You are interpreting pages of rules from Series, to MD to RO to Competitor, none of whom were educated on the actual intent so it's open to several layers of variation from match to match
I have been involved in four competitive sports in my blessedly long life. Parhaps the most closely related to competitive shooting is water skiing. I was a certified judge as well as a competitor. To become a judge, one had to go through a fairly lengthy process of training. Through each process the aspiring candidate was tested for knowledge and capability. And, everytime a person moved up, he/she was again tested after again endured a lengthy training period. It was a bitch, but rules are rules and it mattered (well not always but that’s another story)
So, we have IHMSA where experience shooters oversee the match. Rule books are out and ”the” MD closely supervises the match. Safety issues are all but non-existent because everyone is watched closely. (Target setters are downrange after every five shots to reset targets). Reshoots exist but only when a target becomes not available to a competitor during his round of shooting at that bank. We all clear and ground all handguns at the end of the round. Nothing else happens until that is Done.
Target falls in the correct order, you get a hit, doesn’t fall or wrong target falls, you don’t get a hit. Very simple.
Yes it is a game. The handguns used ares simply not safe to use in any other sport where handguns would normally be appropriate. Yes they have problems (dying for one, game is too hard to sustain itself)
So, we have RO’s, who have no training, who are trying to judge hits and misses. We have really top “rockstars” who we try to impress by giving them a bit of leeway, afterall, the RO’s strict adherence to the rules might keep them from earning the very points they need to attend and win the AG cup. Lots of money there.
Saw it once happen in waterskiing. I was the gate judge and the son of a rockstar missed the gate. The boat judge gave him the gate and the far judge (who was a quarter mile away) could not see anything so he gave the gate. The young man went on to ski two more full passes. Since this was a judged tournament, his score counted for his standing in the seeding of the regional and national tournaments. Was this fair? The kid missed the entrance gate by three feet. In fairness, it was early in the morning and the sun was in his eyes, but it wasn’t in my eyes.
So, my real solution….If the damn target becomes unavailable to the shooter in the middle of his round, he gets a once chance to hit it after it is reset. No reshooting the stage. If the stage is 90 seconds and there are ten targets, when the target is reset, he gets 9 seconds to shoot the target, from the original starting position. Period. If he is Will Kirste or if he is Lowlight, he gets 9 second to shoot the damn thing. Period. Nothing else gets a reshoot.
Now for real fun, Brenda and I trained horses when we were much younger. Quite successful when You consider that horses make trainers, not trainers making horses. We had One Good One. And she was good. But as far as judging, send the judge a case of his favorite bourbon before the show. (We never did and just had to depend on the honesty of the judges) However, our one good horse, S. Fahsion’s Flirt, was too good to ignore. So she won her fair share. (Almost)
My favorite tale. A famous and very respected doctor gave $100,000 to the chief judge at the National Celebration of the Tennessee Walking Horse show to assure that his horse became World Grand Champion. The horse was tied in 5th place. The Doctor went to the FBI to complain that his
Bribe was not honored. Never learned how that one turned out.
