Gaming the Test: Rogers #2

This is the second in a series of nine short articles related to the 9-stage test administered as part of the normal instruction at Rogers Shooting School.

Stage 2: two-handed, from extended ready, 3.0 seconds per string
Maximum points: 16
Knock over T1, then three other plates … must be shot near to far

There are four strings of fire. Each string consists of four plates appearing. T1 always appears first, followed by three other plates. The additional three plates are not random. The strings work out as follows:

1. T1 + T2, T3, T4
2. T1 + T3, T4, T5
3. T1 + T4, T5, T6
4. T1 + T5, T6, T7

It’s very important to remember that unlike any other part of the test, for Stage 2 you must knock down the plates from near to far. If you miss a close plate and then pick it up after knocking down a farther plate, you will not get credit. While it may not seem like a big difference, it is. You need to be very conscious about the order for this stage or it will cost you. All three plates on the wall (3, 4, and 5) are considered the same distance and can be knocked down in any order relative to one another.

Tip #1: Know the order for each string. It’s very easy. It starts with 1-4, then you add one to the last three plates for each subsequent string. So it begins with 1 and 2-4, then 1 and 3-5, then 1 and 4-6, and finally 1 and 5-7. As soon as you knock over a plate, know exactly where you’re driving the gun to get the next point.

Tip #2: If a plate fails to fall when you shoot at it, you must stay on that plate until you knock it down. Don’t throw away points by chasing farther targets before you get the nearest one’s first. You cannot come back to pick up close targets that you left standing.

Tip #3: You know you’re bringing the gun up from extended ready (pointed at the base of T1) to hit the T1 head plate each time. Be focused on the space where T1 will appear and move as soon as you see the plate begin to rise. You can knock the T1 plate over fast enough that you’ll be waiting to ambush the next one.

In the above video, I scored 15 out of 16 even though I knocked all the plates down. If you watch carefully, on the third string of fire I knock down T1, knock down T5 (top of the wall), shoot at but miss T4 on the left side of the wall, knock over the farthest target T6, then come back and make up T4. Because I hit T4 after knocking down the more distant T6, the T4 point did not score. I had no idea I’d even made that mistake and swore to the proctor that I’d shot them in order: because I did, and that’s what I remembered. What I didn’t remember was missing and needing to come back. The folks at Rogers actually gave me the point, but when I reviewed the video later in the day saw that the proctor was correct so they corrected my score the next day. Lesson is, you have to knock them over from near to far on this stage!

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG