Originally Posted by Clusterfrack
Serious question, what should he have done?
The only thing that I could think of was drop the gun immediately as soon as you feel yourself falling
Serious question, what should he have done?
The only thing that I could think of was drop the gun immediately as soon as you feel yourself falling
What should he have done?
1. Know his limits. There was an option to go around the Cooper Tunnel.
2. Not be a jackass and try to do something “funny” at a shooting competition.
I would have banned him from uspsa.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
Bearing in mind I was not there, etc., I had to look at that in slow motion to see what happened. I've never encountered one of these "Cooper Tunnels" in my (very) short USPSA history as a D shooter. Apparently each slat dislodged is a procedural, if I read rule 10.2.5 correctly. So his stage was effectively done when he went upright through the slats, with 6 slats at 10 a piece, that's -60 points?
Nothing against the competitor, and I hope he is ok. But as an opportunity to learn, just wanted to make a couple comments.
Maybe the stage construction contributed to the problem, given a target was available "in the tunnel" as the competitor decided to engage on the top of the pile of slats at the end of the tunnel length. Perhaps it could be anticipated that one or more slats at the end of the tunnel could come down and present a tripping hazard to a competitor, such that targets should maybe not be able to be shot until beyond (3 feet?) the end of the tunnel? I admit I know nothing about stage design; and this may be a stupid comment.
Of course by this point he was on a pile of wood sticks, and given he did not appear particular agile based on his gait, shooting the stage, he appeared to catch a foot at the awkward moment he was holding his pistol one-handed. Which of course whipped back beyond the 180 when he unsuccessfully balanced himself, going down hard onto the ground.
Hard to say what I would do in a tunnel, as mentioned, I've never seen one of these obstacles. I am 5'6", so on the lower end of stature where I could probably crouch-walk through and not disturb any material overhead.
I try very hard to keep a firm, two-handed, indexed finger grip, pointed down range, at all times. Being a lefty, my RO is typically on my left, and I try to make it very obvious where my finger is so he or she can see it, especially moving between shooting arrays of targets (which, shooing P, I am generally reloading anyway.)
I've encountered low ports, and will try to use my elbows to brace going down; point being if I was to fall I would fall forward, two handed, and accept that I would land prone but I WOULD HANG ON TO MY GUN very very tightly indeed. I don't see any circumstances between the load and make ready and the unload and show clear that I was not laser focused on keeping the muzzle downrange.
Anyway.
I have a match tomorrow (first one in a while) and this, while unfortunate for the competitor to get a DQ (again, hope he is ok), thought it could be an opportunity to learn something by asking a few questions from more knowledgeable folks like @Clusterfrack here.
Since this post is more in the nature of USPSA specific stuff, if preferred I can start a thread on Cooper Tunnels in the comp section, as I did a search and didn't find one.
Last edited by RJ; 10-12-2019 at 06:04 AM.
I don't know really anything about USPSA. So I couldn't comment intelligently on any of that. I thought the slats was weird but I didn't know what he was supposed to be doing.
The thing that I focused on the most is when he tripped and pointed that gun backwards. Which again leads to my general question you're falling down with a gun in your hand what do you do?
And the only thing that I could come up with that I would do is drop the gun immediately
Probably so, dump the gun, you will be disqualified anyhow but are not endangering bystanders.
The smart thing to do would have been to ask for a Penalty in Lieu of Performance as provided for in the rules and either gone around the Cooper Tunnel or had the slats taken off so he could follow the exact route upright.
Code Name: JET STREAM
People get mad at a stage because it tests physical movement abilities more shooting, and “protest” shoot it. It’s been going on since Big Bear.
Ignore Alien Orders
This will probably qualify in the "duh" category, but most members here, I believe, are in the upper echelons of firearms safety and awareness; possibly the 1% of the 1% (to give it a semi-quantitative value.) And being so hyper sensitive to safety, we wind up skewing the mean to a much higher value than the median or mode.
Or to put it another way, we're way outside the bell curve on the high side; the bell peaks really far down low.
Or to put it another way (again), most peoples is so FUCKING stupids.
I was at this same match as a vertically gifted left handed shooter who only started USPSA this year. I simply ran around the Cooper tunnel. I shot the stage clean but inadvertently knocked over one slat while unloading and showing clear as I leaned left and jutted my hips right to make it easier for the RSO to see my weapon was clear since he had to approach from the left - my mag carriers just barely nudged it and it fell about 5-6 seconds after I was done shooting. They gave me a penalty since it fell before he said range clear. It was what it was. Everything was safe and proper. I didn’t like the Cooper tunnel gimmick but we all had the same stage to shoot and one safely shoots the stage one is given, one does not “protest” and do wonky stuff on purpose, is how I see it, carried over from other sports.
THIS... is a thread I'd love to see here:
Guns, Gun Ranges, and Weed... what are your ranges doing about this combo?
It isn’t something I’ve seen.
However I’ve heard plenty of stories about alcohol on gun ranges, and one about drunk people shooting in a match at one particular range.
I’ve little patience with either one, don’t use either one, and view them as largely equivalent.
Reply With Quote