When this came up last time, I assumed that we were supposed to draw strong hand and switch to weak hand to shoot, and that is what I did. Later, it occured to me that you might have meant a weak hand draw (May be an interesting exercise). The problem is that while I think I could draw weak hand from my strong side holster, I think it would be difficult to do while maintaining muzzle discipline appropriate to a range...

Clarification?...

I would assume that Bob means to draw strong hand and then switch to weak hand. Weak hand draw from a strong side holster is best done using dummy guns for training and for just the reasons you mentioned. It cannot be done safely on a common firing line. It is a nice skill to have in your bag of tricks, though.

I'm sure Bob will chime in.

Keith is corrrect. We are running these courses so new shooters can practice draws, low light, barricade and acccuracy shooting. I'd never ask the group to try anything this advanced, even though we have some who could safely do this draw.

I'm thinking of lowering the time in March to give folks a more realistic idea of how they do under slight time presure, say a 20% cut in time. What do people think?

Sounds like a solid plan Bob.

The Course of Fire for February 8 has been updated after I programed the target computers at Bills North.

You can check out the changes at:

http://www.twincitiesidpa.com/mainpages/defensive_handgun_league.htm#DHL_Course_of_Fire

or

http://www.twincitiesidpa.com/mainpages/match_scores/dhl_2005-2006/cof_02_08_06.htm

I'd be in favor of decreasing the amount of time available to fire.

I think it is more realistic. Realistic practice is more important to me than having enough time to shoot a high score.

When there is a lot of time available I find myself wanting to do things like... wait for an approaching target to get as close as possible, and stop, before opening fire. A better way to increase my score, but... so what. In a real world situation I sure wouldn't be doing something like that, so I don't want to train/compete that way. YMMV.

That is exactly why I shoot it as a defensive-learning course. I tend to do point-n-shoot, as well as not using light in low-light situations because that is the way Darrell Mulroy taught and I agree with him that both P-N-S and NO/LOW light for near-real world practice......JMHO

Scores for the Feb 8th DHL Match are Posted

http://www.twincitiesidpa.com/mainpages/match_scores/match_index.htm

PLease let me know if changes need to be made.

We had 45 people shoot (several shooting twice) for a total of 6 groups of shooters.

Our biggest night yet

Thanks for getting them out so quick!

NP, We are going to try to make this more of the rule and less of the exception.

grayskys:

great operations last evening, you and Bob make this fun and challenging, thanks.......

We had a couple glitches last night with the equipment, some minor calling errors and some shooters not being ready or having a good understanding of the COF. All in all though the match was great and Greg and his wife Kay deserve the vast majority of the credit. You saw some new forms, Kay at the desk organizing things and some better instructions.

We ran 6 courses last night and had the best turnout to date without anyone having to wait a long time to shoot. If you have been to a few and want to help organize things let Greg or I know via PM or just tell us at the match. We are only looking for a person or two help folks get signed in, know the COF and get on the right squad and set up properly.

We will be cutting the times 20% to make the COF for realistic. Based on the 3 squads I observed 90% of our shooters will have no problem with this modest speedup.

It pains me to write this but we had several serious safety violations and I need to again advise everyone of basic range rules and safety issues:


1) SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUES

a)Range management personnel observed mulltiple league shooters arriving with loaded handguns in their bags and clearing their guns in the range lobby.

b) I observed two of our shooters with their guns out in the lobby, slides down, pointing the guns at each other.

People I'm sorry but your gun stays in it's holster or its bag unless you are on the range with the gun pointed safely downrange. Want to show a gun to someone or adjust the holster, etc, go onto the range. Another alternative, with permission from a range employee, use the conference room, with the gun pointed at the concrete blockwall.

2) No food, beverages or smoking on the range. This is an OSHA violation and Bill's Range staff will ask you to leave their range for violating this rule. Same applies to safety glasses and hearing protection.

3) Watch your muzzle! IF you bend over holster your gun or put it in the range bag. We gave two warnings on this to separate individuals and had a shooter at the last match with a finger in the triggger and the gun pointed at the shooter in the next stall!

I've sent PM's to the folks I know who committed some of the above violations. Please think SAFETY at these matches!

At the next match I've asked experienced competition shooters who are Certified Range and or Safety Officers to wear a name tag and assist us in watching the firing line and the range lobby. If any of us see a violation we will ask you to leave the range. A serious violation, like gun out of the holster, means you will not be welcome to attend the league shoots.

We can not afford an accident and I ask everyone to watch themselves and others and stay safe. The antis would like nothing better than an ND at the range, lets be sure they don't get it!.

Oleg Volk's newest poster/ picture brought this statement back to mind and especially the discussion afterwards. This cannot be an OSHA violation because we are not Bill's employees. It may be a health code violation or perhaps they just don't care to clean up messes left by people, I can't say. But it is most certainly not an OSHA violation. Customers are not governed by OSHA, only those having an employer/employee relationship. It may very well remain Bill's rule and that is fine, but to state that it is an OSHA for us violation is just wrong.

From what I gleaned from the internet, there may be specific hazards due to lead, lead fulminates, etc. from shooting and it does appear to be a safety issue for indoor ranges.

I wonder if Bill's has continuous air quality monitoring to prevent exposure above the 50 microgram/cubic meter?? Maybe we should be wearing respirators while we are shooting, too ??