Dear Members,

I would like to explain the reasoning which went into the board' s recent decision regarding the Revolver Division rules.

But first, a disclaimer...

The comments on this page are those of Rob Boudrie, Area 7 Director. While I have tried to convey a "sense of the board", and have used terms like "we" and "the board", these comments are not "official board statements."

What happened

When I first received a copy of the draft rulebook for review and comment, US Revolver Division had a "limit of 6 rounds loaded." In subsequent discussion, I suggested we change "max 6 rounds loaded", to "max 6 rounds fired." This suggestion was added to the draft by John Amidon based on indiciations that the board favored such a change.

Subsequent to that time, Area 6 director John Hurst introduced a motion to remove the 6 round fired limit from revolver division. This motion failed 7:1 on a roll call vote in our recent telephone board meeting.

Rationale behind the decision

As Area 1 director Bruce Gary has observed in a recent email to the unofficial IPSC mailing list, the board had four different options to choose from:

Limit US Revolver Division to guns with a capacity no greater than 6.
Limit US Revolver Division to 6 rounds loaded
Limit US Revolver Division to 6 rounds fired
No limit in US revolver division on number loaded or fired.

This meant that the board basically had two decisions to make:

Do we wish to limit revolver to 6 rounds?
If so, how would such a limitation be implemented?

The board was in favor of a 6 round limit for the following reasons:

USPSA has membership which is currently flat, and is looking to market the sport to new members. A significant part of this marketing effort is expected to target individuals who own or have recently purchased handguns, including revolver owners. We will specifically try to generate interest from gun owners who did not purchase their firearm specifically for USPSA/IPSC competition.
The number of revolver shooters at matches is typically very small. It would not be practical for us to split Revolver into two separate divisions. If we ask persons with 7/8 round revolvers to limit themselves to 6, and do so in a manner which does not slow down the reload, those 7/8 revolvers may still be used in revolver competition.
The board identified the following trade-off
- Allow more than 6 rounds in revolver division, and preserve the competitive advantage that specialty equipment has over traditional wheelguns. We felt that doing this would be tantamount to telling every 6 shot revolver owner their firearm is not viable in US Revolver Division.
- Limit Revolver Division to 6 rounds, and tell owners of 7/8 shot revolvers that they would not enjoy an advantage over 6 round shooters which compromise the vast majority of our target market.
Based on these considerations, the board felt a 6 round limitation best served the interest of USPSA.

Once this decision was made, the board had to decide how to implement 6 round neutrality.

"Max capacity 6 rounds" was rejected since it rendered 7/8 shooters ineligible to compete in US Revolver Division.
"Max 6 rounds loaded" was the original rule, however, I pointed out that it was very difficult to quickly load a revolver to less than full capacity and make sure the empty chambers were in the correct position.
"Max 6 rounds fired" was accepted, since it implemented 6 round neutrality while allowing a full speed reload.

How do other sports handle this issue?

Just for some background, here is how some other shooting sports have handled this issue:

IDPA- "Stock Service Revolver Division" - "7 & 8 shot revolvers permitted but may only load 6 rounds". There is no revolver only IDPA division which permits the loading of more than 6 rounds in a revolver.
ICORE - "NOTE: The stage layout must be 6 round neutral. The Match Director of each event is responsible for this."

Summary

The Board has multiple responsibilities which include looking out for the membership's immediate interests, as well as protecting the long term welfare and viability of USPSA. There will be times when looking at a decision from the prespective of these two different responsibilities may result in apparently differing conclusions. In such cases, the board's decisions are all that much more difficult to make.

USPSA's membership growth has been non-existant for several years (we get just enough new members to replace the ones who do not renew), and the board will be working to correct that situation. An important part of the foundation we need to transform USPSA from a stagnant "specialty sport" to a growing shooting sport is divisions which welcome equipment prospective members already own.

Unlike Limited (which gave birth to Limited 10), there is simply not enough participation in Revolver division to warrant splitting it into "standard capacity" and "enhanced capacity" divisions, therefore, we had to go one way or the other.

The 6 round limit was included to create a level field where people who owned 6 round wheelguns would not perceive USPSA Revolver Division as something which "needs a specialty revolver to be competitive." By using a "fired limit", rather than a 'loaded limit", the board also felt that we would preserve the viability of existing 7/8 round revolvers in this division. We were fully aware that those owning 7/8 shot revolvers would not enjoy an advantage over 6 round revolvers. Even so, of what real value is a victory gained using a 7/8 shot revolver if the vast majority (or, in the case of many matches, all) of the other competitors are using 6 guns?

World Body

It was also made clear, via the PASA accord and subsequent agreement between the USPSA President and IPSC Executive Council, that efforts would continue to bring the USPSA and World Body rulebook closer together. Since the World Rulebook contains a "6 round load" rule, it would be reasonable to conclude that there was a possibility that USPSA would eventually move closer to the world position on this issue. [World rules limit revolvers to 6 rounds loaded].

A Thought

The 14^th edition (currently in effect until the 15^th edition is published) was designed to be an interim rulebook while USPSA dealt with a conflict between the IPSC World Body and USPSA over our rules. (This is also why is was published on inexpensive paper, without a stiff cover.)

As such, a mistake [in my opinion] was made when the capacity limit was removed from the US Revolver Division. The short period of time during which this interim rulebook was in effect, combined with the fact that "fire 6" levels the playing field, resulted in Board action motivated out of a desire to lay the foundation for further growth of our sport and organization.

Rob Boudrie
February 11, 2001