It was a fun match. Thanks Chris for the design and thanks to the SOs for running things. My thoughts on the courses of fire:
COF 1 - Run Luke Run
Three targets arranged in a triangle, point towards the shooter. Start position is within arms reach of the closest target. The first string is two shots to each while retreating, must cover 25 feet before firing last shot.
This was by far my worst string. I moved too fast and didn't pick up the sights well enough on the two far targets (I was still thinking of them as 15 foot shots when I'd covered an additional 15-20 feet). Watching others shoot afterwards I saw that the fastest, if gamer, way to shoot was to fire six shots while sauntering backwards then race to the 25 foot line and throw off a seventh shot. Second string was start facing up range, turn and engage, no movement. Pretty straightforward.
COF 2 - Snipe Hunt (yes, an oldie, but goodie)
Drop bag and hammer and engage six targets with two shots each. One target has simulated (painted) hard cover and two have real hard cover (logs).
Almost no one hit the simulated hard cover but several hit the logs. I think this was because the logs weren't so visually apparent, both by being close the targets in color and by not covering so much of the targets. On the plus side, those folks hitting the logs usually noticed and made a make up shot.
COF 3 - Porta-Potty Problem
Start position is seated behind a door, firearm on shelf. First string has the shooter's legs loosely tied. On the first string, open the door and engage three targets with two shots each. On the second string, two of the targets are non-threats. Which targets are non-threats is unknown to the shooter beforehand.
I liked this stage: real world starting positions, using two hands without covering yourself, and on-the-fly targeting decisions.
COF 4 - Cover is Blown
Move from one cover to another, engaging three targets with two shots each on the way. Two non-threats cover the targets from certain angles.
The one surprising thing I saw: a couple of people shot one-handed when moving with the targets on their shooting hand side. I'll have to try that to see if it works better for me than just twisting my torso.
COF 5 - Lanes
Three low targets with logs parallel to the direction of fire making three shooting lanes. Start prone, engage first target, half-roll to the second target, engage, half-roll to third, engage.
We had done something similar in a practice, a continuous slow roll while engaging four poppers. This looked easier since it didn't need to be a continuous roll, just get to the next target, pause, and engage. From the popper exercise I knew how important it was to keep an eye on the target while rolling to avoid losing track of it. So I engaged the first target, looked to the second and started my roll. I forgot that there was a log in the way! So it became shoot, roll, re-acquire, shoot.
COF 6 - Do I Even Draw?
Start seated behind door. Three targets, threat and non-threat, are behind the door. Open door and engage threat targets, if there are any. Sweeping back cover garment on a non-threat is a procedural.
This was my favorite of the six. In a shooting game it's tough to work in not shooting in a useful way. This worked.
In hindsight I would have changed two things:
In COF1 either do limited Vickers scoring or start with six rounds. This would make the gamer solution less attractive.
In COF6, once the shooter saw three non-threat targets they know that all later strings would be have a threat target. A possible, if non-IDPA approved, solution would be to score the all non-threat strings as the average of the shooter's threat string scores plus procedural and non-threat hit penalties, if any. That way the SO could give the shooter no, one, or two non-threat strings, keeping the shooter guessing.
All in all it was a fun match. Well worth the $15.
Dave
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
But we'll be at Riverside late tomorrow AM if anyone else is interested.
