Starting in 2018 with the “9 Days of Nationals,” the USPSA has been working on bringing new classifier stages to the sport. The 18-series of classifiers were a mixed bag of more traditional stand-and-shoot stages with the exception of 18-03, 18-08 and 18-09 that all involved some type of movement. Movement was well received, however, the fact they were Virginia Count and required two strings was something that didn’t mimic the type of stages seen during a regular match.
The USPSA worked on fixing that in 2019 with the release of the four 19-series that were all Comstock and required movement. These were a hit and USPSA received the message—the audience wanted more. The classifier library is full of what I call “stand and deliver” stages, so this year I worked on a few more with movement and snagged one from another competitor. While at the Area 5 Championship I spoke with Bill Wittman about the two stages I had been working on for Nationals to turn into classifiers, he mentioned he had one that he used in his Chief Range Officer course work. I had Wittman send it to me and we changed a few things and used it at the Back to Back Nationals.
Stage 10 from Factory Gun “Wish You Were Here” and from Race Gun “Have a Cigar” is a 12-round Comstock stage with five cardboard targets and two full-size poppers. The set-up requires only four 8-foot walls and the shooting area is 20x4-foot box, with feet touching marks in the center of the rear fault line. The five paper targets and two poppers are set up in three arrays, with one cardboard and one steel on the right and left of the walls and the center section has the other three cardboard targets. All the cardboard is 20-feet downrange from the front fault line and the two poppers are at 30 feet. The wall sections have a 4-foot opening in the middle. There is one no shoot on the center target hung upside down and 5 inches below the top perf line on the A zone. This is a fun side-to-side stage requiring competitors to go all the way across the shooting area. The target placement with open targets, full-size poppers and the no-shoot will require some changes in speed as you engage targets. This will be Classifier 20-01 “Wish You Were Here.”
The next two stages were Stages 5 and 13 from Nationals and are designed to get two stages from one set-up. The idea is that the shooting area and walls as well as the outside four targets stay the same. Match Directors can have the center two cardboard targets in place, as well has the four pieces of steel. Shoot it with the cardboard targets in the center section and with the steel down for the first run. Simply set the steel up, pull the target sticks on the two cardboard targets and run it again for your second stage. It is quick enough of a stage that squads can easily run through it back to back.
The set-up requires four eight-foot walls set in “L” shapes. The shooting area is 16x4-feet and the fault lines are against the walls. There are two cardboard targets on left and right side, and two spaced in the center section for 20-02 “Déjà vu,” there are no shoots on each of the three targets closest to the wall sections. 20-03 “Déjà vu All Over Again” removes the two center targets and adds four poppers spaced 1foot apart with two full-size and two mini USPSA poppers. Competitors start anywhere in the shooting area for both of these which will require side to side movement as they work their way engaging the targets from a wide open target to one with a no shoot on it.
The USPSA hopes that shooters enjoy these new classifier stages to finish out 2020 and to kick off 2021. Our team is already hard at work on a few more stages for next year, but instead of side-to-side, we are going to see about some forward and backward movement. If you have a short course or speed shoot that you would like to have considered, please email it to me at [email protected].
Article from the November/December 2020 issue of USPSA’s FrontSight magazine.
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