Rules Insights

We often get questions concerning what part of a wall is impenetrable, which part may be shot through, and whether the feet or supports can be used. Here are some insights into walls and vision barriers in general.

If your gun is malfunctioning, breaks, or if your sights fall off or break the rules state that you must get Range Master approval before any modifications are made, or the gun is replaced. Let’s learn a bit more about the rule and the reasoning behind this rule.

We have previously discussed the appropriate ready conditions for loaded firearms that start the stage on a table, but what about unloaded firearms and their placement. I recently worked a match where a stage required magazines to start on any of the barrels and the unloaded firearm to start on the table. It was a fun stage, but we had competitors earn a DQ before they even fired a shot on the stage. Can you guess why?

Rule 3.2.1 requires that the competitor start position is included in the Written Stage Briefing (WSB) for each stage.  We’ve all seen a wide variety of start positions at matches: anywhere inside the shooting area, feet or hands touching a marked location, heels or toes touching the rear fault line, etc.  Words matter, of course, and it is important that WSBs are clearly written and that the start position is consistently enforced.  This article will discuss one specific nuance of the competitor start location relative to the shooting area.

Last weekend I worked my local sectional match and I got to work a Virginia Count, two string Standard Exercise. I was sure it was some sort of atonement for all my blog posts about Virginia Count, but I got to witness a ton of learning among staff and competitors in those two days.

One question we get frequently to rules@uspsa.org is around the use of suppressors, or more specifically, why we don’t allow them. Most of the time the person sending the query is upset that we are infringing on their rights. Nothing could be further from the truth.