviously, I think I'm right. It doesn't make any difference at all to the match, at this late date. But I am ... dissappointed ... at what I perceive to be an injustice.
This is what I do to relax. The competition shooting, I mean. I don't like to argue about the rules, so it makes me turn surly when the rules seem unfairly applied.
Okay, so I do enjoy a lively debate.
Anybody out there think that the "Per-Shot Penalty" should have been applied here?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
ARPC Points Match (11-APR-2009)
No match this weekend, but here's a video of how one squad handled Stage 6 ("Walls & Barrels") last weekend.
The first and last competitors shown are both juniors. The first, Chase, is safely completion his "Certification" match. He was actually in the squad before us, and we were lucky to watch him shoot this stage because it was the only chance I had to see him compete in this crucial (to him) match. The last, Dontae, has already certified. I listed them both as "10 years old", but that's a guess.
At my age, anyone under five feet tall appears to be 10 years old.
And yes, that IS Ageism.
The video lasts 4:57 minutes.
_________________________________
TECHNICAL NOTE:
You will see my (gloved) hand over the top of the image when FISH starts shooting. This is to provide a hood, keeping the morning sun out of the lense.
In the next segment (GEEK), the lens is not shaded; the bright sunlight washes out the image in a Purple Haze, until the view shifts further to the south.
I take pride in timing the musical lyrics to that portion of the video:
Well, we take our successes when we can.
______________________________________
UPDATE: 23 April, 2009
The original video included the song "Truckin'" by The Grateful Dead.
YouTube took exception to this, probably because the owner of the song asked them to disallow "their" music on embedded videos. Consequently, the original is without any soundtrack at all.
(See the COMMENTS section)
I've republished the video without the music, but with the full-volume soundtrack of shots fired, range commands, and incidental comments from bystanders. Perhaps it's a more realistic appreciation of the actual experience.
But I hate giving up the music, which not only provides an 'extra dimension' to the vide but also introduces a great song.
Besides, I worked so hard to choreograph the music to the visual images. What a waste.
The first and last competitors shown are both juniors. The first, Chase, is safely completion his "Certification" match. He was actually in the squad before us, and we were lucky to watch him shoot this stage because it was the only chance I had to see him compete in this crucial (to him) match. The last, Dontae, has already certified. I listed them both as "10 years old", but that's a guess.
At my age, anyone under five feet tall appears to be 10 years old.
And yes, that IS Ageism.
The video lasts 4:57 minutes.
_________________________________
TECHNICAL NOTE:
You will see my (gloved) hand over the top of the image when FISH starts shooting. This is to provide a hood, keeping the morning sun out of the lense.
In the next segment (GEEK), the lens is not shaded; the bright sunlight washes out the image in a Purple Haze, until the view shifts further to the south.
I take pride in timing the musical lyrics to that portion of the video:
"Sometimes the light's all shining on me,
Other times I can barely see"
Well, we take our successes when we can.
______________________________________
UPDATE: 23 April, 2009
The original video included the song "Truckin'" by The Grateful Dead.
YouTube took exception to this, probably because the owner of the song asked them to disallow "their" music on embedded videos. Consequently, the original is without any soundtrack at all.
(See the COMMENTS section)
I've republished the video without the music, but with the full-volume soundtrack of shots fired, range commands, and incidental comments from bystanders. Perhaps it's a more realistic appreciation of the actual experience.
But I hate giving up the music, which not only provides an 'extra dimension' to the vide but also introduces a great song.
Besides, I worked so hard to choreograph the music to the visual images. What a waste.
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