Are you a Rules Wizard? Question 1

[Anita Margarita]

Seeing as how there is an RO-I Class coming up on October 8th, I thought it might be time to reprise the posts I put on the Ocoee forum a few years ago. (Some questions have been changed slightly.)

Many people are unaware that there is a double-super-secret, (but absolutely official, I'm sure) SASS Rules Wizardry Exam.  I happen to have found a copy of this exam and will post some questions from it here. Keep in mind that some of the rules have changed even since these questions were posted 3 years ago, so be careful....

Question #1:


How many penalties and why?
——————————————————————————-

Beep!

With your rifle, you sweep the 10 targets left to right, as per stage instructions, but on the 6th shot, you get a “click,” but no “bang.”  You lever the rifle and out goes a live round onto the ground. You shoot your next shot at target 7, then 8, 9 and 10.  At the end of the rifle string, you open your lever, but not quite enough to eject the last empty case.  As you put the rifle down on the table, the lever hits the table and closes.  The TO says, “Action open!,” but you do not hear him and run to the next table where your shotgun is staged.

You pick up the shotgun and fumble a shell and it lands on the table. You grab it, load it and continue knocking down all the shotgun targets.

Done with the shotgun, you put it down and run to the third table.  You hear the RO yelling, “Hull!,” but you already have your first pistol out of the holster, thumb on hammer, ready to cock.  Careful to keep your pistol muzzle downrange, you run back to the shotgun to remove the empty hull that is still in it.  After doing so, you knock the shotgun stock with your hip as you are running back to table 3.  The peanut gallery is yelling, “Shotgun closed!,” but the TO says nothing.
 
You get back to table 3 to shoot your pistols.  In all the excitement, you forget that you signed up for Classic Cowboy category today and you cock your pistol with your off-hand for the first shot.  By shot number 2, you are back on track.  Determined to make up speed at this point (!), you  cock your second pistol as soon as it clears leather, pointed at the ground a couple feet in front of you.  All 10 pistol shots are on target… but oh, no, you swept them from right to left, opposite from the stage instructions!
 
Stage over.  Other shooters are still pointing at your shotgun.  You walk back to it and it is closed. You open it and it is empty.  You walk back to the first table to get your rifle and see that the lever is closed. You set your shotgun down at the edge of the table while you check the rifle.  You open the rifle lever and an empty case falls out.  While you are levering your rifle, your shotgun slides off the edge of the table and lands on the ground, pointing downrange.  You head to the unloading table, knowing a few things went wrong, but … how bad could it be?

Your raw time was 46.28.  What is your total time for the stage?  (Show your work.)

A) 111.28 seconds
B) 101.28 seconds
C) 91.28 seconds
D) 71.28
E) SDQ
F) None of the above

[Sheriff Langston]

You are a tough teacher Anita!

I don't know the answer but I'll hazard a guess that the shooter didn't win the stage

Seriously though appreciate you encouraging us to get our minds around the rules of game.

Sheriff L.

[Jackalope]

I missed this one by a mile.  I'll be auditing the class, too!

[Anita Margarita]

Oh, Sheriff Langston, I'm no teacher.  I merely found this errant copy of the Wizardry Exam carelessly discarded in a trash bin. 

I doubt I would get the answers 100% right myself without thumbing through the RO-I Manual (... which is a good reason for someone to keep the rule books in their cart at the match.  I think Last Kiss, our own local Black Pin RO Instructor, does this very thing.)

So, is anybody going to give a go at answering this one so that we can move on to Question #2?

AM

[Tombstone]

Looks to me like 3 MS, 3 P's and a Miss. (You can only get one procedural per stage)
3 MS = 30 seconds (they are accumulative)
3 P's = 10 seconds (only one per stage thank goodness)
1 miss = 5 seconds
45 seconds in penalties
shooters ended up with a 91.28 second stage.
I may have missed something and the shooter tried really hard to get a SDQ but managed to not cock his/her pistol before moving back to the SG.
Bad stage, you would get a train wreck badge if you are shooting with me. On a side note, if something had happened to justify a re-shoot such as TO interference the minor safeties would carry over to the re-shoot time.

[Ocoee Red]

Looks to me like a SDQ.

The stage is not over until guns are cleared at the unloading table and the shotgun fell off the table before. (dropped unloaded gun)

[Anita Margarita]

I do believe Tombstone has this one right with 91.28 seconds.

There are a few gotchas in this one: 

With the rifle, some might think that the shooter should get a P for skipping target 6, but the rules say that you get a P for “engaging” the targets in the wrong order and pointing the rifle at the target and pulling the trigger is considered “engaging” the target, so the shooter can move on to the next target. He does get a miss for the unfired round.  The shooter will get a Minor Safety for leaving an empty case in his rifle … but that call will be made later.

In paragraph 2, the rule has been changed back to its original form from years ago and it is now OK to pick up a dropped shell as long as you don’t break the 170.  You could scramble around on the ground for it if you want, just watch your muzzle direction.

In paragraph 3, the shooter moves from table to table with his loaded gun out of the holster - but that is OK because it is uncocked - one of the conditions deemed “safe for movement.” There is no penalty for setting down the shotgun with a hull still in it as long as it is removed before the next gun is cocked.

Shooting “out of category” (e.g. cocking your gun with your off hand when in a Duelist category) is scored as a P.  Cocking your gun before it reaches 45 degrees is a Minor Safety.  Sweeping the targets from the wrong direction is another P, but you can get only one P per stage.

In the 5th paragraph, there is no penalty for the shotgun closing - but you do need to show that it is clear at the end of the stage.  Now is when the shooter gets his Minor Safety for leaving an empty case in the rifle.  There is no penalty for the lever closing after you set it down, so if after the stage was over, the shooter had come back and opened the lever and the rifle had been empty, there would have been no call.

The shotgun falling to the ground is only a Minor Safety and not a Stage DQ.  The RO-I Manual (v.21.6) page 20 says, “An open, empty long firearm that slips and falls after being set down and does not break the 170 safety rule or sweep anyone will result in either a ―Prop Failure call or a 10-second Minor Safety Violation, depending upon the circumstance.” This only applies after the gun has been set down safely.

Tombstone, you might want to save your Train Wreck badge... This shooter is not done yet.  On to Question #2.