sharing the wealth

For those concerned of such things, worry not about the new Mossberg 500 I brought home, courtesy of sucking just the right amount during my first IDPA match. While Janus got finished just a scat few days ago, and will remain my home-defense shotgun, the new Mossberg will definitely find itself in a good home – it turns out that my father was actually looking for a home-defense shotgun over the past few weeks as well, and while he was eyeing the Remington 870, he certainly will not turn down a below-cost 500.
The Mossberg I came home with bears a striking resemblance to this one (minus the porting, if that image has it – hard to tell), but I figure a capable gunsmith can take the barrel down to 18.5″, and then my father will be able to do with it whatever he wants, considering that aftermarket parts for Mossbergs are as numerous, if not moreso, than Remingtons. Something tells me that the Mossy will not end up looking like Janus, but that is just wild speculation…
All said, this situation should end well for all parties. And, as Caleb pointed out in his write-up of the match, this Lewis Scoring System is definitely a good way to attract new players, and encourage them to come back. Consider the “normal” scoring system of no brackets, and just the standard first, second, third, etc. places, going up to the prize table in the order of their success. Well, little folks like me, who are new to the sport and barely have any idea of what is going on, would never stand a snowball’s chance in hell of actually getting to pick anything good/valuable off the table – after the first three (of six) rounds, my score was somewhere around 150, whereas the top five competitors’ were in the 50 range. Luck does factor in a bit at IDPA, but skill is the much larger element. And if you know you do not stand a chance in hell of placing well, why would you waste the sixty bucks necessary to enter?
Well, this Lewis Scoring System shakes things up a bit. Now, even schmucks like me stand a chance of taking something home, even shooting as poorly as I did, because I shot better than the people in my class. Granted, the “class” concept is mathematically derived, rather than historically or based on some fixed brackets, but it still gives people a picture of their immediate competitors, and how well they performed in relation to them. And, possibly more importantly for attracting new people to the sport, it gives people the chance of earning one of the big prizes, even if they did not manage to shoot in the master class at their first competition (and who does, besides Todd Jarrett when he was two?). In the end, there is no better way to convince a new competitor to come back to the sport than to send him home with a brand-spanking-new shotgun…