Area 1 WTF! Some people need retraining. Serious safety screw up

[Talionis]

I make no comment about fault, but I will provide some context.

The shooter had completely shot the stage, then experienced a brain malfunction at the precise moment he was about to hear "if you are finished, unload and show clear" and decided to do a runner to try to pick up steel back at the beginning of the stage. The person who was nearly muzzled was one of the stage RO's, not a "brass/tape rat". The stage briefing included specific mention that the targets at the beginning of the stage would be scored behind the shooter, which that RO was in the process of doing. The shooter had, until that point, followed the normal stage plan on that stage to a tee, which I am sure had lulled the RO into an unfortunate sense of complacency after watching hundreds of shooters doing exactly the same thing for two full days by that point. I am glad that the shooter maintained awareness and nobody ended up with a gun pointed at them.

[RJ]

Wow. That was hard to watch.

[Peally]

...The stage briefing included specific mention that the targets at the beginning of the stage would be scored behind the shooter, which that RO was in the process of doing...

I get trying to save time but that is stupid as hell.

[Lomshek]

I get trying to save time but that is stupid as hell.

It's pretty common on long field courses but works best (safest) on specific course designs. We do it at my matches when the stage allows because it can save 30 minutes off the match day.

Trying to do it on a "back and forth" stage where the shooter is required to advance and retreat in "hallways" with lots of barriers that obscure vision makes it more dangerous.

As Talionis points out (thaks for the info) if the shooter suddenly brain farts and decides to add 10 seconds to their time by engaging a missed target at the other end of the stage it causes issues.

My best fix for this is whoever is calling the hits for the scorekeeper needs to be aware of missed targets and if the shooter obviously left something un-engaged then everyone holds back until the RO calls clear in case just this happens. I'll send this out to my peeps as a learning experience.

[Peally]

I know why its done, but I don't agree with it. If I'm shooting a stage no matter how shittily I don't want a single person on it that I need to spend time thinking about avoiding, no matter where I want to run around.

[Jim Watson]

"Scoring behind the shooter" seems not a good idea, especially in big broad field courses like that.

The "video everything" culture is another source of risk.

I had a spectating friend up nearly as close as the woman at the 9 second mark. I watched the first shooter go through and went and got her to move farther off the plane of the stage.

Hereabouts, part of the walkthrough is "Everybody else stand behind that line."

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Adding 30 minutes to the match is nothing to the time added when the scene is frozen and you wait for the law to show up and talk to everyone. It is a pain as some folks want to 'flee' the scene.

There is nothing but stupid (what an insight) in this one. Brass pecking fowls are foul. They don't tape and slow us down. At our range, there are strict rules. You pick up your brass only. If you try to pick up after a match, the range owner bans you. In fact, they set a trap for a brass pecker who was doing that and banned him.

[Jim Watson]

At our range, there are strict rules. You pick up your brass only. If you try to pick up after a match, the range owner bans you.

Sounds strange. Couple of the ranges I shoot on, brass pickup is allowed ONLY after the match.

[Peally]

You get banned after a club match and there's just unwanted brass sitting in the berms? Does he personally go around combing it up for himself?

[Clusterfrack]

She was well back from the 180 on the 184 line and he was safely engaging a target at the 178 line. What could go wrong?

I agree that folks should stand well back from the 180, but the wide angle lens on the hatcam makes her seem much closer to the 180 than she probably was.