The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on March 25, 2015, 06:57:03 PM
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AKA...failure to communicate = OH CRAP! moment....
Filmed during a match, where a shooter and RSO find a surprise in the midst of a stage:
This video shows a competitor shooting a stage at an action pistol match. He starts when instructed by the Range Safety Officer (RSO). But unbeknownst to both RS0 and competitor, a volunteer is downrange working on targets. Watch carefully. At 0:27 the shooter sweeps left to right, engaging a paper silhouette target to his right. Then, at 0:30, as he begins a mag change, his head turns downrange. A few yards away is a white-shirted range worker! The shooter yells “Hey what’s going on?!”
What’s going on indeed… The RSO should have ensured that nobody was downrange before the shooter even stepped up to the firing line. If other competitors standing to the side had been alert, they might have seen the worker changing targets and called for a halt. And the target-worker himself — even if he was wearing earmuffs, he should have noticed that live fire had commenced just yards away…
We also have to wonder about the stage design. This set-up made it very difficult to see downrange. The white panels (see 0:10-0:20) definitely hid the target worker from view. In hindsight, given the way the stage was laid out, this was truly an “accident waiting to happen”. It’s fortunate that no one got injured in this incident. But this chilling video provides a lesson to all shooters — “Safety First”.
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First you SAY it, then you DO it!!!
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How many target workers does a match have?
Is it possible to take a head count or have them position themselves behind the firing line before shooting commences?
But I guess a positive visual check is the only way to be sure no one, worker or otherwise, has wandered down range.
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How many target workers does a match have?
Is it possible to take a head count or have them position themselves behind the firing line before shooting commences?
But I guess a positive visual check is the only way to be sure no one, worker or otherwise, has wandered down range.
A lot of "shoot Houses" do it that way. Before the next shooter and instructor enter the RSO takes a head count to make sure the house is empty.