First IDPA Match -- DQed! Ahhhhhh!

[DDGator]

I need to vent about this...

Went to my first IDPA match last night. I have been shooting IPSC for a while and bullseye long before that, so I am not an inexperience shooter -- but new to IDPA.

The match was outside, in an area enclosed by berms on three sides. I started, engaged several targets, and entered the "house." Inside I was slicing the pie on the rear window and got a bead on a target outside and fired. "STOP!"

Although my engagement was tactically correct, the angle of the shot put the bullet into the side "wall" (railroad ties) in the back corner of the range. I couldn't really see that because it was dark, but it was a violation of a range rule.

DQed in the first course of fire. Got to shoot all of 11 rounds and was done for the night.

Of course, I feel bad that I violated a range rule, although I understand why I did it and I think the course set-up encouraged the shot. Pretty embarassing -- I have never had anything like that happen to me before.

Anybody else have a similar experience?

 

[OF]

Sounds like bad course design.

- Gabe

 

[Zak Smith]

IDPA has the "safe direction" rule, not the "180 rule" like IPSC, right?

It's up to the MD and RO's to define to the shooters what the safe directions are. We had a blind stage here where there was one past the 180 (by about 5 degrees) that they warned us about and "okayed" beforehand -- of course, it was safe.

On the other hand, at one of the local IPSC ranges, they are prohibited by their agreement with the city to have rounds impact the side berms, so while there's a "180" for sweeping DQ's, you cannot engage unless the round will impact the main forward berm.

-z

 

[HankB]

Ditto what GRD said.

I'll go farther and say since it hit the side wall at the BACK corner of the range, the DQ was improper. ESPECIALLY if it hit the target and THEN hit the back wall.

I normally don't sweat the small stuff - there's always going to be a bad call here and there - but a DQ for slicing the pie and hitting the target from the proper firing position wouldn't have been meekly accepted.

(Ummm . . . you weren't instructed to shoot that target from a different position, were you? Sometimes, due to course limitations and limited props, local IDPA matches require you to shoot specific targets from specific positions, and "imagine" there's an obstruction. But these instructions are spelled out before the shooting begins.)

 

[DDGator]

Hank,

I did hit the target, then the wall -- and it was in the back corner of the range. To be fair, they did state in advance that hitting the side wall was grounds for a DQ -- I just did not appreciate that the angle I was shooting at would result in a strike of the wall (again, no really a wall, a berm held in place by rows of railroad ties). Its dark beyond the immediate firing area and I didn't see it. The angle seemed safe to me as it was certainly into the back of the range area.

I am not angry with the match organizers -- I was just frustrated at the course design and the unforgiving nature of the rule that kept me from shooting the rest of the night. Had I placed anyone in any kind of jeopardy -- or violated a fundamental safety rule -- I would have understood.

 

[Correia]

I agree. From your description it sounds like a very poor course design. There is no excuse for that. You fired from a proper shooting position. Hit the target. And got DQed? That sucks.

Hopefully your club leadership will take a look at that and realize how stupid that COF must have been, and learn from their mistake.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Zak you remember the shoot where you run through the plane?

I damn near dq'ed myself on that by firing darn close to 180 rather than move past a target. Left a nice big powder burn on the target. Slow down, its just a game.

 

[Zak Smith]

Dr.Rob,

I think I missed the "plane" match. The stage I was referring to was the "drag the baby to safety" blind stage.

-z

 

[Tacblack]

Sounds like bad course design. The shot should have been blocked so not to try it or maybe put the whole stage closer to the back wall to prevent it. Or maybe they were just out to get the IPSC shooter

 

[Archer]

I agree the course design was probably poor...

(here comes the "but...")

But, it's a great object lesson in a supremely important fact;

It's your responsibility to be sure of your target and what lies beyond.

As Clint Smith puts it, there's a lawyer attached to every bullet you send downrange

A valuable lesson, though perhaps harshly administered.