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Francis
Marion 2007This year’s Francis Marion was designed and run by Doug Saris, with the help of Dosh and others. It was an excellent, long stage encompassing what multiple stages had contained in the past. It all started with Saris’s version of three Shotgun Monty, where a shooter had to pick the loaded shotgun out of three lying on a table, disengage the
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| Saris explains the
finer points of the course. |
safety and rack to the slide to place a round in the chamber and begin engaging targets. From there, the shooters entered a very deep creek, and blasted their way to a tunnel of mud. After the tunnel, the course snaked through the cattails of the swamp, climbed up a steep hill using a rope, and ran uphill engaging pepper poppers as they went. The stage ended when the shooter, out of breath, had to hit a knockdown target at 62 yards with a slug. It was a fantastic monster course!
 Naturally, this year’s Francis contained all of the “Night Before” fun, a great lunch, and shooting camaraderie. “SwampHoss” McGreer charged through the course and delivered the winning time of 162:56, once again showing his dominance of the swamp.
In what Francis Marion T-Shirts will be argued to be one of best of all time, Nate Phillips designed and made this year’s batch.
One of the great things about this year’s Francis Marion was the “Unknown” Factor, Doug Saris and Dosh set up the course themselves and refused to compete to avoid a possible advantage. No shooters were able to review the course, and as a result, target acquisition was very difficult as the terrain varied from 8 foot tall cattails, to being obscured by trees in a dark forest. Interestingly, two of the top scores did not win this year’s match. Dosh graciously removed himself from contention since he assisted in the setup of the course, and Jason “Crazy Legs” Henthorne enacted a scorched earth policy, delivering lead to enemy and friendlies alike, in addition to other “collateral damage”. He was last heard muttering “Hostages, smostages” after being awarded a 60 second penalty for delivering a load of buckshot to the chest of a hostage. Ouch!
Added to the fun was the assistance of Mother Nature herself, who blessed us with superb conditions in the form of copious rain and mud. The course was waist deep at times in water, knee deep in mud, making forward locomotion and visibility very difficult in the dark and misty woods section. All in all, it was an organized and safely run match, delivered in a manner that Francis Marion himself would have smiled upon.
Scores Here
Scrap Book including video
Here - (large images to download)
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