IDPA Scenario Threads...

[ACP230]

One of the first IDPA matches I shot had a stage called "Wolves In Camp."

Shooters dropped firewood, picked a gun up off a camp chair and engaged six sideways IDPA targets with head shots and then body shots. The targets were partially obscured with brush. I thought it would make more sense if it was body shots first and then head shots. (Could be cause I missed a couple of the head shots). I don't recall the number of shots but I think this stage was published in an IDPA manual.

I also thought it would be better to have the gun on the belt.

[ToddG]

Another thought and potential pitfall with scenario stages: be prepared for the I don't do that response from shooters. ACP230's example of the "Wolves in Camp" COF is a great one. Invariably, if you put enough people through that stage, some dummy is going to argue that he'd never leave his pistol on a camp chair. The only appropriate answer is "OK. DNF for you, then."

I shot a match one year -- can't remember whether it was the PA or VA championship -- and they had a stage that involved getting broken down while driving through Maryland. As such, they made you begin the stage with your gun unloaded, locked, in the trunk of your car. I pulled out my Maryland CCW card. Appropriate response from the RO: "OK. DNF for you, then." I shot the stage as proscribed.

[cclaxton]

Another thought and potential pitfall with scenario stages: be prepared for the I don't do that response from shooters. ACP230's example of the "Wolves in Camp" COF is a great one. Invariably, if you put enough people through that stage, some dummy is going to argue that he'd never leave his pistol on a camp chair. The only appropriate answer is "OK. DNF for you, then."

I shot a match one year -- can't remember whether it was the PA or VA championship -- and they had a stage that involved getting broken down while driving through Maryland. As such, they made you begin the stage with your gun unloaded, locked, in the trunk of your car. I pulled out my Maryland CCW card. Appropriate response from the RO: "OK. DNF for you, then." I shot the stage as proscribed.

That is hilarious, Todd. I wish I could have seen the look on his face when you pulled out the permit.

But, even in gun-friendly states we have to unload and put them in the trunk for certain properties...good idea for a stage, actually.
CC

[LHS]

Another thought and potential pitfall with scenario stages: be prepared for the I don't do that response from shooters. ACP230's example of the "Wolves in Camp" COF is a great one. Invariably, if you put enough people through that stage, some dummy is going to argue that he'd never leave his pistol on a camp chair. The only appropriate answer is "OK. DNF for you, then."

I shot a match one year -- can't remember whether it was the PA or VA championship -- and they had a stage that involved getting broken down while driving through Maryland. As such, they made you begin the stage with your gun unloaded, locked, in the trunk of your car. I pulled out my Maryland CCW card. Appropriate response from the RO: "OK. DNF for you, then." I shot the stage as proscribed.

Shimizu ran that match in AZ once, back when they still had the Sundog Shooters up in Prescott. He even called it "Maryland Carry". If memory serves, the first stage of the match was simply showing up in the parking lot with a loaded firearm on your person. If you didn't have a loaded gun on you when you arrived at the range, you got a DNF for the first stage.

[LHS]

Awesome. Kurt ran some absolutely fantastic matches back in the day.

Especially night stages

[ToddG]

If memory serves, the first stage of the match was simply showing up in the parking lot with a loaded firearm on your person. If you didn't have a loaded gun on you when you arrived at the range, you got a DNF for the first stage.

If it was an IDPA match, that's not only ridiculous, it's against the rules.

I've met quite a few folks who thought it might be a good idea to get some experience shooting things like USPSA/IDPA before they declared themselves ready to go out into the world with a loaded gun ready for a fight. Penalizing someone for making a choice about how to exercise his Constitutional rights seems like a very bad way to begin a match.

Especially night stages

No doubt. Especially when your wife falls asleep with a baby rattlesnake under the range bag she's using for a pillow.

[_JD_]

One of my favorite style of scenario stage is a room clearing scenario. Start off sitting in a chair with the pistol on the end table, you hear a bump (timer) and work your way through a staged house plan.

Another is a scenario that simulates a mugging on a street near your car. It's a surrender start on your knees. As you draw engage two targets at 3yards move to an "alleyway" for cover engage two targets, one of which only has a head shot available due to a noshoot. Then run to your car, where there is target close and 3 other targets at distance.

Basically any scenario can be cheezy or gamerriffic. I like IDPA for the "try" at realism, but it's still just that a try.

I like that, will add that to the file.

One of the tricks I use is to look at where you are at any point during your day. Then use the location as a start for a stage design. For instance: pumping gas, going inside to pay for gas, shopping at a stop & rob, walking down a street, walking into the mall, etc. I've heard of people setting the alarm on their watch to random times and when it goes off, just look around and design a stage from your surroundings. Use your imagination and say "what if".

I use barrels for walls and cover a lot of the time. Easy to set up and tear down. I also try to design stages that are easy to administrate. Easy to score and get ready for the next shooter. Lots of circus props and targets are fun to shoot, but can be a hassle to keep running and reset for each shooter.

That is an excellent idea, thank you.

When I got into USPSA, my local club shot "the classics" - you'd have a tough time distinguishing our matches, informal or formal, from a "Bear Valley" match.

As the club progressed, it became much more elaborate and complicated. A shame really. We hardly do any SSO, much less weak side. We use light bars, cars and all kinds of "props" now. Everyone just wants to go as fast as possible. No shoots are less and less common. So are the movers.

I'd look at variations of el pres. Like an ATM version. Maybe a parking lot Guatemalian. Sitting stages really throw people off. So does going prone, if the membership is capable. It's also fun to bring in a "long gun" and do malf or out of ammo drills. The USMC MEU(SOC) pistol qualification is a wonderfully rich source of scenarios too.

If you are looking for "realistic" stages - I'd suggest going to youtube and looking for police video/surveillance video footage.

I plan on keeping a lot of WHO and SHO involved, movers if I can work them in well. At our last match I had two skills stages where WHO and SHO came in, a lot of the shooters commented that they definitely needed to work on their WHO skills...so we'll be doing more in our June match. We also had lots of no-shoots. As we're not yet IDPA affiliated, we can get away from their 1 NS for 1-5 threat targets etc.

One of the most fun stages I recall from an old AZ state match, involved lying on a bed with your gun on the nightstand along with a spare magazine. At the buzzer, you roll out of bed, grab the gun and the spare mag, engage threats in the bedroom, then move to another location and engage threats there. The scenario was you wake up in your room at night with someone there. TCoB, retrieve spare magazine, and address the screams coming from your kid's room down the hall.

One I've thought of but never seen run, is an ATM stage. Think of it as an El Pres shot from an ATM, from retention, with one or two bad guys instead of three.

At a Carolina Cup years ago, they had a stage where you start kneeling with your hands in a bucket of soapy water, as if you were washing your car. At the buzzer, you turn and engage three threats from kneeling.

I've been working a couple of ATM scenarios and will keep the retention angle in mind. The soapy water, WILL DEFINITELY DO.

There was a stage at the IDPA Nationals years ago where you started lying on the ceiling of an overturned car.

The inaugural invite-only KSTG match had a stage that began lying face down on the ground beside a Suburban. The scenario was that you stepped out of the car and got conked on the head by a baseball bat wielding gang banger. On the buzzer, you shot a close range target six times (to slide lock) from the ground, then picked up the baseball he supposedly dropped. You used the bat to crush the skull (melon) of one of his accomplices before racing around to the back of the Suburban, reloading your gun, and shooting some more threats. The best part of the stage was the hilarity involved in people trying to hit the melon... with varying degrees of success.

We used to do some off the wall stuff with the old club...it didn't go over very well with a lot of the "IDPA Crowd"As much as I like the out of the box thinking I don't think we'll be smacking any melons around.

1st question: Are you limited to shooting downrange only, or can you shoot to the left and right? (Berms on the sides handle handgun rounds?, Indoor?, Using bullet catchers?, etc.)

The venue/club will limit what you can do.

Use barrels to create "hallways" or "walls." You can also just use a wooden frame made from 2x4's to create windows, car windows, etc. Black plastic sheeting wrapped over 3/4" PVC Pipe frame can also make excellent walls/cover. Once you have enough props built up that will give you a lot more ideas and variety of options. Buy a cheap door at Hardware Store that comes with a frame. Attach 2x2 wood trusses at the bottom of the door frame to make the door stand, and use sandbags to hold it down. Then, put barels on each side....you now have a door you can use for exit/enter a "room."

You can always use shirts over targets to give a more challenging stage. You can use everyday things to set up stages:


It will all come to you... and your fellow IDPA pals will give you ideas....relax.
CC

We can do left and right, here's our actual layout. All out-door.



Good info on the PVC, I've all ready got T-shirts on the list from Goodwill etc. More on that later. We've got a door, low cover is old hat with this crowd.

Another thought and potential pitfall with scenario stages: be prepared for the I don't do that response from shooters. ACP230's example of the "Wolves in Camp" COF is a great one. Invariably, if you put enough people through that stage, some dummy is going to argue that he'd never leave his pistol on a camp chair. The only appropriate answer is "OK. DNF for you, then."

I shot a match one year -- can't remember whether it was the PA or VA championship -- and they had a stage that involved getting broken down while driving through Maryland. As such, they made you begin the stage with your gun unloaded, locked, in the trunk of your car. I pulled out my Maryland CCW card. Appropriate response from the RO: "OK. DNF for you, then." I shot the stage as proscribed.

Yeah, "Shut up and do it" is firmly in my vocabulary.


Some things I'm thinking off:

I want a HUGE wooden cable spool to make moving cover.

I fell in love with the Action Target "running target" @ a Langdon class, will definitely be hounding the board to get me one of those.

As far as the shirts are go, what I plan on doing is having some random stages that don't count for the score (we can use the skills stages to provide scoring data) I want to do the "color drills" moving targets around can calling out shirt colors etc. so it's not the same old stage everyone is doing the same way. Other things like moving armed targets around etc.

I shot a USPSA stage where we shot at obscured targets behind soft cover etc and I think PVC pipe framing and some dark sheets etc. will do just fine for that.

I've been shooting IDPA for about three years. I've attended state matches in IL, WI and heading to MO in June so I've got a pretty good basis on what's what, it's just really hard for me to find new angles on things and keep it "new". We're a "new" club pretty much in name only. We're picking up the pieces from another club that didn't make it due autocratic leadership fail... which is good for us as we all ready have a solid group of guys to come shoot. Our first two matches this year have been 20 and 18 in attendance, the 18 being on Memorial Day weekend, both matches where about twice the average attendance the other club had the last two years so we're off to a good start, but I just want to really hook the newer guys.

Thanks all,

Keep it coming.

[LHS]

If it was an IDPA match, that's not only ridiculous, it's against the rules.

I've met quite a few folks who thought it might be a good idea to get some experience shooting things like USPSA/IDPA before they declared themselves ready to go out into the world with a loaded gun ready for a fight. Penalizing someone for making a choice about how to exercise his Constitutional rights seems like a very bad way to begin a match.

It wasn't IDPA, it was a proprietary club running their own rules, and geared for a more experienced shooter. The rationale given was that AZ was an open-carry state, so you had no 'excuse' for not carrying in some manner. That said, I concur about some people wanting to practice or shoot some matches before feeling comfortable with carrying in public.

This brings up another point, though: you can get into some really fun, cool, inventive stuff, but you still have to accommodate newer shooters who may not be up to that level of complexity, and even with experienced shooters, you have to keep an eye out for Murphy.

Some time ago at Fort Harmar rifle club, John Markwell came up with the 'creek match' as a way to cool off in the hot, humid August days. The first one started at the edge of the creek bank, sitting in a fishing chair with your pistol. At the buzzer, you dropped your fishing pole, drew your weapon, dropped into the creek (which was about shin-deep) and went downstream, engaging Pepper poppers on the banks as you went, until you reached a deep pool at the bend in the creek. Here you had to swim across the pool, crawl out into a little game trail, and out into the field. There was a tent in the field, near Markwell's minivan. You retrieved an M1 Carbine from the tent, took cover behind the van, and engaged the stop plate to end the stage. We all thought it was a great idea, until the first person ran the stage. He slipped and tumbled head-over-heels into the creek, with a drawn pistol. Immediately, the course was changed so that you couldn't draw until AFTER you got into the creek (and the timer didn't start until then either). It was something that should have been foreseen, but wasn't, likely due to the enthusiasm for the idea of the match itself.

Later creek matches were less complex, using different parts of the creek to eliminate the swim and the drop from the bank to the creek. They were still fun and novel, but far safer for everyone involved.

No doubt. Especially when your wife falls asleep with a baby rattlesnake under the range bag she's using for a pillow.

I don't remember that one, but I do remember poor Kurt's Tahoe getting the windows papered with DNF-marked scoresheets.

[Shokr21]

JD, where in central IA are you? I shoot at Ankeny Ikes weekly, and Ames Ikes and Boone Sportsmens whenever I can make a match.

For a big wooden spool, talk to an REC (rural electric co-op) my Dad used to work for Midland in Jefferson and we'd take old copper and line spools and use them as poker/picnic tables at hunting cabins. They have them in all sizes, never hurts to ask if you can throw one in the back of a truck.

Sounds like you have some pretty good ideas in the pot, I'll look forward to shooting with you sometime if that's possible.

[_JD_]

JD, where in central IA are you? I shoot at Ankeny Ikes weekly, and Ames Ikes and Boone Sportsmens whenever I can make a match.

For a big wooden spool, talk to an REC (rural electric co-op) my Dad used to work for Midland in Jefferson and we'd take old copper and line spools and use them as poker/picnic tables at hunting cabins. They have them in all sizes, never hurts to ask if you can throw one in the back of a truck.

Sounds like you have some pretty good ideas in the pot, I'll look forward to shooting with you sometime if that's possible.

Conrad, heading up IDPA in Waterloo with the Black Hawk Pistol Club, have shot @ Ames/Boone more than a few times, not so much this year, things have been a little crazy around the house of late. I went and shot up @ the WI state match last year with Eric Bauer.

Let me know if you plan on shooting @ Ames any time soon, Boone is a little bit of a haul for me. The wife is going through EMT training and is working on her ride time and hospital hours + studying so I'm playing Mr. Mom on most weekends but I pretty much jump at the chance to meet up with forum members. We had a guy from HKPro come out last weekend for IDPA and a couple of guys from one of the 1911 forums the match prior.


When does Ankeny shoot?