Just got a response from jim. All good. I love bad weather. Makes it more fun. Thanks folks.

We be on like the donkey kong ?

How did the match go?

 

The weather seemed to get progressively worse I got closer to the range and I literally turned around at the entrance and headed home.  I didn't want my wife to have to drive to and from Toms River in what I was expecting to be really shitty thunderstorms.

 

Figured the whole way down the parkway that we'd be turning around and coming home.  Get there and the ski's cleared.  Nary a drop of effing rain.  

Mike it was great, I even found a buyer for that Titegroup i've been holding for you. 

It got a bit warm later in the day, but the weather held. Stages were excellent, had a blast.

It was a fun day, even if the fastest I could move was a mid-speed walk on my sprained ankle. I also learned that bullets can go at least 45 yards. I had never experienced shooting over 35 yards until today.

Mike it was great, I even found a buyer for that Titegroup i've been holding for you. 

Not

Funny. 

 

It got a bit warm later in the day, but the weather held. Stages were excellent, had a blast.

I'd like to say that makes me feel better but it really doesn't.

 

I was really looking forward to shooting today.  Argh.

Are they posting scores on obcats or practiscore?

At obcats.

It was a fun match, good stages,  I thought stage 5 was particular well designed, lots of risk vs reward on that stage.  But as the day dragged on, eating pizza and drinking beer won out over waiting to shoot the last stage.  Sorry to my squad for making you clean up shorthanded.

Likewise, Sorry I didn't say goodbye to everybody,but the heat and 3 squad backup to shoot the last stage had me sitting in my truck with the A/C on full blast driving home.

Likewise, Sorry I didn't say goodbye to everybody,but the heat and 3 squad backup to shoot the last stage had me sitting in my truck with the A/C on full blast driving home.

 

How'd they manage to get a 3 squad backup? Holy Crap!

How'd they manage to get a 3 squad backup? Holy Crap!

Exaggerating, 2 squads, match always bottlenecks back in pit 3

match always bottlenecks back in pit 3

 

 

Its hard to move along at a decent pace when you have 9 guys sitting around and two guys taping and resetting stages. 

Its hard to move along at a decent pace when you have 9 guys sitting around and two guys taping and resetting stages. 

 

 

Sure, that doesn't help.

 

But logistically it always usually happens at pit 3.

 

Pits 1 and 2 are on the small side, which means small stages - quick to shoot, quick to score, and quick to reset.

 

Pit 3 is pretty big, and again - big stage , longer shoot, longer scoring, etc. 

In some ways the only way to fix that is to make 1 and 2 slower. Which means you need to make 7 slower, etc. Or you can make 3 faster but now you are baking up into 4.  It is what it is with unequal sized pits. You can do SOME things to speed thing along but unless you turn all stages into really fast ones that shoot as fast as 1 or 2 you can never really fix it.

 

One of the great advantages of the OB unequal pits is that you can do really diverse stages which is nice. It is also a drawback. It has been this way since ever. The only time you don't have backups is when you have 5-6 squads and you start with an empty slot in pit 2 which you hope it will amortize the backup over the length of the match. 

 

However with 90 people at the match, there is no way you won't end up with a backup and you can't have empty pits.

 

I suppose Jim could set the signup limit to 70 but then people will be mad because they can't shoot.

Guess I was lucky, as we started in pit 1 so when we got to 3 we only had to wait for one last person to shoot.  Perhaps the solution is to announce to people to minimize chit-chat and try to move things along as fast as possible in pit 3.  That also includes things like using a piece of paper and pencil to write scores down if a Nook acts up and then enter it later.  I must have been the cause of the backup since on my bad ankle I could only shoot and walk not shoot and run - and running is the best part of my game too

You can ask people to hurry, but it is a social event so people want to socialize. Being all german about the entire affair is not likely to make it more pleasant.

I agree , but to move fast on one stage won't harm thing and if it Prevents others from waiting it makes the entire day better

You will then back up in pit 4

 

Trust me, we've chewed on this for a decade, we've tried all sorts of things. There are little things that can make it better and if everyone helps it does work smoother, but on a hot day with 90 or so shooters, you will have backups. Its like complaining that it is hot. It is true, but it just is.

People just need to shoot faster

People just need to shoot faster

 

 

Squad of 15. Average stage for average shooter .. lets say 40 seconds. Cutting in half that means 5min savings. For a whole match, 35 min if you are lucky.

 

I certainly want to cut my times in half, but I doubt that will make the match go MUCH faster.

We could run fix time every stage, its always faster to score a FTE,

If the average shooter were to shoot faster they would likely have more misses. With fewer holes in the target, the time taping will be reduced.

I guess our squad got lucky --  We really didn't have much wait at all at 3 

 

We did have a small wait on 4 and 5 but 6 was empty for awhile before we got there -- I don't recall anyone really waiting for us either

 

The tapers did get a little lazy at times 

 

It was still a great day but my head got sunburned...   forgot my hat 

People just need to shoot faster

Eliminating revolver division is a start

If it started earlier it would finish earlier. Just sayin.

Eliminating revolver division is a start

That is true. But you were the only one. And at least you had the decency to use an 8 shot revolver.

Alec -- How did you like the qualifier?  How many shots did you get off?