I’ve been attending training, instructing my own, competing, and hosting competitions with firearms for over half of my life. “Live and learn” really shouldn’t be a means of how participants figure out what gear is needed to be allowed to participate - not just what gear is optimal, but what gear is allowed. Twice out of 3 events, I wasn’t allowed to shoot for record - and the other instance, I was shuffled around and had to shoot out of order.
Granted, this was some time ago, and I do hope instructors would do a better job of communicating what they want brought, but based on their website, it doesn’t seem any different. I do not see anything on their site saying scoped rifles can’t shoot for score (bipods ARE precluded), and I don’t see any prohibition on tube-fed rifles. Maybe they’ve changed those rules, I can’t say, but that was my experience - I read the site, called the instructors, read forums, and took a scoped 10/22. No score because of the scope. Didn’t like the extremist messaging the instructors tried passing, so I didn’t go back with them. A few years later, I went back, with an iron sighted AR, which was allowed for score, but had to shoot out of order and was a hassle - sure, Live and Learn on that one. So I did, and when I went back with an iron sighted 22, I wasn’t allowed to shoot at all because of the tube mag.
The website or either instructors could have laid out “bring an iron sighted 22 with a sling. you can bring a scope or a bipod but you won’t be allowed to shoot for score. Don’t bring a tube fed rifle, we can’t allow them. And you can bring a centerfire, but it causes problems and you’ll have to shoot out of order so you’re not blasting the rest of the line of rimfires”.
I’ve been attending training, instructing courses, competing, and hosting competition for over 20yrs, there’s no reason anyone should be unwittingly showing up with disallowed rifles, after being advised by the instructors/MD’s themselves. As a directly parallel example - when I recertified for my NRA Rifle Instructor credential, I called the Training Counselor and asked what rifle he preferred - technically he was supposed to allow any rifle, but he really prefers students use iron sights, and his berm is pretty small and really meant for Rimfire, and his property has close neighbors, so I could bring a centerfire, but he’d prefer I use a Rimfire. I took a Marlin 60, instead of the AR I usually use for the live fire portion of my Rifle (BoRS) classes I had offered, and instead of my scoped 10/22, I mentioned exactly that to the TC over the phone, he said it sounded great, and I was allowed to requalify as expected when I arrived for his class…
So I “Lived” 3 Appleseeds, and “Learned” that their instructors and their website don’t actually describe what they will allow to be used at their range days.