Bob,

You were not the only one that had problem with D course and I agree that some of the targets were just about impossible to see. The problem did not exist all day long though it was at certain times of the day and especially with the sun as bright as it was for the whole weekend. The person that won our class went over to shoot that course and looked at the first target and said no way he would shoot at the time of the day and left. He later went back when the lighting conditions were better and shot the course. There is nothing wrongwith doing this that I know of but the matter of fairness involves being the same for everyone. A shooter in my group had shot over 90 on the previous 3 courses and shot a 82 because he could not see the targets. His inability to see the target was not only due to the targets beting to dark it also had to do with a eye conditiion he has which makes it harder to see under dark lighting conditions. Everyone had a hard time seeing some of the targets and for some it was almost impossible. Walking away is an option and anyone can do it but it could cause other problems when you have large numbers shooting these courses. There are many factors to consider when setting up these courses and I think that each year more is learned about setting them up. The individual problems will never be solved completely but time of day and lighting conditions are two things that everyone should be made aware of at the time of registration when there are courses that have unusual problems. If congestion results because of the problems then an alternative course may be an option necessary. The people setting these courses work very hard and the theme of the "challenge" is always in mind but there comes a time when the challenge becomes unfair to some and impossible to others. The course as a whole was not bad and overall was set up shorter than the other three that we shot but the few targets that we could not see made the whole course seem bad. Personally I shot a 90 which was the highest of the 4 courses that I shot.One of the factors that was unavoidable on that course was the fact that in the MCBH class there are people shooting with eye sight that years of use or abuse have taken its toal.
The difficulty of the course should be set up withthe average shooter in mind not the exceptional shooter, but determining what is average and what is fair for everone is nearly impossible because the winners will always be laughing and joking and the loosers will always be looking for another reason to use for their score.
Maybe considering the human element more for all shooters should be one of the determining factors. Do you set the course for the people 60 in MCBH or for the shooters 70 years old? With a course like D coursecan you restrict it to only certain hours of the day under some lighting conditions?
This subject is very difficult and the conditions of D course were difficult and fair under lighting conditions that are the same but how do you accomplish. Should this have been a course assigned to the Youth classes? What can be learned from this is the most important thing that can be accomplished if there is to be any consideration of conditions for future use. The weather conditions for the shoot were the best that we have had in three years unless you are a duck and the courses were indeed challenging..