Yesterday TSSA finally got around shooting the IDPA Postal Match. We had great weather, cooling breeze and fifty shooters. Some even came dressed for the occasion!

The match also was the first time three Prospective Safety Officers were to run squads. Basically this was their final examination and in the tradition of our club, we made their lives miserable.

Some of us became the worst possible shooters. We were “unsafe,” argumentative, cheating scum-suckers that had one thing in our minds: Expose the new SOs to the worst they will face in the future in one single match. You will see that in the next videos. That is not the regular “us” but just acting like Richard Craniums to add stress to the poor New SOs.

On this particular stage, the shooter was “reading a magazine” and at the tone, he is supposed to drop it, move to the right, engage the targets and then move left to clear the other targets. The Shooter apparently “did not understand” the stage and shoot it the way he saw fit. Plus he behave like a jerk and took forever to get ready to shoot.

On this one, the shooter is the Safety Officer Instructor who gave the class and is shooting the stage for real points. However the New SO makes a mistake giving a command and gets promptly raked for it.

At the end of the video you hear another SO ask: “Look at the ground. What do you see?”
Answer: Dropped magazines with ammo; a no-no in IDPA. Even SOIs make mistakes.

On this one, the shooter is simulating an Air Marshall during a flight and suddenly 4 terrorists armed with knives start their misdeeds. The shooter is supposed to stand up, completely turn around, draw and shoot the four targets from where he is standing and once again the shooter is being less than helpful. I was “DQed” earlier in this stage as I partially drew the gun before completely turning around, a good call by the New SO but he was expecting something similar to happen again… it did not go quite as he thought.

On this stage, you started on your knees, hands in the surrender position and your gun inside the IDPA box. I also got “DQed” by having a shot impacting less than 2 yards from the firing line which would be the closest side of the IDPA box to the shooter.
I think this was one of the hardest shots I’ve ever taken in a match. It violated all it was ingrained in me about safety and IDPA rules to take a shot so close. I knew nobody was near (I made sure of that) and I also knew that the round was going to go deep in the ground (reclaimed Everglades ground, mostly dried up swamp) but it required a conscious effort to fuck up big time. Also the little red devil on my left shoulder kept whispering “go ahead and shoot the box for dramatic effect!” but I managed to resist temptation. Once again the New SO did his job right and stopped me immediately even though he was caught by surprise. I did gave him hell because he shouted “WOW! STOP!” instead of “STOP” which is the approved IDPA command. The lesson learned was that even though I am an experienced shooter so I am not supposed to do this kind of things, shit still happens and you better be ready.

Other “items” covered by example were muzzle sweeps, finger inside the trigger guard, phantom reloads, range “lawyering”, excessive number of rounds, extra magazines and pretty much anything we have seen happening in both regular and sanctioned matches (Oh yes Virginia, you will find cheating assholes in Sanctioned Matches.)

The New SOs passed with flying colors and they were properly congratulated for it. They were stressed out, tired, probably deaf from the combination of shots and our screaming but happy. Of course we needed to deflate their balloon a bit so they were told to expect a similar treatment at the next match. <evil laugh>

We might, we might not. Who knows?