No shoots

[manyguns]

I have match directed for a dozen years with 8 or more in IDPA. I have always wondered why it is so common to whiz bullets past the heads of innocent "no shoots". It would seem to break down an important barrier that should exist on the street. There are other ways to increase target difficulty. So why do so many folks insist on hostage shots?

 

[OKFC05]

I too have been an IDPA match director for more than a decade, and I think the overuse of no shoots is often an attempt to save a basically poor stage design. I use "no shoots" sometimes to complicate a stage, with the intent of making the shooter think about an alternate shooting position rather than "whizzing them past the ears of the hostage." I also sometimes put them on a piece of stage barricade or mechanism so the gamers will not intentionally shoot through the barricade or mechanism.

There should be no more than one "no shoot" for 3 "shoot" targets, and often a physical vision barrier is a better choice to force a change of shooting positions.

I have a personal pet peeve of going to a club that uses obviously illegal IDPA stages (such as a forest of no shoots) and excuses them with "it's only a club match."

 

[manyguns]

Fending off the gamers is a full time job.

 

[growr]

Why bother fending off gamers? They compete only against themselves and other gamers......doesn't bother me in the least..

Randy

 

[BobR1]

We set up a Theater Stage a while back with rows of folding chairs. We had several No Shoots to work around taped to the chairs. We also had a couple no shoots in the isle.
Most of the no shoots were to just make the Stage look like a Theater, and were basicly just props.

In this stage the shooter was seated on the isle end of a row of chairs. At the buzzer the contestant turned and took cover behind the chair he/she was setting in and drew to engage T1, T2, and T3. The contestant was forced to shift positions by the no shoots to engage all the Targets.
The shooter then repeated the Stage only this time advanved up the isle engaging T1, T2, and T3 on the move. This time the No Shoots in the isle had to be worked around.

We could have put a stack of Barrels or a Bianchi Barracade up to force the shooter to change positions, however it would have taken away from the Stages's Theater Look.

I watched a Stage on You Tube where they did almost the same thing only in a yard. Instead of No Shoots, they has EverGreen Tree Props to work around. This made a more practical Stage. I believe the secret to making more interesting Stages is to keep adding Neat Props, like the EverGreen trees.

The Stage could have been Shoot Out By the Pool. You could have used the EverGreen Props to force the Contestant to shift positions, and had a Legal Stage with the same degree of difficulty.

We are not an IDPA Club, however we are making adjustments to use more of IDPA's Rules.

Making the Stages Different and Challenging for each match is a challenge, especially if the Club has a limited number of props to work with.


Bob.