Chepit Delay,
CD-003 (Phillipines)
- Cover with clear plastic and tape your stage briefing behind
one of the clipboards. They'll normally last till next year's
match, and if you're lucky enough, just change the stage title
and you can use it again (hmmmm...). You don't want to keep unfolding
and folding them in your pocket per squad as if you're running
a daily-double number racket in your stage.
- To the RMs, don't be satisfied with 2 extra tackers just to
find out only 8 tackers are working for a 14 stage match. Also
give ample tacker stamples not just enough for 6 targets to tack
on. Likewise, don't give out unreliable or non-working timers.
Also please, give each stage, `The Box'. And hey, don't forget
to smile always, every one needs it.
- Use wire cables only as activator lines. Never use nylon or
guy wires. Nylon stretches and delays `reaction time' specially
during in the early afternoon. Guy wires get bent and get you
easily agitated. Always, have the cable lines run in a straight
line as much as possible from the activator to the releasing device.
- Grease up all the line area in the wire cable that will pass
thru a pulley or corner, make sure the pulley is on a proper angle.
Putting connections on the ground is better having them on top
of the activating door but make sure you cover the lines with
pvc pipes and don't tangle the shooter.
- Don't put a low stiff barrier like a piece of wood anything
lower than the hip as a fault/charge line behind a door wherein
the shooter would still have forward momemtum while opening it.
This causes shooters to fall forward because of the forward momentum
yet they can't make a step to brake themselves because of the
barrier. Just put a big prop behind the door to visually remind
them. Fault lines on doors are not needed unless for safety reasons.
- Doors are better off and safer being opened towards the shooter
rather than being pushed thru. I have seen a shooter that smashed
to the door because it didn't open and subsequently broke 180.
- Only have a maximum of 2 activator lines attaches to an activator
be it a popper, door, window, etc. More than 2 creates bigtime
problems and unwanted delays, not to mention bigtime irritation
towards the stage range officers and shooters.
- If you want a shooter to shoot thru a window make sure it is
wide enough for Rosey to take a peep, tall enough so that a 6.2
footer shooter won't have a backache, and low enough for Chepit
to hang his arm over it. This also avoids brushed elbows and shoulders.
- Never put targets close enough wherein a shooter can almost
kick them. This creates powder and wax blast that can sometimes
blast the entire alpha zone away not to mention all the blasted
taped hits. The minimum distance a close target can get is 5 meters,
anything closer you might as well give the shooter a sharp knife.
- Avoid putting targets immediately behind and below a window
wherein you can even spit at them. At that point, if he was a
real person, he could have bitten your arm already.
- If you have a prop partially covering a target make sure you
have a hardcover maker on the area of the target that is covered
by the prop. This clearly delineates the scoring against the non-scoring
specific portion.
- If you do have low shot targets make sure you put sandbags immediately
behind it. No matter how soft the ground is, the bullet will still
find its way to a kitchen window, rooftop, or car windshield.
- Steps and ladders must be covered so that the foot can never
go thru the steps thus breaking his leg. Likewise, the steps must
also be wide enough to allow some traction.
- Don't use see thru materials such as screens as hard cover when
you have a swinging target behind it. A hit on the wall in front
of the swinging target must be very visible so that it may not
be counted as a hit.
- Put metal plates behind a wall or prop that intends to cover
a swinging target. This way there won't be any shoot-thrus.
- Wooden platforms and planks must have very rough surfaces so
that even if it rains it doesn't get slippery. You can either
put upside down nailed bottle caps for ultra traction, nailed
down small pieces of wood, serrate the surface, etc.
- Have wide doors for Rosy, don't skim on its width just to save
wood. Have at least another 10 inches of space between shoulders.
Remember these shooters are running 127 mph while opening it.
Some 180s have been caused by narrow doorways.
- Avoid have vertical or horizontal slots too close to one another
wherein it already hampers the shooting performance of a good
shooter, if he can shoot it at least 2 feet away from the prop.
You don't want a stuck frontsight in your prop nor having to change
slots per shooter because the slide can't even pass thru.
- Make sure the boundaries of the secondary safety area is very
defined and small in parameter. Have festive crowd control lines,
not the yellow ones with the `police' marking on it, unless its
for real. Make sure you put chargelines wherein you don't want
shooters to pass thru a `wall' as its intended design, remember
Ormoc?
- Make sure you have the big clear plastic wrappers for the targets
in case of rain. Once you have the targets place ready for the
first shooter, cover all targets including no-shoots so that the
next day you'll be more relax and have more time to make last
minute debugging if needed.
- Whenever possible, have moving targets rather than disappearing.
Modify disappearing targets in such way, that at least the head
part still appears when it settles down or stops moving. You eliminate
bigtime problems with it.
- Always have 2 more targets that can be engaged while the activator
is still activating the swinging target. This will cater to the
better shooters and not have to wait.
- On swinging and running targets, attached a plywood shaped into
an IPSC target behind the target. This will make it more stable
with less breakage and not folding the targetboard.
- Don't put boxes on windows, doors, or on ports. They are going
to shoot thru there anyway. Boxes are only to be seen in a starting
position or if not at all.
- Angle targets with a hardcover/prop wherein if the shooter did
break 180 while engaging the target, the prop will be hit then,
you have a stronger evidence on your call. Position the prop and
target so that the shooter will not be able to see the target
while breaking 180. *The lip of tire rims and drum have been notoriously
report to have spun a bullet back uprange with some considerable
deadly velocity. Try to deform it halfway so that it will break
the centrifugal action.
- Put a popper ahead of an IPSC target if they are to be placed
close to one another. This will eliminate splatters piercing the
target board. Space them at least 8 feet apart.
- Use alot of sponsor streamers, banners, billboards, etc. They
make the range festive in ambiance and your sponsors happy. Drink
sponsors usually have a bunch of them readily available if you
ask.
- Always have 2 carpenters ready in case there is anything to
be done like a broken door, window, detached wire connections,
etc. You don't want any unnecessary delays in your match.
- Make sure that all the `cut' targets, hardcovers, and noshoots have
already been done with enough supply at least 3 days before the RO match.
*A reasonably large portion of the alpha in each targets must at least
be exposed to the shooter if it covered by a prop, hardcover, or no
shoot. The shooter must be given that opportunity to score the maximum
stage points.
- To the RMs, when you give the stage supplies to the CRO, make
sure you give him everything he needs so that you don't want to
see his face for supplies till he closes his stage in the afternoon.
You'd like to see and ask him if he needs anything or making sure
the stage is running fine. That way you keep everybody smiling
and happy.
****Rosy is our 350 pounder, 5.7 shooter.
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