[Sestock]

Looking for a shooter perspective on the ideal size of a Area/Sectional match(not nationals).

[IPSCDRL]

Ten to tweleve seems about perfect based on my experience. Of course that number may need to be reduced due to range limitations.

[Sestock]

For everyone who is voting for 12 or greater stages.

Are you willing to shoot on a two day format?

[Jim Norman]

Shooting a 2 day format will limit yor participation. Generally it requires two overnight stays as opposed to one. That adds greatly to the cost as well as the away time. It may make it impossible for a lot of shooters. Many people work Saturday, but can shoot Sunday, Others attend church on Sunday and can only shoot Saturday.

I'd keep area matches at a one day level if it were up to me.

Jim

[driver8M3]

i'd say the most that can be completed in a single-day format. 2-day events end up costing too much if you have to travel. and it seems like a lot of down time if you only shoot 6 stages per day.

[kdj]

Since some local matches have 5 or 6, I'd say that you need around 10 to make it seem special

Personally, I don't like shooting more than 5 stages a day, so I'd like to be able to shoot the match over 2 half days too.

Kevin

[Nik Habicht]

Larry Houck (and his incredible support team) manages to have ten stages in a half day format at The Summer Blast. That's probably my favorite big match format. It's long enough to do some serious shooting without every stage being a long field course. For those of you who have never been there, the blast is typically six fieldcourses, and four shorter stages that are shot two at a time, i.e. shooter completes eight-round speed shoot, reloads and steps into start position for a 14-16 round medium course. That means that there are 8 rotations to get through, and since squad size is limited to seven you can get through the match in 4-4.5 hours.

When the shooting day lasts for ten to twelve hours, I'm usually suffering from that oriental disease, Dragon Ass, long before the match is done....

[Vince Pinto]

Nik Habicht, on Aug 27 2004, 01:58 AM, said:

..... I'm usually suffering from that oriental disease, Dragon Ass, long before the match is done....

Ha! First time I've heard that one, and you can bet I'm gonna steal it

[LPatterson]

My vote goes for 12 or more stages over a 2 day period. Half day work period half day shoot period each day. In our locale there is no way that we can find enough range staff so that shooters can only shoot and leave. At our range more than 6 stages means we have to use 2 areas separated by at least 1/4 mile & only 2 people walked it the last are match.

[TheOtherErik]

8 stages is good for a section match. 10- 12 for an area match. Any more is just over kill. A 10+ stage match usualy takes 2 1/2 days. If you are planning a match i would recommend use a half day format. I doesn't keep you at the range ALL day. I also would recommend the self squadding system that Rob Boudire has introduced. The Golden Bullet section matched used it and it seemed to be favored by most of the shooters.

[Kingman]

shot the 10 at tristate went pretty well I was back home by 5 or so all in one day.

[Dead Buff]

Tournament as in IPSC 3-gun or Tournament as in any competition?

3-gun we shoot 3 CoF's per gun in a 1 day format thus 9 stages....
Competition we shoot 8-12 in a 1 day format...

[Sestock]

Tournement as in USPSA Pistol

[dpeters8445]

10 stages or whatever the host club can fit in a single day format.

[mats40]

Yeah, I agree with dpeters. I wouldn't want to shoot in a two day format.

[Harmon]

if it cant be done in one day, one 8 hour day, its too much..
i dont see what it proves(as a shooter) to shoot a bunch of 30 round field courses..but then again, i dont see what the point of the stages with entirely too many props...makes me feel like im playing baseball while holding a pistol, shooting the fielders as i round the bases...not my idea of fun...
i voted for a 8 stage match..any more than that is just silly
HG

[short_round]

TheOtherErik, on Aug 26 2004, 06:26 PM, said:

I also would recommend the self squadding system that Rob Boudire has introduced. The Golden Bullet section matched used it and it seemed to be favored by most of the shooters.

The self-squadding at GBC was excellent!!

[scorch]

Man Am I in the Minority here! If someone was going to put on a 18 stage match I would Be there with bells on, 2-3 days cool. I can spend all day at the range and not be near as tried as i am being all day at work. An hour after i get done shooting i want to do it again kinda like Chinese food
I used to get tired at the big matches till I started bring food and water with me in my wagon that helps alot, (of course now I Have a market umbrella and an air conditioner on it to, but thats another story) espically the water. being dehydrated really runs you down physical and mentally.

How long a match takes depends alot on the shooters and the range layout. at our home club range we can shoot six stages with 24 or so guys and be done in just over 3 hours tops because of the range layout and the guys help.

[Jim Norman]

Rule of thumb

How long will the longest stage take to clear for one shooter?
Multiply by the number of shooters on the largest squad.
Add in 7 minutes for reading WSB and a 5 min walk through
Add in 5 minutes for stage to stage travel
Multiply by number of stages

Divide by 60, you now have the hours and minutes that it will take to go through the match. if it is one hour less than half of your allowable shooting time, as an example, 0800 - 1900 is 11 hours, so you could have two five hour runs.

So that means what? 8 shooters is 40 minutes plus 12 minutes of travel and WSB or 52 minutes. 5 hours is 600 minutes. doing the math means we can shoot an 11 stage 1/2 day format. that is 88 shooters per flight. on a three day full format match, that is 6 flights or 528 shooters.

I would strongly suggest reducing the Sunday format to either 6 shooters or only one flight to facilitate tear-down. If a single flight format on Sunday you could increase the squad size to maybe 10 or 11.

At our club match we reduce the clear time to 4 minutes allowed and increase the squad size to 10. This on our regular 7 stage match means we shoot for about 6 hours. Generally we beat this a bit. But not by a whole lot.

And remember, it doesn't matter if all the stages have a squad on them, or if there is only one squad, the time does not change. Understood that a fast squad with no one ahead of them can move along faster, but you have to always take into account the squad that will use every available minute and a few more. It is up to the RO staff to keep the squads on schedule.

Jim Norman

[Dead Buff]

What I have found is that one can roughly calculate 45min to 1hr per stage with squads of 10-15max. This will allow for re-shoots and ensure a speedy but not pressured pace. Number of squads 1 more than number of stages incl chrono and you have a lunch hour that you float between 10:00-15:00 easing pressure on the refreshment facilities....

From that the slots are easy to calculate for Full-day and Half-day formats.

Sunday half-day is a must