Re: PMG Spring 2012 Team Precision Rifle Match
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Here2Learn</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That was a hell of match! It has come so far from the first 20 person match. I would have to say my favorite area was Tom's stages. Talk about brain overload. What Tom put together is the kind of thing you get so frustrated with while you are shooting but on the ride home you are like shit that was cool.
Only thing I might change would be to break it in half and brief and shoot it then the other but if brain overload is what you were going for then keep it the same.
This was by far the best PMG yet. Thanks to Ryan, Scott, Tom and all the volunteer staff. You guys ran a top notch match.
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heh thanks
it was something I've been wanting to try for a while. The point was not actually brain overload, but rather
1) getting lots of rounds down range with little downtime so people aren't sitting in the sun for an hour waiting to shoot BUT without sacrificing quality... the rounds are still interesting
2) demonstrating skills in a measurable way. i.e. showing (hopefully) improvement over the years by repeating certain benchmark drills (like IDPA type qualifiers) that require weapon manipulation, quick target acquisition, lateral and vertical transitions, holds (or really really fast knob twisting), etc.
3) opportunity for lots of teamwork and problem solving, where the only parameters given were time and round count and targets (and occasionally target sequence). Should come as no surprise that the teams that worked together and talked their partner onto the next target and called out their dope did better than the ones who did not. the teams that finished at the top also used spotting scopes well and divided up the shooting labor better. strategy played a pretty big role there. heck, next year, i'd expect to see people dialing their partners elevation so they can stay on glass...
so... if you have feedback on how to accomplish that with less brain overload, please provide it publicly or privately!
my personal opinion on it was that it went pretty much as I expected (orderly and finished exactly on time, somewhat confusing at first but after a couple of drills, most teams got in a groove and started enjoying it (or lost their temper and had a meltdown)). If PMG does it again next time, I think people would get used to that format pretty quick. I certainly wouldn't want the entire match to run like that, but having a quarter of the points on it seemed reasonable.
edit: btw, one thing that was interesting to watch was the mental mistakes like people doing standing to prone without a mag in the gun and watching it fall out the bottom of the action... or running out of ammo on a stage because they didn't top off their mags. Also under tight time limits, people wasted a lot of time trying to hammer their actions open (presumably because they were loading too hot?).
I'd say the MOST interesting thing I saw was all the people who went after the high risk hostage targets on the choice or milling stages instead of playing it safe, knowing that if they hit one they would zero the stage.