I would like to get a short review of your course of fire.
I second the request on a course-of-fire summary - or at least a round count. I am undecided wheter to register as "Rifleman (SS rifle & pistol) or "Infantryman (SS rifle only). I assume the Infatryman may expend mor rifle ammo than a Rifleman?: "The Infantryman shall engage only designated rifle targets but may be required to engage extra designated targets in lieu of shooting the pistol targets."
For reviews of what we did at the Dept. Muster please see the DOMM 2012 thread in the After Action Reports:
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,44406.25.html It contains several. Also be sure to look at Cowtown Scout's photobucket slide show for a look at the targets we used. I realize you will need to use the targets you have, though I
might be able to bring a
few of ours for people to try. Anyway I think you'll like to at least see what we used.
We had 3 stages of between 15 and 22 rifle targets and between 5 and 10 pistol targets. With the heat we took some time off during the hottest part of the day and still finished all three stages in 1 day. We had 13 shooters (I counted myself twice as I shot in 2 classes). We all shot in the same squad. This doesn't sound like a lot of shooting but it was enough to be satisfying and yet not so much as to risk heat casualties. Most participants expended somewhere between 100 and 115 rifle cartridges. In the last couple of years that we have used the skirmish format we have found that 15 to 22 rifle targets in the heat of July is about optimal. Given that you will be hosting the GM in Oct. and that it is the
Grand Muster you might want to add a couple more stages and/or a few more targets per stage.
The distance to the pistol targets was in the 10 to 20 yard range and the distance to rifle targets was somewhere in the 50 to 100 yard range. If a contestant hit a target 3 times without knocking it down it is considered dead. If he misses 2 to 3 times he is encouraged to move closer. We usually throw in some bayonet dummies, ect. One thing we found is that this number of targets will neccesitate using a stopwatch as most shot timers reset at 2 minutes and these stages tend to run between 8 and 10 minutes.
Time must also be figured in to allow the Long Range match as it is now included in the Brigade Championship computations.
The following is a video of Ned Niederlanders first run at the first stage. I ran out of memory on my camera or I would have video from all 3 stages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4EjUYh8mxc&feature=youtube_gdataI recognize that my setup is unique and adjustments might need to be made, but this is the review you requested.
Guns I shot the EEM (same format as the main match) in Staff Officer (pistol only) thus engaging all targets with pistol only and shot roughly the same total round count (ie. 25 rifle targets+ 10 Pistol targets= 35 targets) as if I had shot it as most folk did using a rifle and a pistol. Again with all targets being "must hit" there is no way an exact round count can be given but a rough rule of thumb is that most folks will use approximately 2 shots for each rifle target and the same or slightly less for each pistol target. This approximation will be +/- depending on the distance to the target.
I hope other participants will add their comments on the stages and setup, ect. This is a match and format that; as one participant said, "Truly needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated."