Sky Wolf Ranch Jackpot Shoot

 The Sky Wolf Ranch Jackpot Shoot - Added will be held on September 4th, 2021.  It will more like a CFDA titled match than most of our club shoots here in Arizona.  Here are some of its novel features.

Added:  The corporate sponsor, Loess Hills Paladins, Inc, is warranting the purse.  If there is not enough shooters to fund the prize money, Loess Hills will "add" the additional money needed.  Payout is 2/3 prize money with 1/3 going to the venue. Entry fee is $15.  Prize money will not be less than $300.

Last Man Standing:  It will be a 2x last man standing shoot at championship distance and targets.  There will also be a 3x last man standing bracket shoot at championship distance and targets.

Five Shot Option: We will use Arizona Five because it sorts better and saves range time. By using Arizona Five we will be able to give every shooter 5 xs instead of 3 or 4 xs.  Rules are as set for in CFDA five shot format except there are no ties or tie breakers in Arizona Five.  0-0 or 1-1 results in an X for both shooters. 2-2 results in a W for both shooters.  All shooters leave the line at the same time.

Simultaneous Bracket Shoot:  After round 2 of main match a bracket report will be run and all shooters will be placed in brackets.  We anticipate three brackets.  The simultaneous bracket shoot will begin after round 3 of main match.  Shooters will only shoot in bracket match after they are eliminated from main match. For an explanation see my March 7th, 2021, post.

Late Arrivals:  Sign in is 7:00 a.m., summer hours.  For some coming a substantial distance, they may want to come late and skip the main match.  If they get here before registration finishes for the bracket shoot, we will let them enter the bracket shoot in their appropriate bracket.  We have yearly bracket reports on most shooters.

Additional Sponsors:  As of today the purse is $300 which will be divided 1st $50, main match, and three brackets, 2nd $25 main match and three brackets.  If any one else would like to be a sponsor, please contact me.  Sponsors will be recognized at the shooter's meeting and on the face book. It would be great if we could get more sponsors to "add"  to the pot.

Tune up gone awry!

I thought we had a pretty good speed warm up session on Friday for Rio, but perceptions can mislead.

That gunslinger from Alamosa won the marble match hitting better than  90% at mid three speed shooting a borrowed rig and gun. I heard he offered big dollars for the rig and gun, but only left with some parts to duplicate the gun. At Rio, he did reasonable well shooting the same rig and gun until he ran into the system in the shoot offs.

That crippled lady from Buckeye showed great determination making steady progress.  She has shown some speed recently and Friday she hit a legitimate .340.  If she will learn the system, she will be unbeatable when the boot comes off in 4 weeks. Not to rile up the daughter, but she better stop wasting all that wax or she will be the slow one in the family.  The daughter did put me out of the shoot offs at Rio, might have been pay back from treating her beau so summarily.

I thought I had a good warm up Friday, but it turned out to just be foolish folly.  After Alamosa collected his loot I tried the Rodeo/Thirsty technique and shot a few WR times.  It made me hopeful. Grailfever is a dreadful disease.  At Rio, I missed my first 16 shots, losing two matches and only getting an over time win in the third. I then reverted to the system and shot pretty well until the final match of the main match when grailfever struck again.  

I must mention that No Name won the event going clean in the main match. Great shooting pardner!  He was beaten in the shoot offs, but at Rio shoot offs don't count.  First place in the points is the winner!

Lesson for me is to go back to the bucket.  Shoot the system.  When I shoot the system, I am pretty tough, when I chase the grail, I am just another flash in the pan.

 

Tuning UP

 The Arizona Bigs event for today has been cancelled but there maybe a few die-hards (pun intended) showing up anyway.  The targets are up, so if you show up, have at it.  Shooters on the mountain should be shooting at a 80% hit rate on average. Generally, they will shoot better than that.

Never ever slow down!  Your quickest draw is your most accurate draw. Why slow shoot?  It only teaches you to shoot slow and to miss.  Why waste the wax and primers. I posted two photos of Arizona Bigs shot by two Arizona shooters which depicted 100% hit rate at championship distance and 85% in the black.  The scoffers say "so what, that is only practice." I respond by saying that is the most pressure I will ever shoot under and both shooters were at speeds 5% quicker than their bracket times for the year.  We don't practice accuracy on the mountain, we only practicc speed.   But we don't practice missing either.

Arizona Bigs:  With Arizona Bigs targets you are shooting at a 10 inch target at 10 feet with a height of 45 inches.  That is the same as shooting at a 15 inch target at 15 feet but you get the advantage of seeing your actual hits for those shots that miss the black.  It improves your focus.  It also improves your speed.  The larger target takes away one of the stressors on the shooter, the fear of missing the target. On the two targets I posted, both shooters were about 20 milliseconds quicker than their bracket times for the year, about what we expect from shooting closer (but not because of distance but because of lack of stressor.)

Frustration:  I always get frustrated when I watch a shooter slow shoot when I know they are quicker shooting their quickest draw.  The myth dies hard.  You are not better shooting 6s at 40% than shooting 4s at 60%.  Many believe they are more accurate when they slow down.  That is only true if you shoot a defective draw.  Most believe that, even when it is not true for them.  If it is true for you, change you draw. 

New shooter:  I had a chance to video a new shooter who, when I viewed the video, had a perfect draw. No flail, no poke. Less than a week later I had the chance to watch Short Keg.  He had the identical draw.  Needless to say I am urging the new shooter to change nothing.  The only difference between the two is 50 years of practice.

Hope to see you on the line down the road a bit.  Stay safe.

Know the Rule, Follow the Rule

 At a club practice shoot this month, we failed to know the rule, follow the rule.  Most people think our monthly shoot is a practice shoot for individual shooters.  It is not, it is a practice for the club to learn how to run a CFDA shoot and to follow the rules.

A frequent failure is Rule IV.6. which says "Each contestant must have an opponent.  If the opponent does not show up, the present contestant will win by default and will not be allowed to shoot uncontested."

My observation at titled events and local shoots we will get this wrong 90% of the time, especially if there is more than one no show. The tendency is to want to redo the draw either at the table or at the scoring shack. This delays the round and may have unknown consequences.  If you simply know the rule, follow the rule, the round runs smoothly, the scoring and computer handles everything correctly.

To the chorus who say why are you bringing this up, it is just a practice shoot, my response is there are numerous good reasons to talk about it. 

First, we need to "know the rule and follow the rule."  That is why we have practice shoots.

Second, it matters.  For our club points we give out 15 awards. Last year most awards were determined by 1 point or less.  If we had followed the rule, among the four shooters affected there would have been 3 wins and 1 loss.  As the round was redid, there were 2 wins and 2 losses.  Somebody lost a win.  That win meant 4 to 12 points in the club points race depending on who lost out.  It matters.

Third, this comes up frequently at titled events.  Failure to follow the rule causes delays.  If you have 30 shooters on a range and two no shows, you will get 30 opinions as to what should happen.  If you just follow the rules, the round will be shot and over before 30 Old Timers reach a consensus on what to do.

Scoring: There is really two separate issues here, what happens at the range and what happens at the scoring shack.   I think at the table it should be a W with 22, and an X with 33.  That way the scoring shack knows who has a match DQ.  There is a difference between someone who just missed his match (33) and someone who has withdrawn.  The scoring shack and match director need to code the withdrawn, Match DQ 99 or new 86 code.

Titled  Events:  It appears that title events this year will be at or near capacity.  Range time is important.  Following IV.6. saves range time.  I recall one title event where we lost 4 hours of range time because this simple rule was not followed.  Know the rule, follow the rule.  Shoot em as they are drawn.

P.S. Thinking about getting on my soap box about fragmentation. What do you think, are you up to it

What we learned

 The practice shoots yesterday of the Association of Arizona Gunslingers was not a club shoot for individual practice, fun, or socializing.  It was  training shoot to hone our skills as a club to put on CFDA shoots. We were training scorekeepers, range officers, match directors, computer operators, announcers, and generally all those that are needed to put on a CFDA match.  We ran to completion a last man standing event and a true bracket event.  We had individuals training on all of the skills necessary.  To have a good training we needed 18 gunfighter and I thank the 20 gunslingers that came. We are limited to 20 shooters at this venue.  If anyone is interested in learning these skills let Shady or I know and we be sure to get you trained up.  If you just want to shoot, have fun or socialize come to our monthly shoot, but remember to thank those that are willing to train so that your shoots run smoothly.

What we learned:

Computers:  We ran two computers hooked to one printer so that we could train more operators.  One computer (provided by Rio Salado Vaqueros) ran the main match from registration to the final standings.  The second computer (Loess Hills Paladin's) ran the bracket match, all shooters were entered into the bracket match.  Both were pretty flawless.  We could have done this on one computer but by having two, we doubled the opportunity for training.  I am now confident that, if the need arises, there are six members who can run a match from start to finish.  Next time we do this we will reverse the operators so that all are comfortable with both types of matches.

We generally do not run divisions in Arizona, so the next time we do this we will run divisions.  The limiting factor is having enough Ladies and Youth for one division.  We need to run the main match with divisions.

Range Time:  We had 19 shooters on a two lane range.  That is the same as having 57 shooters  on one 6 lane range at Pioneer. We started at 9:30 and finished at 2:00 P.M.  So if we started at 8:30, we would finish at 1:00 P.M. which is well within our allotted time.  We shot a 2x main match and a 2x bracket match. We did however used modified score sheets which I will explain below.

Modified Scoresheets:  We ran the main match simultaneously with the bracket match.  After round 2, we ran a bracket report and entered all shooters into the bracket match.  We started the bracket match after round 3 of the main match.

Since we were only using one range, we could have run a standard bracket match.  The problem with doing that is that some shooters would get 4 rounds while others might get as many as 16 rounds.  This would not be conducive to a club practice shoot where you are trying to get most shooters an equal opportunity to shoot.  To avoid that, we modified the scoresheets by striking those shooters still in the main match.  This resulted in only two shooters getting 4 rounds and the most any other shooter got was 11 rounds.  Most shooters got between 6 and 10 rounds. (80%)  Only two got 11 and two got 4. (10%)

Chorus:  Now for the chorus of folks telling me that this in not fair to have shooters start late in the bracket.  It is eminently fair.  It is harder to progress upward in the main match than it is to progress upward in a bracket of eliminated shooters.  You have to remember that we score by losses, not wins. What matters is the number of losses a shooter gets.  Here each shooter got 4 x s, two in the main match and two in the bracket.  They all got the same number of x s.  If there is any unfairness, it is that the shooters not in the bracket match yet, have tougher opponents, which leads me to the next and unexpected factor of resurrection.

Ressurection Factor:  This was unintended and surprising.  A good illustration was Troublemaker. She drew Shady Mike and Everett Hitch in the first two rounds. She went out in round 2.  It shows how unfair and ruthless the luck of the draw can be.  But she was shooting good  and she shot her way to the top and won the gunfighter bracket, a bracket I might add that had a Overall World Champion, a Shootist World Champion and a club Top Gun in it.  Likewise, Muletrain won the Master Gunfighter bracket even though he went out in round 4 of the main match.  Only in the  Sheriff bracket did the bracket winner, Dakota Drifter, go deep in the main match.  It is a little like the resurrection feature that occurs at Rio.

We will train on.  Want to learn how to run a match, let us know.  We are always looking for workers.

Training and Testing

I write the post for the board members of The Association of Arizona Gunslingers.  Other clubs may also find it of interest.  I think that as a CFDA club we ought to, on occasion, shoot a CFDA match. To train and test for this we are going to shoot a CFDA 2x main match with a simultaneous 3x bracket match on Saturday March 6.  A match on the mtn with 18 shooters is the same as a 54 shooter match at Pioneer assuming one range. 

Training: To facilitate training we will use two computers.  We will use Shady's or Rio's computer for the main match with Shady, Southwest and Miss Kitty or others running the main match. It will be a standard 2x last man standing event from start to finish complete with final standings.  The Loess Hills computer with be used for the bracket match with Alleluia, Viper and Lazy Eye and others running the event. It also will be a last man standing bracket event 3x.  The number of brackets will be determined by number of shooters divided by 6.

I have run this several times with 52 shooters with modified scoresheets on one computer and it works great, but we can get more training with two computers and two computers will lessen the confusion factor.

Testing:  We are primarily testing range time.  18 on the mtn is equal to 54 at Pioneer.  15 on mtn is equal to 45.  We should get a feel for range time needed at Pioneer.  It will be Hateful Eight.  

Since we are just using one range there is no need to modify scoresheets, although this takes more range time than the method used with modified scoresheets.  We will shoot Round 1 and 2 of the main match then print a bracket report.  During Round 3 of main match we will register and draw the bracket match.  Then we will shoot round 1 of the bracket match, then round 4 of main match, then round 2 of bracket and so forth until both matches are complete.

We are testing range time. My guess is that with only one range we may be limited to a 2x main match and 2x bracket shoot.  We shall see. 

 

Range Testing:  My personal opinion is that on the 27th we ought to set up two ranges, however I know that the majority of the board will be opposed to two ranges because of the work involved.  In my testing with 52 shooters I used two 6 lane ranges.  To do this you must use modified scoresheets because a shooter can not be in two places at the same time.  After round 2  you run the bracket report and enter all of the shooters in the bracket match.  Then you start the bracket with shooters that have been eliminated from the main match.  Shooters that are still in the main match get a W with an 11.00 for time. Shooters without opponents just move down the scoresheet to the next available shooter or to slot 13 for a CFDA bye. It is easy to do and works well.  Scoresheets are modified before they go to the table.

In my test run, main match ran on two ranges for 3 rounds, then main match on range A to completion, and brackets on range B for three rounds.  After round 3, the brackets were shot on both range A and B because the main match was nearing completion and there were so few shooters.  It worked great on the scoring program with correct standings in all matches.

In my test runs, I also shot divisions.  We could do this also but the limiting factor is whether there are enough Ladies and youth to make another division.  I did it and it worked well. We should practice this some time.

Club Points:  Points for the main match would be as usual for the March 27 match.  If we also did a bracket match we could have points following the current rules for that event.  Assuming 48 shooters, we then would have a 48 point event and 12 point event. 

Scoring question - kind of complicated

 Preface: None of the four clubs in Arizona ever shoot a CFDA match.  That is because of the heat. If you shoot an elimination match, in 115 degree heat, the shooters leave as they are eliminated and you are left with few people to take the range down.  Therefore, all of the clubs shoot the Arizona bracket match in which all of the shooters make the shoot offs and therefore stay around to take down the range.

I would like to get our clubs to shoot a CFDA match occasionally.  I propose a last man standing main match 2x with a simultaneous 2x bracket match.  In this format, eliminated shooters are added to the bracket match as they are eliminated.  We have done this several times on the mountain and it works quite well.  There are a few problems to be resolved:

1.  It is easy to overlooked an eliminated shooter from the bracket match.  This is just human error and can be taken care of with more careful registering.  Even if someone is overlooked, they can be added at a later round.  See the next problem.

2. Some will say it is unfair to add shooters to the bracket after it has begun. This is not a valid complaint because it is easier to progress upward in the bracket of eliminated shooters than it is to progress upward in the main match of winners.  You have to remember we score by losses not by wins.  If you are shooting a 2x main match and a 2x bracket match, every one gets 4 x s. It is very fair.

HERE IS WHERE I NEED HELP:

3.  The CFDA scoring program 20.0 seems to handle this well with the exception of standings when you get down to the final rounds of the bracket matches.  If all you care about is the final bracket winners the program is adequate for that.  But if the standings below 1st are important as they might be for club points, then in some brackets the standings are not accurate.  The problem is worst in some brackets.  If, for example, all of the Sheriffs went out early in the main match, then the standings appear to be fine in that bracket.  But if, for example, half of the Master Gunfighters went long in the match main then the standings are more of a problem in that bracket.  The problem stems from adding shooter after the match has begun.

I am looking for suggestions to fix this problem. Here on some of the fixes I will try:

1.  From the bracket report after round 2 or 3, entered all shooters in their appropriate bracket. All shooters would be in the bracket draw and shooters still in the main match would get a win with no time.  Shooters who draw main match shooters could be handled in one of two ways.  One would be to give them a bye win with no time.  The other alternative would be to provide that they move down the scoring sheet until they are matched with another shooter who has drawn a main match competitor or make the bottom of the scoring sheet for a CFDA bye.

2.  Add and only draw those shooters that are available to shoot in the bracket match. This is what I have done in the past that has given rise to the standing problem.  I am wondering if when I register them into the bracket match I edit their score with a win with no time in earlier rounds that would correct the problem.  I do not know enough about the cause to know whether this would fix the problem.  I know that editing scores can in itself create standings problems.

3.  Of course we can always abandon the computer when we get down to the final rounds of the brackets and keep  track of the standings manually.

ANY SUGGESTIONS OR THOUGHTS ON FIXES WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

In the perfect club shoot for us would be to have 48 shooters with the main match being completed and two or three of the brackets being completed at the same time. The final two shooters of the main match would enter and finish their brackets (one or two) after the main match is completed.  Most of the shooters would stay around and take down ranges.  Brackets would have 12 shooters each.  Experience tells me there would be enough shooters to start brackets after round 3. With two ranges you would shoot main match on both ranges for 3 rounds, then shoot main match on one and brackets on the other.

For some related discussions see "Don't sell yourself short; don't sell 19.5 short." November 9, 2019 and "What we learned and Fragmentation." July 3, 2019.