I tried to find an old post of mine on the subject of time to shoot 100 targets, but apparently it no longer exists. So what I'm typing is from memory, from roughly twenty years ago when I wasted my time at tournaments timing various squads. The "lightning fast" squads, the "death march" squads and everything in between. This was at a time when some shoots were trying to shorten the allotted time for 5 people to shoot 100 targets, from the customary 90 minutes to 75.
The outliers, lightning fast (50 minutes) and death march (over 90 minutes), defy easy explanation. Both have quirky and unusual routines that contributed to the why, that are far beyond my desire to type.
What I observed in the middle (average) bunch, was that shooters generally lined up at each station and promptly stepped up when it was their turn to shoot. Time between stations didn't seem to be a big issue, except for folks with some obvious disability.
The difference during a round was time on station (duh), but surprisingly it only amounts to an average of about 5 seconds more per shooter per station, borderline slow vs reasonably fast squad. It didn't appear to be a function of load one or two. Regardless of one or two loading, it seemed that guys who like to load the gun and flambe squad together, and the deep thinkers like to squad together. Birds of a feather. Fiddling with foot position, checking hold points and precision gun mounting are favorite time sucks. I'm using the 70 minute squad as a baseline, they typically shot a round in just under 15 minutes and spent 2-3 minutes changing out ammo between rounds.
So the math is easy.... 5 seconds x 8 stations = 40 seconds, x 5 shooters = 200 seconds, x 4 rounds = 800 seconds. 13 minutes. Obviously these are round numbers, but pretty close to what my stopwatch told me. Add to that one extra minute dawdling between boxes (from 2-3 minutes vs 4-5) and we go from roughly 1 hour 10 minutes, to a shade under 90 minutes. It's amazing how 70 minutes seems like a great pace and 90 seems an eternity, when the heat is way up or way down.
The outliers, lightning fast (50 minutes) and death march (over 90 minutes), defy easy explanation. Both have quirky and unusual routines that contributed to the why, that are far beyond my desire to type.
What I observed in the middle (average) bunch, was that shooters generally lined up at each station and promptly stepped up when it was their turn to shoot. Time between stations didn't seem to be a big issue, except for folks with some obvious disability.
The difference during a round was time on station (duh), but surprisingly it only amounts to an average of about 5 seconds more per shooter per station, borderline slow vs reasonably fast squad. It didn't appear to be a function of load one or two. Regardless of one or two loading, it seemed that guys who like to load the gun and flambe squad together, and the deep thinkers like to squad together. Birds of a feather. Fiddling with foot position, checking hold points and precision gun mounting are favorite time sucks. I'm using the 70 minute squad as a baseline, they typically shot a round in just under 15 minutes and spent 2-3 minutes changing out ammo between rounds.
So the math is easy.... 5 seconds x 8 stations = 40 seconds, x 5 shooters = 200 seconds, x 4 rounds = 800 seconds. 13 minutes. Obviously these are round numbers, but pretty close to what my stopwatch told me. Add to that one extra minute dawdling between boxes (from 2-3 minutes vs 4-5) and we go from roughly 1 hour 10 minutes, to a shade under 90 minutes. It's amazing how 70 minutes seems like a great pace and 90 seems an eternity, when the heat is way up or way down.
