- Glock 26: 8.6 seconds/run.
- Custom Glock 19: 6.5 seconds/run.
- Difference: 2.1 seconds (more than .25 seconds/target!)
Year: 2018
Our thanks to the Hendershots shooting club in Hagerstown, Maryland for hosting our first East-Coast ASI Range Officer class! Sandy and Dustin Wylie flew out to team-teach and help the Hendershots crew (led by Ron David, [email protected]) get their first match off the ground.
A hearty welcome goes out to the East Grand Forks Rod & Gun Club in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Larry Manning is putting together a fresh program our there, and could really use your help! If you’re in the Minnesota/North Dakota era, contact Larry directly at (218) 230-4280 or [email protected] . He needs shooters and volunteers both!
We’ve got two major suggestions:
- Assign a “prop gun handler” that will deal with all the unloading/reloading/stowage/reloading/re-prepping tasks. Just having a designated handler will increase your “throughput” tremendously, and adds an extra layer of gun handling safety.
- Don’t rely on the shooter to understand how your prop gun operates. If possible, put an identical carbine in the safety area so shooters can get a chance to handle it at their own pace. If a staged back-up gun isn’t an option, encourage your prop gun handler to explain the gun to people between shooters/stages as time allows.
- Ready Table: When shooters arrive at the match, all the carbines get uncased and laid on one of two long benches along the wall. The carbines
- must point directly at the wall (which is bulletproof), and must have a chamber flag inserted.
- Dots On: When the carbine is uncased, the shooter activates any electronic sights they might have, and leaves them on for the duration of the match. According to Grob, this one thing is a HUGE time-saver, and has some real-world lessons as well.
- Ready Area: Once the shooters lay their carbines down, they carry the rest of their gear back uprange to some benches where their gear will remain for the duration. Doing this keeps the shooter from carrying their (big, awkward) gun case to the firing line and fishing around in it to find their magazines. When the shooter is called, they walk forward to the side table with a loaded magazine or two (only) stuck in their pockets. They pick up the carbine, point it skyward, and walk directly to the firing line – no muss, no fuss, no time wasted.
When Dustin Wylie and Robin Taylor were teaching the RO course in Alaska recently, a question came up about “what happens when someone accidentally shoots a prop?”
The answer comes down to context. If the shooter fires a shot while not aiming at a target, that’s an accidental discharge — and the hole in the prop is evidence of the fact that they weren’t aiming at a target. However, it is possible to lean around a barricade, and simply misjudge whether one’s barrel has totally cleared the edge.
The shooter shown below is a participant at the USPSA PCC National Championship. (Remote camera.) He has a clear line of sight to the target with his sights, but unbeknownst to him, his barrel is still aimed at wood.
You can see wood being blasted off the barricade as he valiantly tries to make that difficult off-balance shot.
If you’re concerned about people blasting the edge of your barricade (like this) we suggest extending the edge of the barricade slightly with a bit of easily-replaceable trim. Cardboard works well too!
Because of this phenomenon, ASI barricades are meant to create a vision barrier only — declaring the barricade to be “hard cover” makes scoring much more difficult. (The RO’s that had to sort out the below situation for USPSA had their hands full!)
The ASI rules are full of not-so-obvious policies like this one, which flow from the Founders’ many years of match experience. They’re designed to make the match easier to run, and easier to understand for everyone — without a lot of unnecessary rule-making.
ASI Releases Newest Rule “Book” and Keeps Promise to Maintain Short Rules for Competitive Sport While Promoting Gun Safety Education in a Fun and Social Setting.
The 1.5 rule book is still only 8 pages and streamlined compared to the 1.4 version. You can read it here: https://asi-usa.org/rules/
“We’ve opened up the playing field to allow the ’30-something’ calibers that are often banned by other sports,” says ASI CEO Robin Taylor. “Examples include the .32 ACP, .32-20, 7.62X25, .30 Mauser, and the entire .32 S&W family, including the .327 Federal Magnum. Also, the rule allowing revolver shooters to use a frame-mounted optic appears in print at last, along with a handful of minor corrections and fixes.”
If you find any errors or problems (typos included) Mike Meisner is working on putting together a “fix list” for next year’s release. He can be reached at [email protected].
New Club! Please welcome Caledonia Forest and Stream in St. Johnsbury, VT. Steve Towle is getting the show off the ground at Caledonia, and will be looking for shooter/volunteers forthwith! If you’re interested, look up Steve at [email protected]. You’ll find Caledonia at www.caledoniaforestandstream.com .
Setting records! The ASI club in Renton, Wash. had what we think is their largest ASI club match to date on Saturday — 76 shooters! (Technically 77, but one had to go home early.) Way to go Renton and the Northwest Practical Pistol Association (NWPPA)!