NROI.ORG

USPSA - National Range Officers Institute

Kevin Imel

We Need a Rule(ing)

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Here at NROI, we frequently get queries from someone about what rule prevents a shooter, or can be used to prevent a shooter, from doing x, y or z. While many of these fall into the “help them find the relevant rule(s)” category, a fair number fall into “there isn’t any rule that does that”. Sometimes they insist that we need a rule, or a ruling, declaring said action illegal. And 99.9% of those simply are things that really aren’t rule worthy but should be taken care of with proper stage design, WSB authoring, and setup. Let’s look at a few examples. I’ve generalized the questions somewhat.

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Steel Challenge Q&A:

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Having been the RM for a recently completed SCSA Tier 3 match I got to answer a lot of questions, especially from folks who were not very familiar with SCSA rules. For competitors that are used to USPSA competition, there are some differences between the rules that can cause some confusion which can lead to a lot of questions. Let’s look at a few of the more common ones.

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It’s ‘Legal’, But Should You?

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Despite the size of our rule book, there isn’t a rule that specifically addresses every possible situation. I really don’t think anyone actually would want a rule book that did that because becoming an RO would become a multi-year intensive law school type course. No thanks. In large part we depend on common sense to get through life and our sport is much the same; we are expected to utilize some common sense with stage designs, setup and even during competition. Alas, in the words of François-Marie Arouet, better known to most by his nom de plume, Voltaire, “Common sense is not so common.”

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Unsung Hero: The Target Stick

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Our rules basically state that they don’t exist; yet, matches wouldn’t go very far without them. People complain about their cost, after all, you buy nice ones that are mostly straight, mostly dimensioned appropriately, we seem to never have quite enough of them to start with and then people cut them up and shoot them to pieces. Alas, they are the unsung heroes of our sport; I give you, the lowly target stick.

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What really matters?

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Recently I have been looking at some sports that are similar to USPSA/SCSA in that they have a very large amateur component run at a local level and a smaller professional component at a state, regional, national and world level. Many of those sports face some of the same challenges we do so it can be interesting to see how they have solved those problems. One of those ventures is a return to almost 40 years ago for me, archery. I put up the bow when I headed to college and haven’t really paid any attention to it since.

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Interference

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It happens to all Range Officers now and then. Something you weren’t prepared for happens and you, someone, or something, somehow interferes with the competitor and you wind up having to offer them a reshoot. Note I said “offer them” a reshoot. Recall that interference is the only optional reshoot in our sport.

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Let’s Get Retro – Part IIIc: – Shoot House

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Shoot House type stages can be a lot of fun to run as staff, or they can be a nightmare. Traditionally, they are designed with generally anterograde movement combined with a fair bit of lateral movement. Sometimes they are totally enclosed leading to subdued light situations, sometimes they are just a whole lot of walls without a roof. Either way, they are a staple of our sport. Now and then you run into one that has at least a portion requiring retrograde movement due to movement down a passage to engage targets, and then having to reverse course to move to the next targets. There are, of course, several interesting variations on this.

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