This Question of the Month was inspired by Stage 4 from the 2025 Racegun Nationals. When my staff squad shot it, I was asked by a PCC shooter if he could shoot from the hip right after the start signal. I gave him an answer, and then told him I better double check the rulebook. Based on the results of this poll, I don’t think many folks checked the rulebook. Let’s revisit the question and find out what the correct answer is!
The stage is an 8 round Comstock short course with 8 USPSA targets. Best one hit per target scores. PCC start position is loaded, safety applied, stock touching belt. Stage procedure is upon audible start signal, from within the shooting area engage targets using Weak Hand/Weak Side Only. A competitor is holding the PCC on the weak side with stock touching belt at the start signal and engages the first two targets from the hip. As RO, what is your call?
I have already indicated that the winning answer is not correct. So what is the correct answer? First, let’s look at the definition of “weak side” in App. A3: PCC: Opposite of Strong Side. The carbine is mounted to the shoulder on the weak side of the body and trigger must be pulled with the weak hand. A shooter must utilize the same side of their body as the weak side for the duration of the match.
I have marked the important sentence of the definition using italics. It specifically says to satisfy weak side only, the carbine must be mounted to the weak shoulder and trigger pulled with the weak hand. This means that shooting from the hip, even if the trigger is pulled with the weak hand, does not satisfy the weak side only requirement from the stage WSB. (And yes, the definition of strong side specifies mounted on shoulder as well).
So which procedural penalty applies? Since PCC shooters touch the gun with both hands during strong/weak side only, we don’t use 10.2.8 like we do for handgun. In this case, the competitor failed to comply with the stage procedure (10.2.2): Except as addressed in other rules, a competitor who fails to comply with the procedure specified in the Written Stage Briefing will incur one procedural penalty for each occurrence. However, if a competitor has gained a significant advantage during non-compliance, the competitor may be assessed one procedural penalty for each shot fired, instead of a single penalty (e.g. firing multiple shots contrary to the required position or stance).
You will notice that 10.2.2 allows for a per shot penalty if the action was a significant advantage. In this case, I would consider it a significant advantage because the competitor saved a ton of time by not moving the stock to the shoulder and did that while moving to the next position. The competitor fired once at each target, so 2 shots and 2 procedural penalties. And even of the competitor had fired multiple shots at those targets, it would still be 2 penalties because 10.2.3 says you can’t penalize with 10.2.2 more than the number of scoring hits. And the best 1 hit per target scored for each of those targets.
So the correct is 2 procedural penalties and initially I also thought it would be no penalty, until I checked the definition of weak side. Always check things like this!! And we did make sure all the staff who worked this stage were clear on what weak side only means.
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