Question of the Month Results

Or are you just excited to shoot the stage? With the ammo shortage, I am sure everyone is getting more dry fire time, and many people use laser trainers or snap caps. But what if this happens at the match: “You are the RO and you give the competitor the ‘Make Ready’ command. The competitor inserts a magazine, racks the slide, but can’t seem to get a round to chamber. The competitor drops the magazine and locks back the slide. You see a laser trainer cartridge in the chamber. What is your call as the RO?”

[Read more…] about Is that a laser trainer in your chamber?

For this Question of the Month we posed a scoring question: The RO watches the shooter engage the target in the picture and sees the first shot travel through the mesh wall on the left, and the subsequent two shots clear the wall edge. The RO did not see where the first shot hit the target, nor is there evidence on the target to determine which shot went through the mesh. The target has three holes: one Alpha and two Charlie. How do you score the target?

[Read more…] about Which hit was it?

In honor of February we decided to pose another Virginia Count based Question of the Month since we know that some of you love Virginia Count so much. Before we discuss how many penalties and for what, let’s review the scenario.

[Read more…] about More Virginia Count

“A competitor holsters their loaded single action pistol with the safety off, but flicks the safety on before removing their hand from the pistol. What is your call?” I won’t lie. The results of this Question of the Month have us a bit stunned. We didn’t think that this question would have results like this:

[Read more…] about Is that safety on?

The December Question of the Month deals with a magazine ending up beyond the plane of a wall and what, if anything needs to be done about a shooter that reaches through the wall for it.

[Read more…] about Just Another Mag Beyond the Wall

Holsters, mag pouches, mags full of ammo, and pistols. That adds up to a lot of weight being supported by our belts during matches. But sometimes buckles break, belt webbing fails, or the Velcro between the inner and outer belts gets worn out and belts fail to stay put during a stage. This is a rare occurrence, but something we get asked about often enough to be a Question of the Month: The competitor’s belt falls off while shooting the course of fire. What is your call as the RO?

[Read more…] about Wardrobe malfunction

I don’t dislike Virginia Count. I think it tests a different set of skills. But I do hate when competitors decide to not shoot a Virginia Count stage in a way that violates the stage procedure…because it usually leads to lengthy discussions about how many penalties are needed. Sometimes ROs can’t agree on the number of penalties. Other times they agree on the number, but not the reason. We all need practice, which is why we keep posing Virginia Count questions for the Question of the Month.

[Read more…] about Another Virginia Count Problem

We have many penalties in our sport and most of them are well defined, but there are a few times where the RO needs to determine the number of penalties based on significant advantage. For the September Question of the Month we posed a question where significant advantage may come into play: After the start signal, the competitor draws and shoots T1-T5 from the start position and then enters shooting area B and shoots the remaining targets. How many procedural penalties?

[Read more…] about Significant Advantage