What’s Your Call?
By Dr. King Heiple
Query? Last year I shot in the Old Pueblo Tournament in Tucson. I decided to shoot the preliminary but discovered I was going to be a one-man squad. Figuring it would be a good warm-up anyway, I decided to go ahead and shoot this 100 by myself.
When I got to the assigned field, I stood on Station 4 and asked to see a pair. They looked fine and crossed in the middle, so I went to Station 1 with the ref and we started the round. I promptly missed the second bird of the Station 1 double—not one I miss very often. I shook my head and broke the option and continued with the round.
Somehow I continued to have all kinds of trouble! Was it the gusty winds? Just shooting alone and too fast? A sudden shift in eye dominance? Wrong glasses? I couldn’t figure my problem out. I was behind most misses and the birds were getting a jump on me. By 
Station 7, I was down nine targets and seriously disturbed. But then when I shot the double on Station 7, I hit the low house just fine and found the high house past me before I ever got to it! 
At this point I asked the referee to throw a test pair and watched both all the way to the distance stakes. They both went well past the normal distance markers and dropped at the distance stakes set for International Skeet. Suddenly I understood the problem! At this point I complained that all the targets were irregular and that this round shouldn’t be counted. The referee said he couldn’t see how he could do that and I would have to take it up with management. I probably made a poor choice, but I decided to just finish my 100 birds and take my complaint to the clubhouse.
They apologized for the error in not getting that field reset to American skeet distances but said when I shot the birds, I bought the result! It apparently happened to another squad several weeks before but the problem was caught earlier in the round. The club insisted on scoring those birds as well.

What’s Your Call?
KH: Now you understand why many, if not most, experienced squads watch a high house and then a low house all the way to the distance stake before they start and then have one shooter watch a double from Station 4. You skipped part one! Yes, they were irregular targets of a sort, but not the kind easily recognized as such by the referee or yourself since they would have been appropriately centered over the center stake and I hope were thrown on time! But when you shot them, and unless the referee can recognize the irregularity at the time, I don’t think they can all be declared no birds later. 
If you shoot skeet long enough, you will be scored “lost” again for shooting at some sort of irregular target. We all have done so and it probably will happen to us again. It is a hard lesson to learn, but I’m sure you will never be caught by that one again!
We actually address such a circumstance at least partially in two different rules. First in Rule I-D-F PROCEDURE FOR SETTING DISTANCE ON TARGETS. The last sentence points out that: The prevailing wind during a shoot may cause the targets to fall far short or long, but they are regular targets providing they pass through the setting hoop.
Then under SCORING, Rule III-C-5—No claim of irregularity shall be allowed, either on singles or doubles, where the target or targets were actually fired upon and alleged irregularity consists of deviation from the prescribed line of flight, … So I’m going to have to agree with management that indeed you will have to live with that score on your card at least until you have shot five more events and can cross it off as a bad memory.
Don’t forget however that if that one terrible score drops you down a class and you are too embarrassed to shoot in that lower class, that you are allowed by the rules to declare right back up for your very next shoot!                                           wyc? #229