OT a bit but I have a interesting story. Years ago when I would set up the FT courses I strayed from the norm and made "ONE" lane that required using 4 positions, so one shot was offhand, one kneeling, one sitting, and one prone. Yuh know just for the fun of it to break things up a bit and man did it do so but not like I thought it would.
Some of the older shooters actually thought I was purposely discriminating against them when in all honesty I hadn't considered the difficultly they would have getting into prone. That's one shot out of 40 mind you.
They banded together and got a hold of the club officers which got me in hot water but darn it somehow they wouldn't fire me. Kinda like like when my wife tells me I'm welcome to fire her if I don't like her cooking, lol.
Literally some never came back to our Mormon lake match in spite of my email of apology for not considering their physical limitations and a promise to not do such a thing again?!
Well alrighty then back to our scheduled programming.
Steve's post reminds me of how perceptions of discrimination can cost Field Target shooters. I witnessed the prone Hunter Class cluster**** from too close perspective. Time for another story from The Voice Of Experience.
Prone shooters almost immediately began dominating Hunter Class; including some Hunters that had previously seldom podiumed. Having been the dominant Hunter Class shooter in Texas before prone, and not the least bit interested in belly-flopping, my win percentage dropped from around 60-80%, to about half that. My best buddy, who had seldom podiumed before adopting prone, took my place as the dominant Hunter shooter. And another regular at the only FT club in Texas who had never podiumed began to regularly podium after adopting prone.
Many non-prone Hunters started grumbling; but I accepted prone as the new normal, and resigned to take my successes as they came (on especially 'on' days). I did tease the prone shooters as 'belly-floppers', but not as a derogatory term; simply a good-natured, term-of-endearment teasing. None seemed bothered by it, lest I would have desisted.
Apparently my other best buddy, who was Chairman of the AAFTA Board of Governors, was taking the Hunter grumblings more seriously than me. And apparently our club was a microcosm of national FT prone happenings, that were apparently growing contentious.
Next thing I knew the BoG had inserted wording in the Hunter Class rules that, although prone-type bipods were still allowed, they could no longer be mechanically attached to the rifle. That single rule modification effectively ended prone shooters' relatively short-lived domination of Hunter Class. Guess what?
Aforementioned two Hunters in our club who'd gone from also-rans to podium-placers by adopting prone immediately
DROPPED OUT of Field Target when their advantage was removed. The only comment from my buddy was, "I don't need to hear this 'belly-flopper s*** anymore!" He also didn't want to hear that I never intended it as a slur; rather a good-natured term of endearment.
So our Texas club that routinely turned out 15 shooters at monthly matches lost two active shooters to perceptions of discrimination,
overnight. Our club being an accurate microcosm of U.S. Field Target, do the math.
So Steve's post is a valuable reminder that some shooters perceiving a loss of advantage will just drop out. Consequently, on deeper pondering I hereby cease promoting an accommodation for shooters that cannot assume the Kneeling position. It NOW occurs to me if my proposal was actually adopted Field Target could lose 10-20% of it's shooters overnight. I wouldn't want to be responsible for that.
Having surrendered my crusade, be aware I won't suffer
further criticisms gladly from anyone (still) misconstruing my motives as simply self-serving. That's simply not true.
Happy Shooting, Y'all.
Correction-
ALL Y'all!
