Three Shooter Match

At our mid-week practice we again shot a three shooter match. We had 19 shooters. We used a computer with 19.7 on it and again the CFDA program worked flawlessly.  We are following CFDA rules to the letter as I will explain below.

The field:  The field was our normal group of tough competitors of various speeds.  About 1/3rd of the field were low 4 shooters. There were no shooters that routinely shoot into the threes. 

We shot a three winning shots no x contest with a 1x Magnificent 19 shoot-off. Every shooter got a minimum of 6 rounds against 12 opponents selected by computer luck of the draw or by magnificent seeding.  Shooting 1x shoot-off meant we were able to shoot more main match rounds.  Last week shot 3 main match and a 2x shoot-off, this week we shot 5 main match and a 1x shoot-off.  If we do it again we will poll the shooter which they would prefer.

Rule IV6:  One shooter did not arrive until her match had been shot in the third round. In earlier rounds she received an x and a 33 with the program handling it correctly.  We did not have anyone leave early, but I am sure Rule IV 6 would have handled that correctly.

The Sort:  The sort again appeared to be good. 

It is practice, man, just practice!  Generally formats either have a gunfighter bias or a speed bias.  For illustration, the CFDA Bye has a definite gunfighter bias.  This three shooter match has a significant speed bias.  It is simple math.  If you match the best gunfighter against two speed shooters, in individual matches the gunfighter has the advantage.  In a combined three shooter match, the simple math is that the two speed shooters will have a combined accuracy greater than 60% so the better gunfighter is probably going to lose.

This speed bias for a practice regiment is probably a good thing.  If you look at the fastest time report you will find that four shooters shot into the 3s even though there were no three shooters in the field. Fastest times were a .358, others shot .389, .389 and a .398.  (On a personal note, it is hard to take that .398 to .389 defeat at 2 to 2.)  I know I shot my fastest competitive time in over a year and my guess is the others did to.   Although it was not discussed we all recognized that there was a speed bias and you had to be quick.

Placings:   Placings in the shoot-off were determined by following the CFDA practice of placing the quicker timeout higher in the standings. We considered having shoot-off but elected to follow CFDA since there were no "recognized places" involved.  (Since this is just a practice, had we decided to shoot shoot-offs of eliminated shooters, every shooter would had gotten a minimum of 7 rounds against 13 opponents.  Something to consider.)

Overall Conclusion:  The three shooter match is a great solution when you only have enough space for three targets and more shooters than two targets can handle.  It works well with the CFDA program and the progressive elimination shoot-off fairly divides range time among all shooters. (Just this week I was told by an old timer how disheartening it was to drive so far to just shoot 4 matches and go home.)  But in addition to that there may be additional value for training because of the speed bias. We shall see.  Will we be seeing quicker shooters on Shady Mtn?