The main aim is to have all shooters in each grade/class getting similar weather conditions by having them shoot at the same time, thereby reducing one of the main luck factors. The main cost of doing this is the extra time involved - the fairer you make it, the greater the time required to achieve it. The extreme example of selective squadding is US style squadded relays, where there is a pause between every shooter, and all shooters at equivalent positions in the order have an identical time slot to shoot in. At the FCWC 2013 in Raton, 3 shoots per day of at least 15 shots were achieved using this system, but it was a long day. So are we prepared to go to that extreme? Or is there a way of doing it which doesn't cost too much time, but usually makes things fairer?
The main way of saving time is to have less (or no) pauses. The problem with this is that after several shooters, things can get out of step between boards, and you will occasionally get situations where shooters who are meant to be shooting at the same time could be starting 10 or 15 minutes apart. A single pause around the middle of the board would improve the situation markedly, and if done well, would not cost much time.
Regarding how fair the system is, the question needs to be asked, should the leading shooters in each grade/class be squadded together, or should the emphasis be more on having everyone in that grade/class shooting more or less at the same time, but in random order? Squadding the leaders together means the best shooter is more likely to win, but it may be disliked as elitist by the battlers. However it doesn't necessarily advantage those in the first relay - depending on the day, conditions may improve or deteriorate. Another thing to be considered is which grade/classes should go first. Even if you have one or two pauses, only those relays either first or following a pause will be guaranteed to be shooting concurrently with their peers, so should the most competitive (largest) grade/classes be slotted into those? I think that has merit, but there are factors which make that less attractive. Done that way, scoring and check scoring duties for the first and second shooters would fall unfairly on a few shooters for the whole event. Also, being in the first relay down on a calm morning at a long range should be something that everyone can occasionally enjoy, not just A Grade, F-Open etc.
If you couldn't be bothered reading that (I'm not a fan of big posts either
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I should add that the order of shooting at the first range would be a random drawer - as you can see TR B Grade drew first here. It could just as easily have been any of the other rows.
Comments welcome. This needs to be thrashed out.
![Image](http://ozfclass.com/forums/pic/squadding.jpg)