Tips for Match Directors

[Peally]

I could never wrap my head around why you wouldn't provide a "hot" table. Absolutely drives me nuts.

If you're running a match for God's sake throw a table down somewhere near a berm. Without it you're wasting the RO's time, the shooter's time, and you're forcing people to load/unload in vehicles anyway.

[olstyn]

I could never wrap my head around why you wouldn't provide a "hot" table. Absolutely drives me nuts.

If you're running a match for God's sake throw a table down somewhere near a berm. Without it you're wasting the RO's time, the shooter's time, and you're forcing people to load/unload in vehicles anyway.

I normally have to go find a match official to ask to unload upon arrival. I make sure to allow time to track them down and take care of it. At local matches where I'm used to the MDs and they are used to me, they mostly send me to an unused bay, or all the way to the edge of the berm to take care of it. All the local MDs are very appreciative. At matches further away, the whole thing takes more time and sometimes it can be hard to find the MD (any other match official I find tends to refer me to the MD.) I've been looked at strangely, like no one has ever asked about it before, but I've never received anything but cooperation from MDs. If I feel like I don't have time to deal with this stuff according to the rules, I take care of my guns before arriving on club property. Once I'm there, I will not handle the guns inside the vehicle.

Yeah, I was aware of that rule previously, but I've been leery of trying to actually make use of it. Your experience is encouraging, so perhaps I'll try it at some point. Most of the time during my summer USPSA league, I'm one of the first to arrive to help with setup, so there's very little in the way of "audience" should I choose to unload either in my vehicle or at its trunk. My solution for loading up has been to simply be the last guy that leaves the bay where I'm picking brass after teardown, and then I can just point at the berm and load up before I leave. Given that it's no longer an active USPSA range at that point, there's no rule violation, at least as far as I can tell.

I think I'll email the MDs and ask them about the possibility of setting up a designated loading/unloading table this summer, as I know I'm not the only one who prefers to arrive and depart "hot," and it'd be nice to not feel like I was sneaking around, even though I'm not, to my knowledge, actually violating any rules.

Events at other venues, though, have been somewhat of a struggle. I've definitely done the "unload in the car on the side of the road 1/2 mile from the gate" thing when I was unsure what I was driving into, as well as unloading in the car in the parking lot. The fact that I haven't (yet) put any holes in anything that didn't need them and that I've only ejected one live round into the hole for my e-brake in several years doesn't make it fun, nor was taking apart my car's center console in order to retrieve said live round fun. Admittedly, I haven't been to matches at a ton of different venues, but I've yet to see a "proper" loading/unloading table.

[Peally]

It's usually totally fine at a club match since you know everyone, you're often helping out, and it's a relaxed atmosphere, but I will never screw with load/unload at a major. Don't poke the bear

It's one of the very few things IDPA got right, hot tables are pretty common at the matches I've been to in that sport (IIRC it may be required per the rules).