by Clark Hartness
“A man’s got to know his limitations” – Harry Callahan
That’s a great movie line that some of us will remember about over-estimating your capabilities. On the flipside of this, we need to know our limitations so we can test them, yet not be overwhelmed. Gun club management and shoot management are excellent examples where we have to be aware of our limitations. Today, let’s focus on some of the physical limitations of our club and planning an event.
How many fields do you have?
At our member-owned club, we have four overlay skeet and trap fields. One of those fields has a close background. Over the years, many good scores have been shot and events won on that field, but also many shooters immediately put themselves at a disadvantage by letting that background give them an excuse to miss, the “I cannot see the target out of the low house on field one” mindset that we have to persevere through with mental toughness. However, I want shooters to come to our club, have a great time and come back, so I immediately plan for that field to be the practice and breakdown field. If I have a maximum show up for an event and everyone will be shooting on the field, I can add it back in, but for now, we are down to three fields I can use for planning our event.
How many hours of good daylight are available?
An event takes time, and time is limited. Over the years, many things have been tried to cheat for time, and most have been proven difficult to sustain. Again, you want to have shooters come back! If you have never shot at 8:30 a.m., at the time of year that your event is held, on every field at your club, it is not good to plan for an 8:30 a.m. start time just so you can squeeze in another rotation that will likely not fill because no one wants to shoot at 8:30. If you did shoot at 8:30, was it a good experience for everyone? At our club, it is tough to see even at 9:00 a.m., so we try to start at 9:30, when possible.
If you plan to shoot 100-target events and stay on schedule, I suggest you plan for 90-minute rotations. That gives some time on both ends for slow squads, breakdowns, and Murphy’s Law infractions. Even trying to limit rotations to 80 minutes with five-shooter squads will likely put you behind at the end of the day, and just like that bright sun in the morning, low light conditions at the end of the day are just as tough, if not tougher.
So, on a one-day shoot, we often plan for two rotations and flight times of 9:30 – 11:00 and 1:30 – 3:00. If it is a two-day event, we can flip the rotations so shooters do not have to shoot the same time both days. Notice the 1-hour break between 12:30 and 1:30. Everyone — shooters, referees, and club staff — benefits from a break. You can catch up breakdowns, do some shoot-offs, and use that time to keep everyone in good spirits without wearing out your staff.
How many shooters can you accommodate with these fields and the available time?
Now it comes down to some simple math: Number of rotations X number of fields X number of shooters per squad = your capacity
Don’t underestimate the number of shooters on a squad, especially at a smaller one-day event. A four-shooter squad will make your rotations flow quicker than a five-shooter squad by at least 20 minutes. For our sample club with three fields, you can accommodate a maximum of 24 shooters with four-shooter squads (2 rotations X 3 fields X 4 shooters = 24) and a maximum of 30 shooters with five-shooter squads (2x3x5= 30). So you can plan for 30 maximum, or shoot up to 24 with four-shooter squads.
Watch for upcoming issues when we’ll use our maximum number of fields and shooter limitations to develop the program for our event.
