The match yesterday (January 2010) was good despite the challenges. What did we learn?
We learned that without electricity down at the pistol range we can’t run our compressor or any of our computer equipment…
We need to improve the safety aspects of having long guns on the range. There was way to much fooling around with the rifles while waiting to shoot. From now own there are only two places where you can screw around with your rifle. 1) Safe area. 2) when it’s your turn to shoot. So the rules from now own are:
- You may carry your rifle in a sling muzzle down chamber open or flagged
- You may take the rife out of its case and place it on the rifle rack where it is to stay until it is your turn to shoot.
Same rules for shotguns. Please help spread the word and make sure your squad mates understand these rules. We don’t want to DQ anyone for violating these safety rules in the future.
Finally, we need to discuss rain. For the last 5 years we’ve been in a drought. Well that has changed and the last 2 matches we’ve shot in the rain. First, we need to do a better job of protecting the timers against the weather. Let’s put them in ziploc bags and keep them there. There is no such thing as a water proof timer. They all get zapped by water. Keep them dry.
Scoresheets: when they are wet, you can’t write on them, we have to dry them before we can scan them and they tear very easily. Black ink works best with the scanner. Pencil lead is too light for the scanner and blue or red ink is just as bad. Felt tip pens bleed when wet. So here is what I would like to do in the future: have the shooter keep his scoresheet dry and only take it from him when it is his turn to shoot. Once his score has been written down, put the scoresheet in your pocket or somewhere dry. When we collect scoresheets and keep them on the clipboard while the whole squad shoots, they get wet. I know this means we need to come up with another way to call the shooters to the line, but it will make the scoring crew’s life a little easier on rainy match days
-Capel