IPSC and Freestyle.......what does it mean to you?

I can't speak for Europe but if you look at some US stages you see big transitions, targets that can be engaged from multiple positions, longer shots, variation in target distances. Like I said before we frown on boxes but then put them on walls and call them ports to feel better.
One thing I used to like in the US was designated use of cover. They may put a wall up bit with fault lines and vertical fault lines or boxes over too or beside walls they could designate that certain targets had to be engaged from behind that fault line or through the designated shooting port. You can still shoot the stage in any order but you have to do so from behind some form of cover.
Some examples from classifier stages
http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-27.pdf
http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-36.pdf
Now these are pretty simple layouts but you could use elements from them as part of a larger course and still force the use of cover. But stages are set up for people who don't want to do hard stuff, they just want to stand in the open and blast at targets rather than have to crouch or lean for every shot.
 
Last edited:
Better props right off the bat. They put the time and money in and build good stuff. Stages that work without constant screwing around. Movers that are hard to hit, targets at all distances, steel, all over, and just well designed stages. Hard ones, with lots of solutions. Lots of chances to shoot on the move, but still times when you are forced not to. Instead of writing down on the WSB what they want you to do, they build it that way.
 
Start - Gun loaded in holster,
hands relaxed at side
shoot targets as the become visable ??
seems simple enough ( I personally like to use this start)

as for calibrating steel I always used a 22 didn't get many complaints??
for rearward and forward was fun to see the face ofa protester when the 22 made it fall!
(boxes are just area's surronded by fault lines)
supermag
 
Problem with steel, you can calibrate it to fall with a rolled up ball of wet kleenex, but if the hinge gets could with lead splatter, or dirt, or if the popper settles a bit, or any number of other mechanical issues, it won't go down. So now the shooter has to make the choice to either keep walking at it 'till it drops, or leave it and risk having to eat a miss. Now having already hit it once, the next thing to contact the popper is in all likelihood going to knock it th rest of the way down. So no matter how it turns out it will likely factor out as a miss for the shooter, when he actually hit the popper square the first time. So right there the stage results are randomised in favor of blind luck.
 
Problem with steel, you can calibrate it to fall with a rolled up ball of wet kleenex, but if the hinge gets could with lead splatter, or dirt, or if the popper settles a bit, or any number of other mechanical issues, it won't go down. So now the shooter has to make the choice to either keep walking at it 'till it drops, or leave it and risk having to eat a miss. Now having already hit it once, the next thing to contact the popper is in all likelihood going to knock it th rest of the way down. So no matter how it turns out it will likely factor out as a miss for the shooter, when he actually hit the popper square the first time. So right there the stage results are randomised in favor of blind luck.
I had exactly this happen at my last match. Painted popper, solid hit in the circle, popper didn't fall. To make matters worse I wa shooting the match with the "calibration" gun and ammo. And it failed to fall. When I called for calibration I handed over my gun and ammo to the RO to shoot (thought it might be a bit unfair if I as the RM used my gun and my ammo on the stage that I just shot to calibrate the popper that failed to fall for me) the RO hit right beside my original hit and down goes the popper and I score a miss. But it's a perfect example of the calibration gun and ammo being used to put two shots side beside on a popper and one failed to drop it and the next one did. FYI it was a Glock 17 shooting factory Remington 124gr.
 
So what is the solution.......


You'll never satisfy everyone.

There are so many variables present in this type of shooting... No way to anticipate them all and design/build a match to completely even the playing field for everyone.

Well, I suppose you "could", but then I think it would get pretty boring.



Suck it up and shoot. If the popper won't fall... Shoot harder!
 
So what is the solution.......paper targets only......no Vis?.......we got to have our Vis!
Simple, remove calibration from the rule set entirely. If the popper doesn't fall it's a re-shoot. It's range equipment failure, just like a plate that spins on-edge but doesn't fall.

Look at it this way; if you hit a paper target anywhere on the scoring surface, it's scored as a hit...even if it just barely touches the outside edge of the D zone. But if you hit a popper anywhere on the scoring surface and it doesn't fall because of something totally outside the shooter's control, it's a miss. How is that fair or logical? And it sucks huge to loose a match by less than 15 points with an unearned miss on a popper.

Or we could go with the Tannerite.
 
Simple, remove calibration from the rule set entirely. If the popper doesn't fall it's a re-shoot. It's range equipment failure, just like a plate that spins on-edge but doesn't fall.

Look at it this way; if you hit a paper target anywhere on the scoring surface, it's scored as a hit...even if it just barely touches the outside edge of the D zone. But if you hit a popper anywhere on the scoring surface and it doesn't fall because of something totally outside the shooter's control, it's a miss. How is that fair or logical? And it sucks huge to loose a match by less than 15 points with an unearned miss on a popper.

Or we could go with the Tannerite.

I've said this for years. Calibration does not work, never has and never will.
 
I concur, toss calibration. We have a chrono to measure and "reward" power. If steel doesn't fall, and there is a full diameter hit on it, reshoot.
 
I had exactly this happen at my last match. Painted popper, solid hit in the circle, popper didn't fall. To make matters worse I wa shooting the match with the "calibration" gun and ammo. And it failed to fall. When I called for calibration I handed over my gun and ammo to the RO to shoot (thought it might be a bit unfair if I as the RM used my gun and my ammo on the stage that I just shot to calibrate the popper that failed to fall for me) the RO hit right beside my original hit and down goes the popper and I score a miss. But it's a perfect example of the calibration gun and ammo being used to put two shots side beside on a popper and one failed to drop it and the next one did. FYI it was a Glock 17 shooting factory Remington 124gr.

And what was the power factor on that "match calibration ammo"??
 
Too bad I didn't har the .22 with me, would have been fun to hand that to the RO and tell him it's the calibration gun...lol
 
Back
Top Bottom