[RickB]

At yesterday's USPSA match, we had a stage with five disappearing drop/turners activated by a single popper. The wires running from the popper to the turners were all the same length, so they all turned together (bad stage design, I thought). After watching the first few shooters (myself included) hit the popper then wait for the turners to move, everyone started shooting before the turning targets had moved at all; that was about the only way to get hits on more than three targets. A lot of the targets had elongated hits, some as much as 4", and if there was only one of these on a target, it was scored as two hits. Is there something in the new rule book about this? ANY hole bigger than one bullet diameter is two hits, or ???? Is this something new that applies only to disappearing targets? Clearly, most if not all of these holes were single hits, but I suppose there'd be no way for the RO to know that.

 

[Jim Watson]

I was looking this up for my NROI recertification. Rule 9.9.3, 14th edition, says: "Any bullet hole on a target that turns, appears, or disappears, will score the highest zone hit." No mention anywhere of counting an elongated hole as a double. The old book was the other way 'round. A hole more than two calibers long was a miss.

In my opinion the RO was giving out freebies to pay the shooters back for putting up with poor course design.

 

[RickB]

It seemed ridiculous to assume any hole that was larger than caliber diameter was a double, but what is the RO to do? The shooter fires two rounds at the target, and there is a hole that is clearly large enough for two bullets (or three, or four . . .) to pass through, so why shouldn't the shooter get the extra hit? As soon as the popper is hit, the turner has been "activated", so the shooter is under no obligation to wait, right? Usually, there's another popper or target(s) to be engaged while waiting for the turner, but in this case, there was nothing to do but wait (or shoot). Even if the stage was something of a joke, do you think the RO's interpreted the rules correctly? I'm an RO myself, and wouldn't think to score the hit as a double, unless a shooter asked for the template, in which case I'd be hard-pressed to call a mike.

 

[Silver Surfer]

You shoot a guy and his guts all spill out. I'd say thats a "A" hit!