For Comstock and Virginia Count scoring, time ends with the last shot. But in Fixed Time scoring, the time ends on the second beep. But what if the competitor doesn’t hear the second beep? What if the RO doesn’t hear it either?
Fixed Time stages are fun, but the timer needs to be setup to deliver the second (stop) beep per the par time for the stage. It is very common for the first shooter on the Fixed Time stage to be shooting along and not get a second beep because the timer was never setup properly. That is obviously range equipment failure, the timer is fixed, and a reshoot happens. But what if the timer is set properly and is tested and the competitor and ROs still don’t hear the second beep?
It could still be an issue with the timer, but it also may be the electronic hearing protection everyone now uses. A few months ago, I shot an indoor match that had a Fixed Time stage. I was the first person to shoot the stage on our squad. I was very surprised when I got all the shots off before the second beep. But I wasn’t the only one to not hear it. After testing the timer and shooting the stage again and not hearing the second beep again, but others did, I just took the overtime shot penalties (minus 5 pts per shot) which negated the Alphas I got on the last couple targets. I realized that the beep was occurring during the period where my electronic hearing protection is silencing shots. So between the electronic hearing protection and being indoors which is very loud, it was a problem with my gear, not the timer.
Flash forward to the recent 2024 Area 1 Championship and the Fixed Time stage at that match. Our squad initially had the same problem thinking the timer was not beeping a second time, but the timer testing showed it worked properly. We were outdoors so the gun shots were not quite as loud, but hearing the second beep was still dependent on when the beep occurred in relation to a gunshot. The staff on that stage finally realized that electronic hearing protection was the issue and started advising squads (with RM approval) to turn off their hearing protection so they had a better chance of hearing the second beep.
Moral of the story, when you shoot or officiate a Fixed Time stage, we recommend turning off your electronic hearing protection so it doesn’t mute sounds completely. Fixed Time has been around for a long time, but good quality electronic hearing protection is relatively new. And if you don’t hear the second beep as a competitor, just keep shooting. The ROs can figure out how many overtime shots you had and apply the penalty which negates any extra hits you got. And you will have fun thinking you beat that par time…temporarily.