Can anyone that shoots at MCFG clarify the rules of the pistol bays as they understand them? While shooting this weekend, a couple of older gentlemen stopped by and let me know that we were not shooting per rules of MCFG in the pistol bays. They were very friendly about it and we modified what we were doing to meet their suggestion but I think that in the end, we were less safe after the change than we were before. Here is what we were doing:
There were several of us shooting and we had two tables with guns set about 2/3 of the way into the bays towards the steel plates. All of our reloading was taking place on the tailgate of my pickup truck at the end of the bay and when someone would shoot, they would load the ammo back from the firing line, walk forward and pick up the gun they were about to shoot. Then they would establish the firing line at whatever point they wanted to shoot at. Sometimes, this was in line with the table that contained the guns, other times, they would advance up a pace or more if shooting at a paper target to as close as about 3 yards. They would then, when finished shooting, drop the mag, close the slide and dry fire towards the berm. They would then lock the slide back, check the chamber and when clear, put the gun back on the table. At no time was anyone allowed to touch a gun if there was a person between them and the gun table. Our standard rule is that nobody touches an uncased firearm behind another person.
Their suggestion was to move the table with the guns forward to the closest point of fire so that nobody would be walking back to the table with a gun in their hand. Their understanding of the rule was that the table represented the bench on the normal firing line and any movement with a gun forward of that table was like someone picking a gun up while on the line and stepping forward of the benches. We moved the table up toward the steel a bit more, but then found ourselves having to pick up a gun and then take a step or two back from the tables before loading and firing. I think it was much safer to step back to the table with a just cleared gun and no ammo as opposed to stepping back from it with a gun that was just picked up and ammo in hand.
The only way to avoid stepping back from the tables with an unloaded pistol is to treat the table as a static line and to shoot from behind the tables in all cases. During the safety briefing, the pistol bays were described as being for shooting is a less static environment such as while moving or from defensive positions behind barrels. The gentleman that conducted the safety briefing was clear in that the firing line in the pistol bays was represented by the shooter furthest forward and that the line was not static, but could move forward or back as long as all shooters respected the same firing line. I think we were in compliance with those rules and that the two gentleman were applying main firing line rules to the pistol bays. I don't see how you can have a non-static firing line using their rules unless you had someone pick the table full of guns up and follow you back and forth as you move.
I'm all for following the rules and want to make sure I understand them accurately. This was our setup at the range (no ammo on the pistol table, all guns pointing towards the berm and slides locked back on semi-autos):
What do other MCFG members do while shooting in a pistol bay?
There were several of us shooting and we had two tables with guns set about 2/3 of the way into the bays towards the steel plates. All of our reloading was taking place on the tailgate of my pickup truck at the end of the bay and when someone would shoot, they would load the ammo back from the firing line, walk forward and pick up the gun they were about to shoot. Then they would establish the firing line at whatever point they wanted to shoot at. Sometimes, this was in line with the table that contained the guns, other times, they would advance up a pace or more if shooting at a paper target to as close as about 3 yards. They would then, when finished shooting, drop the mag, close the slide and dry fire towards the berm. They would then lock the slide back, check the chamber and when clear, put the gun back on the table. At no time was anyone allowed to touch a gun if there was a person between them and the gun table. Our standard rule is that nobody touches an uncased firearm behind another person.
Their suggestion was to move the table with the guns forward to the closest point of fire so that nobody would be walking back to the table with a gun in their hand. Their understanding of the rule was that the table represented the bench on the normal firing line and any movement with a gun forward of that table was like someone picking a gun up while on the line and stepping forward of the benches. We moved the table up toward the steel a bit more, but then found ourselves having to pick up a gun and then take a step or two back from the tables before loading and firing. I think it was much safer to step back to the table with a just cleared gun and no ammo as opposed to stepping back from it with a gun that was just picked up and ammo in hand.
The only way to avoid stepping back from the tables with an unloaded pistol is to treat the table as a static line and to shoot from behind the tables in all cases. During the safety briefing, the pistol bays were described as being for shooting is a less static environment such as while moving or from defensive positions behind barrels. The gentleman that conducted the safety briefing was clear in that the firing line in the pistol bays was represented by the shooter furthest forward and that the line was not static, but could move forward or back as long as all shooters respected the same firing line. I think we were in compliance with those rules and that the two gentleman were applying main firing line rules to the pistol bays. I don't see how you can have a non-static firing line using their rules unless you had someone pick the table full of guns up and follow you back and forth as you move.
I'm all for following the rules and want to make sure I understand them accurately. This was our setup at the range (no ammo on the pistol table, all guns pointing towards the berm and slides locked back on semi-autos):
What do other MCFG members do while shooting in a pistol bay?