I hear there is going to be discussion about a time limit and/or moving the target closer or making the target a different size at the Marshall's muster. Most of this comes from a relative small group of shooters. The vast majority of shooters are happy with the current rules as am I.
If we get too many of these silly rules and/or continue our unhealthy obsession with records, I am going to start a new organization dedicated to the turn of the century gunfight.
It will have a silhouette target from the knees to shoulder. In front of the silhouette will be a 9 inch circle representing a heart/lung hit that will have the light and will be timed.
Matches will be either 3 shot or 5 shot affairs. In a 5 shot match, shooters will load 5 and shoot until the gun is empty. Fanning is not allowed. Hits on the silhouette will count 2 points, hits on heart/lung will count 10 points. If a shooter makes a heart/lung hit that is 50 milliseconds faster than his opponent's heart/lung hit, it will be a killing shot and result in a win declared by scorekeeper. (It is a killing shot because if it is 50 mls faster, it would have disabled the opponent before he could shoot.) If there is no killing shot, then the hand judges will compute the score of the wounding shots, including heart/lung hits, to determine the winner. In the event of a tie both survive and win.
Events will be same as we current do, 3x, 4x, last man standing, magnificent, etc., except most events will evolve into 10x or so since the matches will be much more quickly resolved. Most of the rules will be the same.
I think the vast majority of our shooters come to be in a gunfight, not a speed contest.
We need to have our organization consider all of the shooters, not just the elite or those think they are the elite. We are not nor should we be an entertainment venue. We are a sport, let's keep it that way.
The elite in this game are the ones that grow clubs, as clubs are the backbone of the organization. Personally, I don't believe many changes will come out of this Marshal's Muster, and making changes regarding time limits and target sizes would be short-sighted.
ReplyDeleteWhat the organization should consider is what's best for the organization, remembering that maybe 300 shooters will be at World's and that we currently have something over 4,000 on the rolls. The vast majority of our shooters are club shooters who never go to a major event, or they simply go to one or two per year. However, those 300 who will be in Fallon next week represent less than 10% of the membership.
My club, for example, will have no representation at the World's. So, I put my opinion on the web last week, hoping some of the Marshals would see it.
Adding a time limit, or changing the rules drastically would change the nature of the game. I'm again' it. Let's not forget that our motto is Safety First, Fun Second, Competition Third. Competition should always be third behind safety and fun.