Oregon Steel Match Questions

Pepe-lepew · Feb 11, 2018

Is there any steel matches in Oregon affiliated with Steel Challenge?

What are the benefits to a shooter at Steel Challenge matches compared to independent Steel matches?

What are the benefits to a club to be affiliated with Steel Challenge?

I have been contacted by several USPSA competitors interested in getting classified at Steel Challenge. I may consider affiliating ARPC's Speed Steel match. I considered this over a year ago and only had support from 5% of the attendees and I felt the Steel Challenge rules were horrible. Since then, Steel Challenge has developed a classification system and a new rule book.

A major hurdle to affiliation with Steel Challenge is submitting classification scores and payments. Unless there is enough interest in classification, the extra effort and cost is wasted. The cost also needs to be passed down to all competitors of the match or taken from current match fees.

A second issue is the new rule book, it is much better but has some problems. It looks like a cut and paste from USPSA with random changes from USPSA. There is recommendations mixed in with rules. It also has a similar problems USPSA is having on how to handle PCC firearms. I have seen shooters and RO's don't know what to do most of the time with PCC after a stage run in USPSA. There is no consistency to how practical rifle competitions handle rifle safety. Currently all rifles must be cased at ARPC Speed Steel.

SNA2PDX · Feb 13, 2018

It was great talking to you last Saturday at the USPSA match. I just checked the USPSA website and in the entire PNW (incl. Utah) there are only three clubs affiliated with SCSA - none of which is in OR.

I am personally torn about it - on the one hand I'd like to see my classifier scores and compare my results with the rest of the country. On the other, shooting the same eight stages over and over again gets old after a while.

Also, I just checked the turnout of the last few months at the club in GA I was telling you about. As they got affiliated with SCSA a little over a year ago, it started out great - they went from 0 to 70-80 entries per match over night. It looks like the warm welcome wore off a bit and the turnout is down to 30-40 per match now. If you are interested I can reach out to Randy A., the GA Section Coordinator to get some intel on his experience with SCSA.

Pepe-lepew · Feb 14, 2018

I checked too and was very surprised being so close to home of USPSA, there are no SC clubs to speak of.

The new rule book allows other stages at level 1 matches. However it says 5 plates per stage, in poor wording. I do several two hits per plate stages, especially on large rectangle plates. This may limit the stages I do, unless I contact them for approval. Currently I have 96 stages we complete over 12 monthly matches for the year.

I would be interested in finding out more from the GA Section Coordinator.

Pepe-lepew · Mar 17, 2018

Well there is little response to this here.

I have talked to USPSA and will likely affiliate again with them depending on the next matches shooters comments. Cost to SCSA is only $1 per shooter per match no matter how many standard stages I use. Shooters could classify right away, If I ran a full SCSA stage match.

The side benefit to affiliating is it may bring in USPSA shooters. USPSA's safety culture is very sound and there is lots of qualified RO's I could tap into.

SNA2PDX · Mar 18, 2018

I agree - it's a good move. Try it on a part-time basis and see if you can get "fresh blood" other than just the regulars. From a marketing standpoint it would make sense to run a level II or even an Area match at some point. As you can see, there isn't much competition in the PNW in this arena (inasmuch as it relates to sanctioned matches/affiliated clubs). You could easily do a Columbia-Cascade Sectional, Oregon State or Area 1 Steel Challenge Championship. That might give your Level I matches a good boost, too.