Thanks Rusty, I'll give it a look see.

Sorry, with the Holidays I got stuck baby-sitting grandkids while the "grownups" went Christmas shopping. I enjoyed it but had to miss the match.

I see the next match is going to be at the "Yuma Shoot". That will be a 3 day event. Would love to go but it's not looking good.

There is still a Club shoot in January. The Yuma Shoot just happens to be the same weekend as our January Club shoot. I put them both on the site calendar.

I never had any formal training on stage design, nor have I ever seen any official rules or guidelines for designing stages. Over the years that I have done it, I have learned to focus on our range and its particular safety requirements, such as, keeping an arch shape to the overall loading- firing position- unloading line so as not to have loading and unloading operations endanger either the other shooters in our match, or other shooters on other parts of the range. In no particular order, I used to sometimes put down three foot diameter rings, made of lariat, to mark shooting positions. This is a huge trip hazard. In keeping with a slight bias toward using our match time to further some potential combat skills, I would have stages that required the use of the off hand for a string of pistol fire or keeping one eye blocked, simulating a wounded strong side. I got told by my people that I should announce, during the reading of the stage, something like "skills permitting or if the shooter is comfortable doing so", because some folks don't have the hand strength to operate their pistols with one hand, or the hand size. This same consideration goes when holding a derringer stage or requiring the use of a knife. I also used to require a longer pistol or rifle shot more frequently, but again, for some, hitting the smallish targets the way we position them now is already a "test" of their skills and one thing that we want above all else, except safety, is for all to have fun. That being said, I encourage you to come up with some stages for us to shoot and, I both welcome and appreciate the participation. Don't forget that we also have some sticks of dynamite to throw and the rope rings could be used as targets for the dynamite to land in. It would also be very helpful if you could communicate your intention to put on stages, the number of stages that you have prepared, and the number of targets required, before a match, so that I can 1-be ready with my stages to fill out a match and 2-so that I can know what to load into the trailer when I get there to set up. Please feel more than free to contact me with any questions or comments that you may have regarding this and we can always discuss stages that you have come up with if you are not 100% sure of how they may play out.

Your Pard
Doc