More than one way to skin a cat.

We shot the Loess Hills Paladin Jackpot shoot at Shady mountain yesterday on two lanes with 15 shooters. We had an odd number shooters but because we only had two lanes we could not use the CFDA bye procedure.  I have written on the inherent unfairness of the CFDA bye previously, see "Muster matters, Format matters, Newbies learn!", 9/17/2018.  In a comment to that post Rodeo Romeo suggested a solution of having the last three shooters to continue to shoot until there is a winner among the three then the other two shooters both get an x.  This suggestion has great merit and should be considered by CFDA. It would go a long way in solving the inherent unfairness that is especially troublesome in last man standing events.  However, we could not use this suggestion because we only had two lanes.

What we did was to take the loser of the last full group and have he or she shoot against the odd bye shooter.  That way nobody got to advance without shooting the format of the match.  (The inherent problem with the CFDA bye is that the bye winner moves forward without competing in the format of the match.)  This worked well until we had two losers in the final full group (possible with Arizona Five.)  In that event, we had a one shot shoot off for the opportunity to shoot against the bye shooter, winner getting that opportunity.

This bye procedure worked well.  I would note that the two top seeds both saved an x with this bye solutions. Remember in CFDA scoring wins do not matter.  We score by loses that is "x"s.

Other Comments: 

Generally, the Arizona Five format worked well.  We shot 6 rounds in 3 hours, 15 shooters on 2 lanes.  The gunfighter ratings of the gunslingers were lower than what you would expect at a club event, but that is what you would expect of Arizona Five because it is a little tougher format than 3 winning shots and therefore better for a practice event.  If you want to get better at titled events, shoot Arizona Five!  If you are going succeed you have to hit now, within the first 5 shots, there is no 7,8,9,10, etc shots to redeem you. 

The sort was good. The seeding matched the gunfighter rating of the gunslingers.  Arizona Five does a better job sorting because of the increase of rounds, elimination of the one shot lottery shoot off, and the feature that both shooters can get a loss if they are shooting poorly or both can get a win if they are shooting well. 

We shot 48 matches in the seeding rounds.  Only 2 matches resulted in double loses or 4% of the matches.  Only 6 matches resulted in double wins or 12.5% of the matches. Together that would be 16% of the matches.  The fact that double wins were three times more likely is a reflection of the quality of the shooters attending. To get a double lose both shooters must be shooting really poorly.  On the other hand with the quality of the shooters attending, it is much more likely to have two shooters both shooting well and in that event both might get a win.  Arizona Five properly sorts when two shooters are 2-2, both hitting 80%, both having won 2 shots on speed.  It also sorts properly when one of those shooters hits 100%.

I think the Loess Hills Paladins will continue with monthly Arizona Five Jackpot shoots, third Sunday of the month looks good to me.  I just need to sort out locations.  At a minimum, the less than 20 works well on Shady Mtn.  

When it gets to be 115 in the shade this summer, a little jackpot shoot at Rented Mule might be in order.  Have Range, Will Travel.