Editor’s Note:
We had the good fortune to watch Jay compete in the Master of King of 2 Miles+ and King of 2 Miles+, hosted by Impact Xtreme Shooting, from 13 to 16 November 2019 at the Andes Clarens guest farm, Free State, South Africa. Jay was joined by Alex Marr; both had travelled from Texas, US to support the event. It was one of three ELR matches hosted by Impact Xtreme Shooting since 2018, and the precursor to the official franchise of King of Mile and King of 2 Miles being licensed to Impact Xtreme Shooting for South Africa.
Match directors Patrick Copin and Benjamin Gineste were kind enough to put me in touch with my eventual partner, Benjamin San Marco. Having never teamed together presented the challenge of establishing an effective and comfortable communications protocol. We spent a few minutes discussing our approaches, which were quite different, before shooting the preliminary round, with Benjamin drawing a lower shooter number. This article is aimed at the newer ELR shooters and shooter and spotter teams with limited experience working together.
Before getting into the specifics of our match, which I present in an illustrative manner, I would like to explain what I perceive as the critical roles of the spotter.
Spotting 101: Calling Impacts or Corrections
You will want to decide in conjunction with your shooter what communication method to use while shooting and spotting. In general, there are three primary options:
1. Call out the impact: For example, “I see it. Left 0.4, low 0.5”, assuming you are using mil. These values are typically to the centre of the plate.
2. Call out the correction to get to the centre: For example, “Right 0.4, up 0.5.”. This approach was Benjamin’s default method.
3. My preferred approach: Call
