jjones88
Active Member
As the last shooter of the last stage, I had to let it all hang out (it would be wrong not to, right?)...and that's what pushed me over the edge I was definitely wiped out the rest of the day...and not exactly leaping out of bed this morning either
In an ideal world, I'd love to see 3 RO's per squad that would rotate duties so one was free to load mags, load shotgun, take water, catch breath, etc. while the other two were keeping everything rolling along. I know that's asking a lot.
Steel challenge isn't so bad, but 3-gun has more equipment logistics (especially when it's hot and you're trying to reload yourself on water). I found it tricky to go from running the timer right to grabbing my gear and shooting next. My Co-RO...well, of course he is younger and does everything fast...
How about this (once we have the staff #'s to do it): 2 official RO's on squad duty and one trained/certified RO who is "light duty" and just runs the timer when the 2 RO's shoot? Just a thought.
As to the ammo situation...ugh! That sucks. Even though I have a fair supply now (certainly an "arsenal" or "cache" by media standards ) I know I'm going to try to do some rationing to make it last. If Katie's schedule let's her get back into shooting, it's really going to shrink my "cache." I would expect some more of the dreaded rimfire showing up in steel challenge (I stocked up on a LOT of that after the last drought ). I haven't shopped for shotgun ammo lately...if birdshot is still seemingly available, maybe 3 gun will shift to be a little more shotgun heavy for a while? One hit on rifle steel?
It really really sucks that we've been riding this momentum of expansion (with the new berms and steel) to have to think about scaling back because of ammo. But...what can you do? (ride it out as best we can until the election while making sure a Dem isn't elected is my plan)
That's how I slowly worked into becoming an RO. I would run the tablet while the other ROs shot, then slowly went to timer on the regular SC stages. But there was still a lot of time spent with the others building up to eventually moving into the rotation.
To be honest, having someone just load the mags / pre-load the shotgun would be huge time saver, and let the RO focus on hydration after the stages. I remember yesterday thinking when we got ahead for once, "whew, finally some time to reload my mags". Then I realized I had forgotten to drink any water right as we started going....
The last SC, we had a easy-up over the RO's and shooter on one of the regular stages and that helped a ton with the heat stress from the sun.