I went with a group of pals a week ago to a IDPA match in a large metropolitan area a long way from our standard stomping grouns (in another state). We've all shot many small IDPA matches in our local area and had a very different experience at this match with more than 150 competitors.
Everything seemed typical, like all the matches we've done before. But things were very different.
The first stage the SO shouted, literally shouted, at one of the guys in the group for 'airgunning'. My buddy had, with an imaginary machine gun held at the hip said, "pew, pew, pew" while chuckling a bit. My pal was taken aback and said, "Sorry dude, man relax. I wasn't looking to gain advantage, won't happen again." It was pretty weird.
Then, on the second stage one of the competitors balanced on one foot in order to engage targets. He was literally leaning around the barricade with one leg extended like a ballerina. We all though it was a joke and chuckled and laughed.
Apparently it wasn't, during the next few stages we all received many procedurals for failing to use cover. In fact, the cover calls were so strict that someone got dinged even though he was balancing on one foot. Some of my group even got multiple cover procedurals on the same stage.
It got super weird. My buddy was shooting a 1911. The course of fire called for 6 shots at a target while walking backwards. While walking backwards he emptied his entire magazine at the target, got behind cover, reloaded and finished the rest of the stage. One of the SO's flipped out. Started accusing him of "Failure to do right" asking him if he intentionally emptied his gun for advantage.
My pal replied, "Of course I intentionally emptied my gun. I don't pull the trigger on accident."
The SO snarled, "That's a failure to do right! A 20 second penalty!"
And my pal just laughed at him, "Take it easy, write whatever you want on the score card I'm just here for a fun afternoon." and then walked away from the dude visibly disgusted. The best part, my pal didn't even neutralize the target. He only got 5 hits out of the 8. There are a bunch more examples just like this, it happened constantly. We all received more procedurals, warnings and threats than all our previous dozens of matches combined.
I wasn't spared either, I was on the shooting line, at the last stage, holding a stick gun. I had it sorta pointed down range at the targets waiting for commands and the RO accused me of airgunning. I asked how I should hold the stick gun then and he just moved on and told me to make ready.
My question is: is this sort of gaming stuff a regular thing? Is this how all big IDPA matches are? Were the stage officers just messing with us because we were a large group of young men (in our mid-twenties)? They were verging on aggressive.
I just thought I'd ask because our experience at this major match was so divergent from our previous experiences.
Everything seemed typical, like all the matches we've done before. But things were very different.
The first stage the SO shouted, literally shouted, at one of the guys in the group for 'airgunning'. My buddy had, with an imaginary machine gun held at the hip said, "pew, pew, pew" while chuckling a bit. My pal was taken aback and said, "Sorry dude, man relax. I wasn't looking to gain advantage, won't happen again." It was pretty weird.
Then, on the second stage one of the competitors balanced on one foot in order to engage targets. He was literally leaning around the barricade with one leg extended like a ballerina. We all though it was a joke and chuckled and laughed.
Apparently it wasn't, during the next few stages we all received many procedurals for failing to use cover. In fact, the cover calls were so strict that someone got dinged even though he was balancing on one foot. Some of my group even got multiple cover procedurals on the same stage.
It got super weird. My buddy was shooting a 1911. The course of fire called for 6 shots at a target while walking backwards. While walking backwards he emptied his entire magazine at the target, got behind cover, reloaded and finished the rest of the stage. One of the SO's flipped out. Started accusing him of "Failure to do right" asking him if he intentionally emptied his gun for advantage.
My pal replied, "Of course I intentionally emptied my gun. I don't pull the trigger on accident."
The SO snarled, "That's a failure to do right! A 20 second penalty!"
And my pal just laughed at him, "Take it easy, write whatever you want on the score card I'm just here for a fun afternoon." and then walked away from the dude visibly disgusted. The best part, my pal didn't even neutralize the target. He only got 5 hits out of the 8. There are a bunch more examples just like this, it happened constantly. We all received more procedurals, warnings and threats than all our previous dozens of matches combined.
I wasn't spared either, I was on the shooting line, at the last stage, holding a stick gun. I had it sorta pointed down range at the targets waiting for commands and the RO accused me of airgunning. I asked how I should hold the stick gun then and he just moved on and told me to make ready.
My question is: is this sort of gaming stuff a regular thing? Is this how all big IDPA matches are? Were the stage officers just messing with us because we were a large group of young men (in our mid-twenties)? They were verging on aggressive.
I just thought I'd ask because our experience at this major match was so divergent from our previous experiences.