Innovation and Charity

We did not have enough shooters to hold a Jackpot shoot yesterday at the Loess Hills Shoot but we shot any way.  The shoot is held as a fund raiser for the charity and to test out new ideas.  The pot is $100 so we need a minimum of 10 ten dollar entry fees to hold a jackpot shoot.  We had only seven preregister yesterday.  A donation of $10 is not too much to ask to support a traveling range but what do I know, maybe it is.

Innovation:  Yesterday we tested out shooting Arizona Five two rounds at a time.  We drew the first round and then had the program draw the first round a second time. By putting two rounds on each sheet we had in effect drawn the first 4 rounds.  Each two shooters shot the first round of Arizona Five then traded lanes and shot the second round. (We have been shooting this for years on Shady mountain and I think that is why Shady Mtn shooters do so well in in competition)  The score sheet will accommodate the first and second rounds since there are 14 blocks on the sheet.  The first five blocks are for the times, 6th block is for W/X, 7th block is for fastest time in round one, 8th block is not used, just blackened out, that leaves 6 more blocks for round two, with the W/X block and fastest time for round 2 preprinted already.  I knew the preprinted score sheet would work well, what I needed to test was the score entry feature of the CFDA program.

Testing the CFDA program I found that you could enter the scores in the normal fashion but when you attempted to enter round two scores the program would tell you could not do that until you drew round two.  You could, of course, draw what the computer thought was round two and you would have round 5 and 6 drawn.  However, the program will let you enter round two using the edit shooter score button.  This is a much easier way to do it when shooting double Arizona Five.  For example, Shady Mike was the first shooter on page 1, you just bring him up and enter both round one and round two scores.  There is no delay to enter scores since round three and four already have been drawn and are being shot while you enter these scores.

We  had three new shooters to train so after the first four rounds we took a break to train the new shooters. While doing that we entered rounds 3 and 4 using the edit feature.  We then told the computer to draw round 2, which was used for rounds 5 and 6.  The CFDA program really worked well for this type of shoot.  

The only real negative to doing double Arizona Five this way is that you are shooting the same opponent in rounds one and two.  Last year I tested rotating by moving each shooter one lane to the left, while this work well for the shooters, I concluded it was not worth the effort to use special paper and train scorekeepers.

Format Matters:  Again yesterday the hit ratio and gunfighter ratings of the shooters were poor.  Only Shady Mike managed a respectable rating of 1.21 and his hit ratio was below what we normally see for him.  I think this is just a reflection of the fact that Arizona Five is a tougher format than 3 winning shots,  BUT it prepares you for the stress of competition.  

The sort was adequate.  QC Carver won the event because when it came to the shoot off he had the best gunfighter rating in the shoot offs, although he was third overall in gunfighter rating.

Next up:  I would like to do the next Loess Hills Jackpot on May 19.  I set it for Sunday so that it does not conflict with the Camp shoot on May 18. I talked to Rodeo and I am impressed with his speed index concept.  I highly recommend giving it a try but I have some trepidation about shooting blockers. They don't seem to help CFDA shooters, but the speed index seems to have merit.

On May19th I am looking for 18 shooters to test out the Arizona bye.  Cal does not believe me but  the Arizona bye would sort better and save about 50% on the number of rounds needed in last man standing after you get down to 7 shooters.  Last man standing events seem to drag on and on because one shooter is not competing in each round and the aberration of the event winner not competing in 4 of the last 5 rounds did happen in a title event.  Any way I need to twist Shady's arm to get three targets set up then we will shoot 6 sets of three shooters each to test the Arizona bye.  

"Thresholds are frightening places: We stand between what we know and what we don't know. Thresholds offer an invitation to leave the familiar behind and step into the new, the unexpected."  
 Author unknown.

The manna has ceased, now will the milk and honey sustain us? Alleluia Ruah