First, let me say that the shoot was a lot of fun.  Jeff and John and all the folks at CMMG did their usuall outstanding job of putting on an excellent shoot.  Their facility is well on the way to being one of the best in the midwest.  Their addition of reactive targets (poppers and bowling pins) is just another sign that they are seriously committed to providing us wiith the best shooting experience around.  

      That being said, I did have some concerns with the pistol portions of the COF.  Bowling pins are great reactive targets, but they are usually engaged at distances of 3-7 yards.  Many of the stages had bowling pins engaged at distances much further than that, making the shots very difficult for the younger/less experienced shooters.  I saw a couple of examples of shooters using their entire compliment of pistol ammunition and failing to nuetralize two targets.  Even some of the more experienced shooters struggled with certain targets or ended a COF without enough ammo to finish.  Everyone seemed to be very good natured about it but it may have been very demoralizing to some.  

       My concern is if the COF is so difficult as to make a successful completion impossible for the younger/less experienced shooter that shooter may loose interest and not return to another shoot.  It is very important to our hobby/sport/way of life that we always encourage new shooters to join us.  If our COF's are so difficult that a novice shooter cannot complete them then we take the risk of alienating beginning shooters.  I'm not advocating cake-walk COF's, but the novice shooter should have at least some expectation of success.  The factor of shooting "on the clock" will always give the advantage to the more experienced shooter without the COF being a test of pure marksmanship.

      Those things being said, please understand that I am not trying to be critical.  I certainly didn't put forth any effort to design a COF or do any of the hours of work required to put on a successful shoot.  I am only concerned that we do what is best for our community.   I am hopefull that all the shooters that come to our events can enjoy themselves and then they will introduce others to our sport.  As gunowners, one of the best things we con do to protect our rights is introduce and encourage new shooters.

BTW: If anybody thinks I'm whining because the pistol COF kicked my butt, I finished 2nd shooting a single stack .45 1911.  If anything the pistol stages were layed out to my advantage as I had just zereod my pistol at 25 yards earlier in the week.  I am only concerned about the looks of frustration I saw in a few shooters.  Just my thoughts, if I'm off base, Flame Away!
       

It was tough, but I enjoyed it.  I'm one of the guys who went through 24 rnds of ammo only to knock down 1 pin out of 2 in one of the transitional courses.  I also ran out of ammo in the pistol competition, and left the last 2 pins standing.  Sure I was disappointed in myself, but that's when it is time to suck it up.

The only thing I'll say is that I'll practice more for the next time.  I'm not putting any of the blame on the guys who set up the COFs.  I think they where cool.  I also learned that in order to knock down the pins, you have to aim low.

Practice, Practice, and more Practice!!!!!!

Good luck people, and I hope to see you next time.

Hey DBAR,
Great Attitude, I hope that everyone who struggled has the same thoughts as you.  As you said, I enjoyed the COF's very much, I was   just a little concerned that some guys would be discouraged.

I would like to see some shorter range, faster moving COF. I t was taking up to 2mins for some people to do the COFs, That led to a lot of downtime and caused everyone to spreed out , some what lessening the level of freindly compedtion that comes from everyone being there. I really liked the  2nd rifle COF from the july 2 shoot with the long shot right off the bat and then moving on to the shorter stuff. I would also like to see more shooting on the move.

The MODCC shoots are generally faster paced and closer in. This was a competition style tactical shoot. They made it more competition style. They also tried to get us out of our element some (and prone pistol shooting is definately out of my element, even though that was the only part I did good on, though it was pure luck as evidenced by my other pistol shooting). I think it was absolutely EXCELLENT.


If these start getting big though, they will need to be run different. Maybe have 2-4 counters and range officers. Have 1/3 or 1/4 of the shooters (however many courses there are) start at each course and when they finish go to the next one (if they are all set up to take about the same amount of time). That way EVERY course is going on at the same time. It was great this time, but there also were not that many shooters. If it gets up to 30-40 shooters it'll probably need to move either that direction or have a very fast course (which would be less fun if it only took 20 seconds unless it was like that shotgun course, THAT was awesome).