Monday Match #8 Stage Designs

Greetings, Dear Friends,  Monday Match #8 is going to have only TWO Stages.  Stage #1 is a "warm up" for Stage #2.  Stage #2 will be shot at least twice.  If time and consensus allow, Stage #2 will be shot three times.

Stage #2 is the Legendary (and some say infamous) "Schmuck & Son Jewelry Store Robbery."  Here is the scenario:

You and your son run a jewelry store.  Each year you have a huge anniversary sale near Saint Patrick's Day.  The sale draws customers from far and wide.  Everyone wants to say they bought their diamonds from a couple of Schmucks.

As usual, there's a huge crush of customers during the first couple of hours. YOu tell your son you need to eat lunch and head down the street to a local diner.  As you approach your store after lunch, you hear screams and gunshots coming from inside your store.  You must take action.

Shooter begins at P1, hands at side.  At the buzzer, shooter runs to store door and uses the LEFT door jam as cover to engage T1 and T2 in the lobby of the store.  After engaging T1 & T2, shooter runs behind counter to the wall and moves along the wall to the hallway corner.  From hallway corner, shooter must engage T3 & T4 at the far end of the hallway.  Shooter then proceeds to Door #2 to engage T5 & T6 inside the room.  Afterwards, shooter runs down hallway to next hallway corner to engage T 7 & T8 in the other hallway.

At this point, the robbery gang leader has escaped from your store with a bag of your best jewelery.  In addition, he has your son as his hostage.  You must save your son and recover your jewels!  If the robber escape across the alley, your son and the jewels are gone. Shooter must cross hallway to the window and engage T9 from window.  Note that T9 is a moving (and traversing) target with a hostage.

All targets (including the moving target) will receive 2 rounds each.  Some targets will be holding hostages.  FTNs will be given only is no shot is recorded on paper for any given target.  Otherwise, standard IDPA scoring applies.  Depending on space, safety and stage layout, T1 "MIGHT" be Al's swinger target.  The layout of this stage is notoriously difficult.  It may not be possible to use the swinger but we will try.

Obviously, the round count for this stage is a MINIMUM of 18 rounds.  This is a Vickers Stage so you can shoot as much as you wish.  All shooters will load ALL magazines to 8 to equalize the reloads between SSP, ESP and CDP shooters.  It is highly unlikely that you will shoot more than three magazines in this stage.  However, you should be prepared to use a 4th magazine, even if it is unlikely that you will need it.

Stage #1 is simply a warm up to remind each shooter of how to properly use cover according to IDPA rules.
We are going to be very strict on giving procedural penalties for improper use of cover on Stage #2.  We will NOT be giving procedurals for improper use of cover on Stage #1 as it is a "skills refresher" stage.  Stage #1 will be timed and included in your match score.  Here is how stage #1 will work.

Shooter will have two mags loaded to four rounds each.  At the buzzer, shooter will advance to cover and engage T1 with 2 rounds from the left and then T2 with two rounds from the right of cover.  Shooter will reload from slide lock and engage T1 and T2 with two more round in the same sequence as above for a total of 8 rounds (Limited Vickers). Stage #1 should move very quickly so that we will maximize our available time to devote to Stage #2.

We will have a slight change in the scoring procedures for this Monday Match.  ALL of your times on Stage #2 will be included in your score, not just your best time as we normally have done in the past.  This is the equivalent of using each shooter's overall average time for Stage #2 instead of their fastest time as we ordinarily do with reshoots.

It takes quite some time to run each shooter through Stage #2 so that's why there are no other stages for this Monday Match.  This is the only time we will be shooting the Schmuck & Son Jewelry Store Robbery this season so we intend to wring out as much fun as possible for this stage.  Those of you who have shot it know just how much fun it is.  Those who haven't shot it are in for a real treat.

As of Friday, March 14, we were able to set up the traversing target and verify that we have enough parts to create the simulated jewelry store.  We will fully set up the store layout to provide additional verification that we are able to do so prior to Monday.

Please be on time for the Safety Orientation at 9:50 am.  We will be shooting at the Donga Din Dry Wash Site, NOT off of the Beaverhead Road.

Note that if we shoot Stage #2 three times, the round count for this Monday Match could easily be at least 62 rounds and possibly much higher, depending on your accuracy.  Please let me know if anyone has "ammo availability" issues.

Here are photos of the traversing target taken Friday afternoon.  It's been 15 months since we last set it up so we were gratified to know we could remember how all the parts worked together.

(Yes, this is an excessive number of photos but we included them all here so anyone who comes early to help set up will fully understand how this structure is assembled and laid out.  The distance between the poles is 7 yards.)

Here is a blog post from early January 2013, that includes a video of the traversing target in action.

http://montezumamarkmen.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-moving-target.html