Mercury's video shows a lot more about how these events run. If there seemed to be a lot of shooting it's because at each stage we do 6 passes in a row before changing shooters. This gives us a lot of shooting time and is the reason we use at least 150 rounds for each "game" composed of 5 stages. The worst pass out of the 6 is tossed out. The best 5 from each of the 5 stages are added and that's the score time. Lowest is best of course. There's also penalties for not hitting one of the whites before the black is hit. And if there's less than 4 whites, like the two white rectangles in that one stage in the video, then you share the first 4 hits between them as instructed. Note the diabolical spacing of the two big white rectangles with the black finisher between. If you miss and hit the finisher with one of the first four shots you get your time but you add on 10 seconds for each missed white DING that you should have gotten. A really diabolical stage was a big black rectangle spaced back a ways with a large single white disk visually in the center of the black. We had to be careful to not miss the white with any of the first 4 since a close miss would hit the black. There was much discussion on the heraldry of the stage designer at lunch on THAT one....
As you can see imagination in setting these up is the key to both the fun and improving your shooting skills.
Because of the 6 passes on each stage reloading is important. Those that are not shooting gang up and reload the shooter's mags as the partial/empty mags hit the table and put the loaded mags back in reach. Thus each stage is a friendly cooperation event that flows quickly with minimal down time. This is key to keeping the shooting moving and I strongly suggest you copy this aspect in your own event.
The plates we're using are some sort of semi fancy alloy but they aren't that thick, maybe 1/2 inch for the various 6, 8 and 10 inch discs and about 3/8 for the bigger rectangles. The key is limiting the guns to .22, non magnum center fire up to a max of .45ACP (no .17WMR, .22WMR, 7.62x25 Tokarev, .357Mag, .44Mag or .357Sig which are all higher in velocity and will spall or puncture the plates). IN addtion to the stock rimfire and center fire classes we also run Open rimfire and pistol classes for open class IPSC race guns. As well there's carbine classes for .22 and pistol caliber center fire guns. Which you choose to include will depend on how your own event grows but don't discount the expansion options. The more folks from the club you get involved the more willing hands there is for setup and teardown and the more important the event will be to the club. But start as slow as you want and see where it goes.
Check around the club and see if anyone has a connection with a heavy equipment servicing outfit or some other shop that works with stronger alloys in plate form. If there is you'll likely find you can get your discs cut from their scrap bin for cheap. The stands are made from bent 1/2 and 3/4 inch concrete reinforcing rod welded where needed to make up simple stands. The discs and plates have a big nut welded to the rear and that simple hooks on an upturned L shape welded to the upright. Cheap and simple.
The nice thing about minimal or no movement and starting from a low ready instead of a holster is that non PAL holders can join in and shoot under supervision from their buddy. So don't be afraid to get rifle or non shooting folks involved if some of the handgun owners are willing to share their guns.
In the video you saw some IPSC belt rigs. A lot of the guys are also IPSC shooters so they wear the gear on their belts as we move from stage to stage. But it's for transport only. In my case I just put the unloaded gun in my gear bag as we moved around. Recently I got some casual leather holsters for my revovler and .22 so now I can wear the gun and just keep the magazines in a carry pouch. Of course for safety the regular IPSC, IDPA empty gun rules apply. The ONLY time magazines are allowed to touch the guns is when the shooter is preparing to shoot a stage or is reloading between shooting strings. At the end of the 6 strings the RO calls for the usual "unload and show clear" at which point the gun goes back in the holster and stays there except in the usual safe handling zones.
That pretty much spells out the entire setup now. I doubt there's much to PM you other than how our scoring goes. But even that is pretty simple It's just straight time with penalties for missing a white or hitting the black finisher by accident. The missed white hits in that case being subject to 10 second penalties per white.
OK, the last thing. The shooters are split up into 5 equal size groups and each has an RO with a shot timer. By having a squad at each stage the shooting progresses faster and we can go eat lunch sooner and come back out for a second game in the afternoon. It's pretty common for folks to shoot one gun in the morning and a different one in the afternoon. Did I mention that revolvers and semi pistols are different classes? Well, they are. Now if you don't have the number of shooters and lack the RO's or timers you may need to keep it to larger squads. But that'll take longer since some of the stages won't be seeing any shooters. If your club has some IPSC or IDPA shooting events contact the folks that run that. It'll mean bringing in the center fire owners but if they bring in the RO's and shot timers it'll be well worthwhile.
In my own case shooting 350 to 400 rounds in a day of two games is a bit pricey. So I run with a .22 semi in the morning and a 9mm semi or .38 wheelgun in the afternoon. It's great variety that way too.
By running as two separate games it also lets folks in that have other things to do. They can either come early then get home a little after noon or come late and spend the afternoon. It works out well that way. To avoid the setup time we just shoot the same setups in the afternoon or maybe the odd time a minor change is made when something didn't seem to work out like the stage designer intended.
